I am a Pakistani Student who did GCE A levels, in which my predicted grades were AAAA, and I also had an SAT score of 1560. I also had reasonable extra-curricular including community-service, sports and leadership roles. I applied to 11 US colleges last year, yet and was rejected by 10 of them. What did my application lack? What should I work on? What should I add? I needed financial aid, could that have been a reason? Please help
Competition is fierce for international applicants and absolutely financial aid could have been a factor. Most schools are need aware for international students.
Why did you not attend the school that accepted you?
Absolutely - seeking financial aid was indeed a very likely reason. There are no safety schools for international students seeking financial aid.
Did the one college you got accepted to give you enough aid to attend?
No, the reason I didnt attend it is because it did not provide sufficient aid (35% of what I needed) unfortunately
What should I do now, applying again next year?
Where did you apply last cycle? What are your stats? Do you have any options in your home country or in Europe?
I applied to Emory, Columbia, babson, Colby, Stanford, MIT, Boston Univeristy, Uchicago, vassar and Lehigh. I don’t have any options otherwise. BU was the only one that accepted. I have 1560 SAT and straight As and As in my schools local transcript. I was 2nd in my class if about 110 students. And I gave GCE a levels with predicted AA*AA
No options in your country of residence? Is attending school in the US of paramount importance? Is money critical, that you have to get full demonstrated need? If that is the case, Google search for “need met for international students” to get a list. From that list you can then see which are need blind. Schools that are in that subset are few and among the most competitive in the country (Amherst, HYPM). In a quick search that I did, the first list is hard to find.
Some of the schools on your initial list are notoriously stingy with money even for US citizens. Lehigh in particular jumps out at me.
I would recommend looking at the international student forum as there are some pinned threads that could be helpful: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/