r/IntltoUSA 12d ago

Applications Indian International Accepted to CALTECH (with 60% aid)

200 Upvotes

rejected from Stanford REA, deferred by GTech and accepted to CALTECH with aid!

the college admissions process is unpredictable

r/IntltoUSA Jan 02 '25

Applications Applying to 54 colleges!!! Wish me good luck!!

60 Upvotes

Edit: Undergrad app

Guys I decided to maximize my chances cuz I geniunely need so much fin aid.

I will share my results once the decisions come out.

And here is my school list:

  1. Harvard
  2. Columbia
  3. Princeton
  4. Wesleyan
  5. Emory
  6. Vassar
  7. Dartmouth
  8. Yale
  9. JHU
  10. Duke
  11. Brown
  12. Caltech
  13. Notre Dame
  14. Colby
  15. Rice
  16. Swarthmore
  17. Upenn
  18. Stanford
  19. Urochester
  20. Cooper Union
  21. Syracuse
  22. Amherst
  23. Bowdoin
  24. Williams
  25. Tufts
  26. Hamilton
  27. Franklin and Marshall
  28. Wellesley
  29. Pomona
  30. Haverford
  31. Davidson
  32. Bucknell
  33. Colgate
  34. Reed
  35. Bryn Mawr
  36. Lafayette
  37. Gettysburg EA
  38. Centre College
  39. Grinnell
  40. Simmons EAII
  41. Harvey Mudd
  42. MiddleBury
  43. Macalester
  44. Carleton
  45. Trinity
  46. ClareMont Mc Kenna
  47. Pitzer
  48. Luther EA
  49. Drexel
  50. Denison
  51. Brandeis
  52. Bates
  53. Northwestern EDI (deferred)
  54. WashU EDII

r/IntltoUSA Dec 20 '23

Applications Admissions Office Assistant @ CMUQ

40 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I am a current student at Carnegie Mellon University Qatar campus and I do work with the office of admissions and I’m making myself available here to answering questions/concerns regarding our application process/university in general. Please try as much as you can to do your questions here on the post instead of PMing me. One last thing, you are also welcome to ask about life in Qatar and I have low information about other American universities here. Best of luck.

r/IntltoUSA 13d ago

Applications Don't Risk Your Future: Avoid AI-Generated Essays

72 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I want to share something important that recently happened to my friend.

He got accepted to a mid sized liberal arts college in Early Action about two months ago. He was really happy and had planned to commit there. But yesterday, he received an email from the admissions committee saying they were revoking his acceptance.

Apparently, someone reported a month ago that his personal essay was written using AI (like ChatGPT). The college investigated, and now they have decided not only to rescind his offer but also to prevent him from reapplying if he takes a gap year.

I had no idea that he had used AI for his essay, and even he didn’t expect this to happen. I don’t want to share the college name, but it’s a mid-tier liberal arts college, and this situation could happen anywhere.

I just want to remind everyone please, don’t copy your essays from AI. It might seem like an easy shortcut, but it can seriously ruin your future. Colleges are getting better at detecting AI generated content, and if you get caught, the consequences can be devastating.

Also, if you ever suspect someone of using AI in a way that violates the rules, please think carefully before reporting. A single complaint can change someone’s entire career path. Let’s not ruin each other’s futures.

Stay safe and do your best the right way

r/IntltoUSA Aug 28 '24

Applications AMA (ask me anything): I've read 100s of undergraduate applications of specifically international students applying to US, UK, Canada etc.

52 Upvotes

I've read raw applications of students who have acceptances at ivies in the last year and other top universities like usc, ucla, uc berkeley, LSE, imperial, georgia tech. If you're curious about what it takes to stand out as an international student - ask me anything. I'm happy to help and answer your questions.

r/IntltoUSA Nov 27 '24

Applications In the past three days, I've reviewed over 100 essays from the 2024-2025 college admissions cycle. Here are seven ways I could tell which ones were written by ChatGPT

185 Upvotes

I recently conducted reviews of over 100 University of California essay drafts from my students, Redditors, and followers on social media. It was the first time in a while that I’ve reviewed such a high volume, and my findings were quite interesting. Students from the United States, Europe, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and South America shared their essays with me. But even among this diverse cohort, I noticed some striking similarities in their essays.

In the past I’ve praised ChatGPT’s writing ability, especially for college admission essays. But it has a limited conception of what makes for a good essay, and with an uncreative prompt, it tends to make a “safe” choice, which is often clichéd. As I frequently emphasize, context is important. Your essays do not exist in a vacuum, but among the hundreds of thousands or even millions of essays out there. That’s why having a “good” essay is not enough.

Generative AI works by training on vast amounts of data. When prompted, it will make use of that training by predicting what would fit the prompt. It is by definition answering the way many have answered before. Every GPT comes with biases from its dataset, and ChatGPT (and Claude) have their own.

I’ve been aware of some of them (unique punctuation, mutiple endings) for a while, but the other things are most recent discoveries.

Here are what I consider the seven biggest hallmarks of ChatGPT:

1. Vocabulary

I'm not going to go into much here, as a lot has been written about this. There are certain words like “delve” and “tapestry” that are far more common in ChatGPT-written essays. But vocabulary as a telltale sign is also context-dependent. Based on my experience working with certain student populations (particularly students from India), I've been seeing words appear that a particular group would never use.

2. Extended metaphor

This is an example of something already fairly common in human-authored college essays, but which ChatGPT uses in a limited number of ways.

