<p>I understand that at Penn there is only one admission office for all 4 undergraduate schools, but… if I am an international applicant, will I be competing with other applicants from my country/region regardless of the schools we are applying to, or do seas applicants compete only with other seas applicants and so on? Does it make any difference that I am an international applicant requesting financial aid?</p>
<p>I think (but I'm not 100% sure that this is right) that each school is seperated meaning all the Wharton applicants compete against each other, all the SEAS compete against each other, etc. And I think that internation applicants are viewed seperately.</p>
<p>I think you will only be competing with the applicants who have applied to the particular school you have. Each school has a specific number of seats alotted for the applicants.. And the university knows how many of these seats need to be filled in the first round of decisions, so i'm quite sure u are competiting with applicants to the specific school you have applied to. For. eg SEAS students only compete with other SEAS students.
as for an international with financial aid, yes that does significantly lower your chances and makes admission a notch more competitive. the idea of rejecting int. students asking for aid, is that if one does not have sufficient funds to pay for a year, it is not possible to get an american visa ( the visa process requires that u have sufficient funds to pay for atleast 2 yrs). So they don't want to accept a student that has absolutely no chance of attending the university.</p>
<p>Wow, I didn't know that about internation applicants at all. That's kind of disappointing.</p>
<p>i would be willing to bet that in addition to seperating students based upon school applied to (arts sciences, wharton etc..) they will break people up further into intended major altho that one would probly be much more loose. it hard to compare a guy who wants to major in english to one who wants to to mechanical engineering, and both majors have to be sufficiently represented at the college.</p>
<p>vidushi - I thought Penn was need blind?</p>
<p>It's not for international applicants.</p>
<p>When I first asked my question, I was thinking that internationals might be mixed in the school pool. I mean besides the fact that Penn will probably not accept more than a couple of applicants from each country, the balance of the pool of applicants from some countries might be heavily tilted towards certain schools at Penn. For instance, if from a country 50 apply to seas and 5 to wharton (considering that all are rather qualified applicants, but seas applicants a bit more qualified than wharton ones), I doubt that Penn would accept one of the wharton applicants. what do you guys think?</p>
<p>yes, it isnt for internationals.. unfortunately.</p>
<p>i currently live in MI but i dont think my green card will be approved by the time i fill out college apps.... would i be considered international too??</p>
<p>I would talk to the college in your specific situation. You WILL be getting your green card - and then be eligable for aid - but you are not at the time of application.</p>
<p>Speak to the rep, is the surest thing.</p>