I am a foreign student and tart my admission process next year (I am 16). What should I know about the process?
Also, are there any tips and points that can help boost an application?
My end goal is Harvard for econs, which I know is difficult, but I am willing to work for it and do anything to get there?
What will help boost my admission?
write a top downloaded app, start a march of 100,000 people (David Hogg, google it), be a top recruited athlete, found a publicly traded company or license IP to a fortune 500; just going into the "i work hard, got 99%tile scores and straight As and volunteered at best gives you <1% chance. In the last 40 years the population of the United states has added >100 million people but barely increased the seats at those schools, which create artificial scarcity. The globe has added over 3 billion people in the last 40 years. After all those stats also keep in mind for an international you are competing for only 10% of those schools’ slots. You could also be adopted by a prime minister or president of a country or medal in the olympics.
@anon145 Thanks so much for your reply. I was thinking of writing a blog to do with Economics - my intended major. Would this be a good idea? How ‘successful’ would it have to be and how can I make it successful?
I have no idea how to do that. But good luck. If you could predict a market crash somewhere and have a following that could only help.
Anyone can start a blog. If you can get a massive following, however, leading to CNBC or Bloomberg interviews, that would be significant.
It is seriously competitive, and there is an element of luck. A $15 million donation doesn’t hurt either.
I think that it is important to understand how few people actually enroll at these colleges from a country. For example, Harvard enrolls about 5 students a year from India. For many countries it is less than 1 on average.
if you could create your own software/algorithm to predict a weather pattern that causes a worldwide sesame shortage in Myanmar and make a huge profit with long option calls and document that publicly you have a chance. Any way you get the idea, you need to do something with international recognition… that is so amazing you could get one of 160 international seats out of a population of 7 billion.
Where are you from? It matters. If you represent a country that has little or no presence at some of the Ivies, you stand a much better chance…provided that the rest of your application is perfect.
@bopper Money is not an issue and I don’t intend to get financial ail. If the college is an Ivy my parents will pay for it - but the problem is, them being Tiger Asian parents, Ivy League is the ONLY thing they’ll pay for!!
@STEM2017 I am from Singapore
I don’t know if this hurts, or helps, or neither. Some think that certain Ivies discriminate against Asians. But Singapore may be a lesser represented country at some Ivies. I’m not sure.
Anyway, good luck!
It looks like H enrolls about 3 students a year from Singapore.
@Eeyore123 that’s terrifying
Harvard is one of the few international need blind colleges, so if I understand correctly, being full pay isn’t an advantage in admissions.
If the focus is on grades rather than extracurriculars, have you considered Oxford or Cambridge, and LSE? I presume your parents would pay for one of those for econ.
@anon145 Summarized it pretty well. You need to understand that top stats on the entrance exams, top grades, top of your school, good ECs (community service, leadership), great writer (e.g. essays), and letter writers who can and will write a very strong LOR makes you a viable candidate but your odds are still really low (< 5%) just on that—unless you have a good hook (legacy, URM, URI, first-gen, mega donor, child of a president). Only a few in that category (super stats, good ECs, no big hooks) will get in, but you won’t know if you don’t give it a shot! So the long odds shouldn’t stop you, but you have to be realistic. The vast majority of strong applicants will be rejected. To really increase your odds, you need to be exceptional in some way. Nationally or internationally recognized musician, artist or writer, nationally or internationally ranked athlete, significant state or national service (like the organize the 100,000 march example or a significant leadership position in a big political campaign), faced significant personal obstacles (e.g. poverty) and rose above them in a way that seems almost super-human, etc. I didn’t list recruited athlete. Obviously that is a huge hook, but you need to be an exceptional athlete to be recruited and you will need to successfully navigate the whole recruitment process (a multi-year process for many athletes) and the coach has to ‘need’ you that year (some sports recruit for specific positions).
@anon145 wrote “In the last 40 years the population of the United states has added >100 million people but barely increased the seats at those schools, which create artificial scarcity.”
Steady or increased demand and deliberately reduced supply creates “artificial” scarcity.
You describe a situation of increased demand with constrained or steady supply. That is “actual” scarcity.
URM, URI, first-gen - that is not hooks for international
@liska21 Thabks for your reply. I was just wondering - does this go for all top tier schools or is this just Harvard? Like will other top tier schools like Berkeley also be looking for this?