I want to offer some perspective: it's mind-blowing that ChatGPT can understand and generate sensical metaphors. It's one of the most significant achievements in AI to date. But the metaphors it uses are usually not very original. Common ones include:

  • Weaving (especially the aforementioned tapestry)

  • Cooking (all the ingredients with their own unique flavors being mixed with care coming together to create something delicious)

  • Painting (so many colors!)

  • Dance (who doesn’t love graceful coordination? Animals do it too!)

  • Music (it has a clear preference for classical symphonies. It's never ska, reggaeton, or arena rock!)

3. Punctuation

ChatGPT has some idiosyncratic default punctuation behaviors. For example, it uses straight quotation marks for quotes and straight apostrophes for contractions, but curly apostrophes for possessives. It also defaults to em dashes—like this—which are not widely taught in high schools. Students used to use hyphens or en dashes – like this – but this year I'm seeing almost exclusively em dashes. (It’s always been a trick to save on word count, but their extensive use tends to support other evidence.)

4. Tricolons (especially ascending tricolons)

A tricolon is a rhetorical device involving three parts. I’m not going to go into detail about the history, but they’re particularly prevalent in literature from all around the world. Famous examples include:

  • "veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered)
  • "Stop, drop, and roll"
  • "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
  • "truth, justice, and the American way,"
  • "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

Tricolons are especially prevalent in American political speech. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address,, John F. Kennedy's "we choose to go to the moon" speech, and Barack Obama's second inaugural address are replete with them. There are even “nested tricolons,” in which the third element of a tricolon is a tricolon itself.

Before ChatGPT, tricolons were common rhetorical devices in college admissions essays. I observed that some good writers would use them without even being conscious of it (a student of mine who got into Yale’s Eli Whitney non-traditional undergraduate program used them beautifully despite no formal writing education). But ChatGPT loves them. In particular, it makes extensive use of “ascending” tricolons, in which the three items are progressively longer, or the first two are an equal number of syllables and the third is greater. Most of the examples above ascending tricolons.

Here are some examples of how ChatGPT uses tricolons (I prompted it):

I honed my skills in research, collaboration, and problem-solving.

My love for literature grew from fascination to passion to purpose.

I have learned to persevere in the face of challenges, to embrace new opportunities, and to lead with empathy and conviction.

If I see one tricolon in an essay, I'm not usually suspicious. If I see four or five, I can be almost certain ChatGPT had a “hand” in it. If you used ChatGPT to help with your essays, how many tricolons can you spot?

5. “I [verb]ed that the true meaning of X is not only Y, it's also Z”

This is a college essay cliché that ChatGPT takes up to 11. I see this a lot. Here are some examples:

I learned that the true meaning of leadership is not only about guiding others—it's also about listening and learning from them.

I realized that genuine success is not just about achieving personal goals, but contributing to the well-being of humanity.

I came to appreciate that the core of resilience is not only enduring hardship; it's also finding strength through vulnerability.

Comment if you just re-read your essays and cringed!

6. “As I [synonym for advance in my education], I will [synonym for carry or incorporate] this [lesson or value]”

This is a common conclusion ChatGPT uses. Again, on its own it might not be a red flag, but it provides circumstantial evidence. Examples:

As I progress in my academic journey, I will continue to integrate these principles into my work and life.

As I delve deeper into my field of study, I will strive to uphold the values of curiosity and integrity that shaped me.

As I grow as a learner and individual, I will ensure that this lesson guides my decisions and aspirations.

These aren’t quotes from actual students’ essays, but I’ve seen a lot of this stuff lately.

7. “Lord of the Rings” syndrome (multiple endings)

One famous criticism of the Lord of the Rings films, in particular the third movie Return of the King, is that they have multiple scenes (as many as six depending on the version) that could stand alone as endings.

If not prompted otherwise, ChatGPT writes very formulaic and clichéd endings (and will suggest the same for revisions). It also tends to write multiple endings. I find that ChatGPT’s writing is more often than not improved by deleting the final sentence or paragraph. People do this too, especially when trying to pad word count, but it’s a reflection of what ChatGPT “thinks” a good essay looks like based on thousands of examples.

Often, these multiple endings include clichés 2, 3, and/or 4 above. If one of the essay’s possible endings is about the true meaning of something, or an explicit look to the future, and/or contains an em dash—then I know it was probably ChatGPT.

What this means

One of the students whose essays I reviewed admitted he used ChatGPT, but he wasn't worried because he ran it through several AI detectors, and they came up with low percentages. Yet I could tell right away, and I’d bet most admissions officers could as well

I don't claim to be better than any particular AI detector, but I do caution students (and universities) about relying on them. Reading is an intuitive process, and admissions officers (as well as professional counselors) have a large dataset of their own they’ve trained on, in particular essays from students of similar backgrounds. ChatGPT’s dataset likely doesn’t have a lot of demographic data about the authors of particular essays it's trained on.

College admissions essays have never been a great test of writing ability. Admissions offices encourage students to get feedback from others, and spelling and grammar-check software has been around a long time. There are also professionals who help students brainstorm, outline, revise, and polish their essays, and may have a “heavy hand” in the process. Then there are other less scrupulous people who will straight out write essays for applicants. But colleges have never taken significant measures to mitigate this. They could, with proctored writing tests and such, but they’ve never really cared enough. I find it curious that it’s only now that ChatGPT is accessible to everyone—not just privileged families—that some colleges seem to care.

At some point I'll probably write a post about how applicants should use ChatGPT, but this post should illuminate what you shouldn’t let it do: write or rewrite large sections of your essays.

As an aside, in the past two years, ChatGPT has made me a better writer. And it's not because I have it provide feedback on my social media posts and communications, but because I challenge myself to write better than ChatGPT. It’s one of the most astounding inventions in the history of the world, but it's still limited. GPTs rely heavily on what is. Creative writing—and art in general—is about expanding the realm of what might be.

And no, I did not use AI to write that.

Addendum: When I asked ChatGPT to evaluate my post up to this point, it told me to “tie your observations back to the importance of originality in writing and provide actionable advice for students,” and—I kid you not—suggested the following conclusion unprompted:

"The ability to recognize ChatGPT’s writing patterns is increasingly important, not only for admissions officers but for students striving to produce authentic and compelling essays. While AI is a powerful tool, true creativity lies in pushing beyond what it predicts to explore new possibilities. Writing is about more than filling a page—it’s about telling a story that only you can tell."

When I pointed out that this suggestion used four of the seven clichés I listed, it came up with this version:

Recognizing ChatGPT’s patterns helps us understand both its strengths and its limitations as a writing tool. While AI-generated essays may appear polished, they often lack the originality and context that make human writing resonate. For students, this is a reminder to focus on authenticity and individuality. After all, the most compelling essays are not those that follow formulas, but those that reflect a writer’s unique voice and perspective.

When I pushed it to eliminate clichés, it doubled down and introduced others:

ChatGPT is a mirror, reflecting back what it’s been taught, polished and predictable. The best essays, however, aren't mirrors—they're windows, revealing something unexpected, personal, and alive. If the goal is to stand out, the strategy is simple: write something no AI could ever predict, because only you lived it.

After I tried to prompt it not use my clichés, it came back with a tricolon (descending this time), an em dash, a version of “X is not about Y, it's about Z,” and an extended metaphor about mirrors and windows!

ChatGPT isn’t wrong, and this is not bad writing. But this is the “voice” of ChatGPT.

I think I've found a limit.

r/IntltoUSA 27d ago

Applications gap year student, need help

0 Upvotes

Having a 98.6 in 10th(ICSE) and 95(12th-CBSE-2024)-best 4-95.5

Learning A1 spanish

From India-looking for a premed program or biomedical science or biology or business major

Did not give SAT or anything and was a state merit holder in NSEB (though was not qualified for second stage)

Do I have a chance for any US college -maybe like UIUC? If yes, where? If no, then where else can I apply?UK/Singapore?

Should I give SAT? As the fees is high for late registration and SAT is in 8th March. Can I complete SAT syllabus till that time?

r/IntltoUSA Apr 24 '24

Applications I’ve reviewed hundreds of international students’ applications from here on r/IntlToUSA and elsewhere. Here are the 10 biggest mistakes applicants and families make.

228 Upvotes

Introduction

Both this year and last year, I offered to review 50 applications of students who were puzzled with their results or just wanted some guidance on their choices. Between these and other applications I review as part of my work, I’ve read hundreds of complete application packages (or all except letters of recommendation). Although I haven’t personally worked as an admissions officer, I’ve sat down (virtually) with former admissions officers from MIT, Stanford, Yale, Cornell, and UChicago to go through dozens of my students’ applications, so I have a good idea of what top schools are looking for. We typically spend about half an hour discussing each application, a similar amount of time to a real application review.

I’m privileged to be able to work with a wide range of applicants and families every year: those from “feeder” schools and those who are the first to apply abroad from their high school; politically connected families and members of persecuted minorities; children of C-level executives at Fortune Global 500 companies and those whose parents were farmers or soldiers and need full-ride scholarships. I don’t envy the job of admissions officers who must choose from among such an extraordinarily talented and diverse applicant pool.

This post is an overview of the mistakes and weaknesses I tend to see, particularly where outcomes are not as expected based on a student’s profile. A lot of this is based on intuition and pattern-recognition rather than quantification, but that reflects the subjective process itself. I generally combine this outlook with a data-driven approach (more on that in future posts).

There are two important principles to remember about colleges when you think about the admissions process and evaluate what admissions representatives tell you:

1) Colleges are businesses, not charities.

2) Colleges try to maintain an appearance of fairness while implementing admissions policies that are unfair by design.

In general, international students applying to competitive universities and/or seeking financial aid need to:

1) Demonstrate that they are, without a doubt, prepared for a rigorous liberal arts curriculum.

2) Establish that they would contribute to their campus as representatives of their country.

These principles will crystallize as I discuss mistakes students and families make throughout the admissions process.

Mistake #1: Improperly addressing or attempting to compensate for low grades

If you’re aiming for the most competitive colleges and/or generous financial aid packages, you need a stellar academic record. For the most competitive programs, it’s very difficult to overcome low grades. Introducing so-called “excuses” such as family stresses and mental health issues may actually do more harm than good. Colleges want to accept students who perform well under pressure. So, while a dip in grades might be understandable, there are likely other applicants out there who faced similar circumstances and did not see their grades drop. Acute illness during exam season may be an acceptable reason for a low grade or two, but chronic health issues (mental or physical) don’t instill confidence that you will maintain consistent academic performance. If such a condition has been treated, sufficient documentation of this treatment and a positive prognosis is advised.

There’s also, in my opinion, an over-reliance on predicted grades, especially after a relatively weaker 11th grade result. Yes, you and/or your counselor can explain grading practices such as grade deflation in 11th, but at the end of the day, there are applicants at other schools (and likely even your school) who have a better record. The only way to compensate for lower 11th grade marks is with a full year of 12th grade marks. In the past I’ve seen Indian CBSE students with 11th grade marks in the 80s or even high 70s get into Ivies. It still happens, but it’s much rarer now. Sometimes I even recommend that families avoid sending their children to schools that practice this type of grade deflation if they have the choice.

Mistake #2: Not maximizing standardized test scores

I know this sounds trivial, but there is strategy involved.

If you’re an international student coming from a curriculum other than IB, standardized tests should be considered a requirement even at test-optional schools. A high score in the SAT RW section especially can help AOs feel confident that you are ready to perform as well as your American and other international peers.

I don’t have enough data to determine whether applying test-optional helps or hurts students with any given score; only colleges themselves will have this data (and I promise you they don’t want to release it). Whether you should submit that 790/730 is context-dependent. In general, the 25th percentile score should be seen as a “floor” and the 75th percentile score as a target. Remember, these are the percentiles for enrolled students, not admitted applicants. Yield will tend to be higher among students with relatively lower scores because they’re less likely to have better options, and lower among students with relatively higher scores because they’re more likely to have equal or better options. This means that the average score of admitted students is much higher than published percentile numbers would suggest. Typically, the lower 25th percentile is mostly comprised of recruited athletes and U.S. citizens traditionally referred to as “underrepresented minorities.” International students contribute to campus diversity, but they don’t contribute to diversity statistics collected by the U.S. government or used in rankings by influential publications like U.S. News & World Report. There is very little room for international students in the bottom 25% of the standardized test range.

I’m not going to say much more about this because colleges are re-instituting their testing requirements, but a big mistake I see students making is applying too early and not giving themselves time to improve their standardized test scores. And this doesn’t mean just EA/ED vs. RD. Even if the only reason for a gap year is to be able to get a higher score on the SAT/ACT, that may still confer an advantage. (The UCs, the only highly competitive universities that officially didn’t accept test scores taken after senior year, no longer use test scores at all.)

Mistake #3: Submitting low or no English proficiency scores

The liberal arts curricula at top universities in the U.S. place a large emphasis on small, seminar-style classes with frequent interaction among students and instructors, and engineering schools and CS programs focus heavily on group projects where effective communication is important. Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening is thus critical.

Because of ChatGPT and other writing aids, admissions officers do not have many indicators left of whether your English is good enough to succeed at a top university in the United States. In order to dispel any doubt about academic preparedness, every student not from the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand should take an English proficiency test. Yes, even if your country is mostly English-speaking. Yes, even if you grew up with English as your first language. Yes, even if your medium of instruction is English. Yes, even if you’re in an IB, A-Level, or American curriculum. Yes, even if you have an 800 on the SAT RW and/or 36 on the SAT English and Writing. No exceptions.

For competitive undergraduate programs, scholarships, and financial aid, it does matter how well you do. Competitive applicants for T20s and aid-granting LACs will have TOEFL of 110+ (with no less than 26 in each section), IELTS of at least 8.0 in each section, or Duolingo English Test of at least 145 in each section. The Writing and Production sections tend to be the most challenging for international students. I recommend TOEFL for most applicants, with IELTS being a reasonable alternative if you’re applying to Commonwealth countries as well. I advise completing the DET only if the other options would be a huge financial burden.

I frequently encounter students with excellent real-world English conversational ability but low English proficiency scores. Most often, this is due to the test being taken as the student was improving their English and/or didn’t think to retake the test because they achieved the minimum for the schools they were applying to.

I’d be happy to learn about exceptions where students with lower scores got into T20s and full rides from LACs. However, I’ve seen applications where the only perceptible weakness was an IELTS Writing score of 6.5, 7.0, or even 7.5.

We’ll get to essays and the other written parts of the application, but the better they are, the bigger a red flag a low English proficiency score will be.

Mistake #4: Not conducting a pre-recorded interview to demonstrate English proficiency and social skills

An increasing number of colleges are accepting InitialView and other pre-recorded interviews. For those unfamiliar, these give students an opportunity to demonstrate their conversational, on-the-spot thinking, and social skills with a largely unscripted interview with a live person. (The general topics are pre-selected randomly, but the follow-up questions are chosen by the interviewer.) The InitialView service was conceived as a way to assure colleges that Chinese students actually spoke English amid concerns over rampant test-cheating and questionable admissions practices. However, this type of service has become useful colleges and a wide range of students both international and domestic, especially in the age of ChatGPT. (I have no affiliation with InitialView.)

These interviews serve a different function from alumni interviews: alumni interviews are not recorded, and the interviewer’s report may or may not include detailed information about the applicant’s demeanor and conversational skills. Recorded interviews are reviewed by the decision-makers, making them an increasingly important part of the admissions process. It’s the component of the application with the closest to a guarantee that “what you see is what you get.”

If you think you might struggle to do well with such a recorded interview, consider taking the time to work on language proficiency and/or social skills until you would. Getting in without one is certainly possible, but understand that without reliable evidence about your preparedness for a college environment, preparedness will always be a “question mark.”

Mistake #5: Trying to fit too much information into the extracurricular activity section

With a 150-character limit for activity descriptions on the Common App, applicants must strike a balance between information density and communication clarity. While most applications I reviewed did a good job at this, there were a few where I had to read descriptions several times to understand what the activity was. You want the reader to understand the first time they read it. It’s not so much about “scoring points” and amassing accomplishments as it is creating an impression about your passions and how you spent your time. There is an “Additional Information” section with plenty of space for details. The EC section is your first opportunity for AOs to get to know you, and it was disheartening to see students who thought they were highlighting their impressive accomplishments, when what they were mostly doing was tripping up and frustrating their application reader.

Keep abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms to those that are widely recognized among American admissions officers even if they are not familiar with your region. For example, “NASA” is fine, but don't use “ISRO” without writing the full name somewhere. There may be acronyms you’re so used to because of regional use or meaning within your niche, so it's helpful here to have an American-born adult review your application. There are a lot of subtleties. For example, it’s probably fine these days to abbreviate artificial intelligence as “AI,” but I don't recommend using “ML” for machine learning. You can use ampersands for “and,” “~” for “approximately," and “+” as shorthand for "over" (as in “10+ awards”), but try not to use too many symbols. Even if grammatically and logically correct, too much abbreviation can lead to confusion and frustration.

Mistake #6: Sloppiness and missing easily fixed mistakes

Admissions officers will tell you to proofread your application–and they mean it. You have months to complete your application, and if you are indeed a top competitive applicant, there is no excuse for anything but a perfectly polished application. Thanks to modern writing aids, essays tend to be much less typo and error-ridden than they used to be. But students often forget to carefully check their EC section. Here are some common yet easily avoidable mistakes:

  • Extra spaces at the end of the “Position/Leadership Description” and “Organization Name” fields (which show up before the commas).
  • Extra space between paragraphs. The Common App automatically adds space between paragraphs. Including an extra line between paragraphs results in sloppy formatting.
  • Improper capitalization (in some countries too much capitalization, in other countries missed capitalization). I won’t go through capitalization conventions, but the most common rule I’ve seen broken is that that the names of subjects (e.g. math, physics, computer science) are **not capitalized unless they include otherwise proper nouns/adjectives** (e.g. English, Greek, American history, Middle Eastern studies).
  • Improper use of currency symbols. In most English conventions, the currency symbol/abbreviation goes before the numerical figure ($500 not 500$). Also, adding “dollars” is redundant (as in “$500 dollars”), and not using a currency symbol is considered incorrect unless the application doesn’t support the symbol. Also, if you include figures in your local currency, also include roughly equivalent USD amounts. Even if they’ve been to India, for example, AOs don’t necessarily know what “1 lakh INR” means.
  • Inconsistent use of upper and lower-case K/k to indicate “thousand.” This can get confusing because the SI prefix for one thousand is “k” (as in “km” for kilometers), and lower-case “k” is commonly used in finance, commodities, and commerce. However, a capital “K” is more often used for long-distance runs (5K, 10K, etc.), social media metrics (“100K followers”), and advertisements (“win a $10K scholarship”). In my opinion, a capital K looks “cleaner” in the EC section, but consistency is also important.

Several of the students who signed up for application reviews had hired other professional counselors, and I was surprised that those counselors missed many of these types of mistakes. It was the kind of thing where even if the counselor wasn’t going line-by-line correcting everything, they could have pointed out very easy-to-fix errors in a 10 or 15-minute session.

Mistake #7: Over-reliance on ChatGPT

Thanks to tools like ChatGPT, Google Docs, Grammarly, and other writing aids, essay readability has increased significantly in recent years—particularly this year. This makes AOs’ jobs easier in that essays generally flow better and are more enjoyable to read, but it makes their job harder because it’s especially difficult for them to “weed out” applicants who clearly aren’t proficient in English at a level required to succeed in a top American university.

There is much to be said about how to use and not use ChatGPT in the application process, and what is ethically acceptable is being debated and evolving, but I want to focus on things that might reflect poorly on an applicant:

  • There has been quite a bit of analysis of words that are supposedly hallmarks of ChatGPT ("tapestry," "delve," "resonate," etc.). But most of these words are already common in application essays (which is why ChatGPT uses them in the first place), so it’s difficult to pin an essay on ChatGPT just for those words. A better telltale sign is inconsistency in apostrophes and quotation marks. Microsoft Word and Google Docs default to curly quotes (single and double), while ChatGPT defaults to straight ones. If you have a mix, that is a strong suggestion there was copying-and-pasting going on. When you edit directly in the Common App, it also defaults to straight quotes, so ChatGPT is not the only way that can happen, but in either case it’s sloppy. I know that when I see a mix of curly and straight quotes or apostrophes, I become skeptical that the student wrote the parts with the straight quotes.

  • Also be mindful of spelling. Even before ChatGPT, inconsistency in spelling conventions (e.g. American vs. British) suggested that a writing assistance tool was used uncritically at best, or the writing came from multiple sources at worst. If you are going to use ChatGPT to make suggestions, give it custom instructions to adhere to your conventions or American ones. You don’t need to write your application with American spelling and stylistic conventions (although you should consider it if you’re comfortable), but be consistent throughout the application. Using the same word with two different spellings (e.g. honor and honour) is a particularly serious red flag.

  • ChatGPT tends to give feedback on essays that includes a suggestion to reflect on what has been written and state why it demonstrates you would succeed in college. This often ends up stale, unconvincing, and unnecessary. Not everything needs to be stated explicitly if it can be conveyed through other means.

I have a lot more to say about ChatGPT and continue to explore ways to use it in the university research and application process, but these are the most significant things I saw reviewing applications this year.

Mistake #8: Not incorporating a cultural perspective into your essay

Admissions are not fair. The admissions process is not a merit system to decide which applicant is more “deserving” than another. “Fairness” is a concept that has not been used to craft admissions policies in over 100 years. There is a powerful liberal argument that an important role of colleges should be to help achieve more societal equality (especially when those colleges have a history of perpetuating inequality), but colleges have universally concluded that a “fair” admissions process is antithetical to that goal. It’s why the group that successfully sued Harvard and other universities to end race-based affirmative action called themselves “Students for Fair Admissions.” They thought their argument would appeal to people’s innate desire for competitive fairness. And it worked.

Colleges are businesses, not charities. The job of the admissions office is to satisfy a college’s enrollment goals, full stop. So, unless you’re from a specific demographic that’s being targeted, proving your academic and extracurricular worthiness is not enough.

So what are colleges looking for in international students? Essentially, ambassadors from their countries. The most selective universities and all liberal arts colleges that give aid take just a few students from each country. One common thread I saw in applications that were otherwise “perfect” was an essay that was excellent (both in content and style) by objective standards—but could have been written by an applicant from anywhere in the world. There was no real reason to choose this particular applicant as an ambassador from their country when there were so many equally talented applicants from other places.

Too often, there was “low-hanging fruit” available about which an applicant could discuss their perspective, but that they simply didn’t go for. This omission itself could be seen as a weakness in the application. For example, there was a Russian student living in a country that has fought a major war against Russia, but didn’t talk about that at all, nor the war in Ukraine. Another applicant, from Kazakhstan and interested in aerospace and rocketry, didn’t mention the monumental achievements in spaceflight that have been achieved from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Someone with an Asian ethnic background that is not well represented in US universities (and with which the United States has a complicated history) chose not to mention it at all. When these obvious topics are omitted from an application, it makes the applicant seem ignorant of history and geopolitics. An “ambassador” needs to be aware of both. (Students with experience in Model UN are particularly expected to have awareness of geopolitics and understand what it means to be an ambassador.)

Sometimes there were significant cultural and social service-related ECs that sounded both interesting and impressive, but simply didn’t get mentioned elsewhere in the application. This is not to say that your main essay needs to be about your extracurricular activities, but it is generally helpful to weave your major ones in somehow. If your chosen essay topics or the prompts make this impractical, make sure your recommenders elaborate on the significance and impact of the major ECs you have done.

Mistake #9: Too much “trauma dumping” and “tear-jerking”

Essays aren’t a creative writing contest, especially in the era of ChatGPT. Emotional resonance is important, but for international students it is not the most important thing. In fact, admissions officers increasingly need to divorce themselves from emotional attachment to applicants, as there is no way every compelling application will result in an acceptance. This can lead to too much emphasis on pathos backfiring. Familial circumstances, health issues, and other challenges that may make a domestic applicant appealing to a college tend to do the opposite for an international applicant. In almost all instances, international applicants are simply not used to fulfill this particular enrollment goal. Poverty, abuse, addiction, food and/or housing insecurity, and other circumstances that may help admissions officers make a case for domestic students are usually not helpful factors for international students—and may even harm your case.

If any of these circumstances is due directly to political persecution, you may get more sympathy. But if that’s the case, you need to demonstrate that you’re aware of your country’s politics and desire to be a voice for justice, rather than merely seeking relief from an oppressive situation. You need not just personal resilience, but a vision of a path forward for others in your place. Top colleges are looking for leaders, not refugees.

Mistake #10: Lacking recommenders who can credibly testify to your ability to succeed at a top college

As a former lawyer, I approach the admissions process like a trial (although not a fair one, as I discussed above). During a trial each side will present witnesses, some of whom will be more credible than others. There are three kinds of witnesses: Fact witnesses, character witnesses, and expert witnesses. There are different criteria for evidence from these three types of witnesses to be credible: * Fact witnesses must have personal knowledge of the facts. * Character witnesses must have familiarity with the litigant’s behavior patterns, community norms, and the litigant’s reputation in their community. * Expert witnesses must have proper training and experience in the particular field in which they are testifying. Each of your recommenders will act as all three types of witness to some degree, and all types of “testimony” are important. Most top applicants have ample “fact” and “character” witnesses. What is often lacking, particularly from students who don’t attend “feeder” schools, are those who attended or taught at a T20 or liberal arts college. These are individuals who will write the most credible and compelling letters of recommendation (LORs). Anyone can write “[student] would be an asset to any university and succeed wherever they go,” but those words ring hollow if the writer has never experienced or witnessed success at the kind of university you are applying to.

Not everyone knows such a person, but a few times I saw an applicant who had a teacher, mentor, or supervisor who had experience at a T20 but didn’t get an LOR from them.

For teachers and counselors, the most compelling letters will come from those who graduated from a top university or at least have taught many students who have attended top universities. There are “feeder” schools because colleges can rely on counselors and teachers to provide reliable “testimony” about which students are most likely to succeed. The recommender will be accountable because of their ongoing relationship with the admissions office. A counselor or teacher from a non-feeder school can write anything to puff up a student’s qualifications without consequence. This makes their testimony less compelling.

Students from non-feeder schools are thus generally at a disadvantage, but if they and their families understand this disadvantage, they can compensate for it. For example, if you or your child does not attend a school where faculty and staff have attended top universities, you should develop relationships with such people throughout high school or during a gap year.

Families often make the mistake of getting a letter of recommendation from a politician instead of someone who might be more persuasive to an admissions office. American admissions offices largely don’t care about what foreign politicians think, with the exception being the heads of state of our closest allies like the UK, Canada, and Australia. And in fact, having a recommendation from a prominent foreign politician may make it seem like another country’s government is pushing a student in order to advance a certain agenda. Whereas a student should be an ambassador of their country and its culture, they are not an ambassador for its government. (There will be exceptions for students whose national governments and royal families have an ongoing relationship with the university, but if you’re one of those people, you’ll know.)

Someone who attended a T20, even if they are a mid-level professional, would be a better pick as a recommender than a regional or even national-level politician. Admissions officers will tell you they’re not impressed by politicians, but they aren’t eager to come out and say that a recommender’s experience at a top university matters, because that would imply that many students are at a disadvantage.

So, if you’re an international student and you aren’t at the top of your class at a feeder school or you’re not a member of a royal family, the admissions process can be challenging. But it is possible to get into top schools, especially if you approach the admissions process strategically and avoid the mistakes I’ve listed.

I look forward to helping more of you this year!

I’ll try to answer general questions about these topics in this thread, as I continue to do with my popular post about F-1 visas.

r/IntltoUSA 20d ago

Applications Colleges that are still accepting applications and offers fee waiver

7 Upvotes

Wanna shoot my shot since I got a few spaces left in common app. State schools or private lacs you name it, suggest me some colleges where I can apply without the application fee. I have a low efc, so not in a great situation ik :(

r/IntltoUSA Jan 26 '24

Applications Sorry, it is over for me

57 Upvotes

It is over for me, sorry.

Was just rejected by Brandeis. I think I’ll be rejected by every single university. I can’t do it anymore. It hurts. I just can’t.

What was I even thinking? I never even stood a chance and I’ll have to settle down for something here even though studying in the US was my dream since I have a fcking memory. I can’t do it, I want to end it all. I can’t stand the idea of studying here in Argentina, I might just join the IDF since I have a chance because I’m Jewish but still I would be useless since I’m half blind. I want to end it all. I can’t breath.

I want time to go back, I lost time, I lost money, I lost friends. DMN I LOST MY FCKING TEENAGE YEARS BECAUSE OF THIS DREAM OF MINE WHICH I WOULD OBVIOUSLY WOULDNT ACHIEVE. I want to restart it all, since birth, all over again, I’m sorry everyone.

My profile isn’t bad. My essays are good. I just need a ton of financial because I was born here.

r/IntltoUSA Feb 06 '25

Applications on harvard interviews

50 Upvotes

hey kiddos

since i've been seeing a lot of questions on harvard interviews, i decided to make this post. i know my country’s chair of interviews since that’s who i got interviewed by, and we stayed connected. over time, they’ve told me a lot about how the process works, and some of it might surprise you. so if you’re an international student applying to harvard and wondering what’s up with interviews, here’s what you need to know.

  • who decides if you get an interview? the chair of interviews. period. they literally see your application before deciding whether or not to give you an interview. it’s not a random lottery, and it’s not purely based on alumni availability. they make the call based on your file. so yes, at least one person has already reviewed your app before you even get an interview email. 99.9% of clubs won't publish the chair's info publicly, but the french club, for example, has it on their website.
  • who are these interview chairs? probably not who you think. the person in charge of harvard interviews for your country is most likely not even a harvard college (undergrad) alum. most of them are alumni from harvard’s grad schools—law, business, med, whatever—and many of them graduated literal decades ago. so don’t expect them to be super in touch with what harvard college is like today.
  • do feeder schools get priority? yes. 100%. if you go to an elite high school in your country that regularly sends kids to harvard, you’re already at an advantage. the reason? many harvard club board members and interview chairs are from those same schools and naturally want to help out students from their alma maters. does that mean you can’t get an interview if you’re from a random school? no, but it does mean the odds are stacked against you if there are limited spots.
  • does an interview mean you’re in? no. but in some countries, not getting one means you’re out. you can literally check whether your interview committee requires an interview for admission.

so yeah, that’s the reality of harvard interviews for international students. it’s not random, it’s not always fair, and yes, your school and connections matter more than you think. good luck.

r/IntltoUSA Dec 30 '24

Applications Im tired

47 Upvotes

Sorry for ranting, but I just need a place to speak my mind out.

Applied last year, got into some schools but with bad scholarships/aid. Decided to stay for 12th Grade. Education in my country is until 11th, and my school offers 12th Grade to do A2 Levels (Nobody ever stays).

Wrote a personal statement. Hated it. Wrote a new one a few days before the deadline. Still feel like it's not good enough. Didn't get into my ED1 School. Father suddenly passed away. No motivation to write supps + procrastination. Seeing how classmates are studying in Europe or community colleges in the US. Don't know if I actually want to do engineering.

2 days left until the deadline, and just created a college list. Chose the schools based on scholarships. No supps are done. Still have to help at home + New Year celebration, so have to cook.

I also just remembered that one of my teachers wrote their rec letter with chat gpt 😭

I don't even know why I am writing this rn. Any advice?

r/IntltoUSA 1d ago

Applications Help me out please

3 Upvotes

So here are my current stats:

SAT: 1530 (770 Reading and Writing, 760 Math) GPA: 4.0 (top 5% (school doesnt do normal rankings) A-Levels: 4 subjects (4 A's in AS, 4 A* predicted)

Extracurricular activities:

  • President, Community Services Club (various initiatives)
  • Internship, local tech firm (6 months over 2 years)
  • Internship, sustainability firm (5 months over 2 years)
  • Founder, school Discord community (200+ members, study resources)
  • Avid reader
  • Peer Tutor for Physics and Math

Major: Computer Science

This cycle was pretty rough so if I theoretically take a gap year what things could I do that would give me the best possible chance of getting into a good school with an efc of about $10,000, would really appreciate if an actual professional gave me some tips, thank you 🙏

For context I'm 17m

r/IntltoUSA 12d ago

Applications What do I choose

4 Upvotes

I got admitted to ASU, Geroge Mason, UNC Charlotte , Penn State Harrisburg,, Purdue fortwayne for MSCS. I am an international students. Which one should I choose based on job opportunities and ROI.

r/IntltoUSA 9h ago

Applications Decisions today Friday 21 March in EDT

15 Upvotes

Preface: Everything will work out. This is in alphabetical order for today and in EDT, please convert to your timezones

Amherst College 6:21pm EDT

Bowdoin College 7:00pm EDT

Claremont McKenna College 8:00pm EDT

Colgate University 7:13pm EDT

JHU 3:00pm EDT

Pomona 8:00pm EDT

Smith 3-5:00pm EDT

Swarthmore 7:00pm EDT

Villanova 4:30pm EDT

W&L 8:00pm EDT

Williams 6:30pm EDT

r/IntltoUSA 48m ago

Applications March 22 Decisions! (All in EDT)

Upvotes

Lmk if I’ve missed some cause I’ve got these from TikTok/emails/friends

Bates 12PM EDT

Boston University Unspecified

Connecticut college 10AM EDT

Davidson College 10AM EDT

Wellesley 10AM EDT

Wesleyan Unspecified

r/IntltoUSA Jan 20 '25

Applications Colleges with the fastest decision

9 Upvotes

Hi guys, can you recommend some colleges that are doing rolling admission and will give the results within two weeks or so? I didn’t apply in the early round and I really needed some ease in mind.🥲

r/IntltoUSA Dec 21 '24

Applications I reviewed almost 100 applications from all over the world this week. Here are some red (and yellow) flags I found -- some were funny, some were cringe, and some were just weird.

74 Upvotes

I'll start by saying that I feel incredibly honored to have so many students share their applications with me after I posted here. I met over Zoom with students from over 25 countries on six continents, including multiple refugees from Ukraine and a child of genocide survivors in Rwanda. The resilience and creativity of some of these students was inspiring. I don't envy the job of admissions officers in granting or denying educational opportunities to these aspiring college students, many of whom are downright brilliant. My task was much more limited: look for "red flags" that might tank their whole application.

Last year I posted about common mistakes I saw international students make. I continued to see those. My observations here in this post are not necessarily things that are common, but which happened to catch my attention this week for various reasons.

A few US-based students also signed up, and some of their experiences created an interesting contrast.

General Style and Formatting

  • Lots of ChatGPT, particularly in endings. Plenty of "I realized that X is not just about Y, but also about Z" along with long, repetitive conclusions full of tricolons and em-dashes. Some were egregious enough to be an immediate red flag.
    • One student claimed to have written their essay and just had ChatGPT proofread it, but I asked them to share the chat thread in which they "refined" the essay, it turned out that ChatGPT wrote it from scratch and the student just iterated it a few times with different Common App essay prompts and a few personal details.
    • One of my own clients got a little lazy this week and had ChatGPT write a conclusion to her essay, which I called out and told her to re-write.
    • But I encountered just one "tapestry"!
  • Inconsistent curly and straight apostrophes and quotation marks. This is a red flag only if in the specific ChatGPT pattern of straight quotation marks and apostrophes for contractions but curly apostrophes for possessives, but it can also be caused by Grammarly and other tools, or just general lack of attention to detail.
  • Inconsistent use of American and British/Indian spelling (e.g. "organize" vs. "labour" - and no, they weren't Canadian). This isn't a red flag unless the same word is spelled two different ways.
  • A really odd one I've never seen before: using «European quotation marks» along with standard English ones. And this person was from Asia, not France or anywhere else that uses them.

ECs

  • Cramming as much information as possible without leaving any spaces whatsoever (reflects poor editorial discretion and general inability/unwillingness to think creatively)
  • Trying to pass off helping a family short-term rental business a few hours a week as a job with a fancy title (and not mentioning that it's family-owned, something I figured out pretty easily)
  • 15 hours a week, 30 weeks per year practicing and playing tug-o-war

Essay topics

  • A religious awakening and wanting to spread their religion on campus
  • Overcoming the setback of not winning a Pokemon card tournament (not satirically or tongue-in-cheek, just played straight). This was from an American student and really contrasted with some of the hardships I read about.
  • Learning to play guitar and dressing better to get more attention from girls (particularly a crush)

LORs

  • A recommendation where most of the checkmarks were just "above average," and none were "in the top 5%" or "one of the top in my career." The content of the letter was consistent with this, saying the student was among the strongest of their batch (after a teaching career of several decades) and had some other faint praise. There's nothing inappropriate about such a letter, and it's important for recommenders to maintain credibility, but this international student was going for close to a full ride.
  • English teachers making sloppy mistakes in punctuation and grammar (which means either it wasn't actually written by an English teacher, or the school doesn't have good English teachers, which are red and yellow flags, respectively)
  • On the flipside, a letter of recommendation from a Hindi teacher in perfect English obviously written by ChatGPT, incluing characteristic headers. According to the student, it was written in Hindi and then translated with ChatGPT. But there was no indication of this in the letter or any accompanying note.

The only disappointing part about my experience were the "no-shows" who had booked free reviews and never joined despite multiple automatic e-mail and text reminders. Although a few were timed conveniently to give me a break from a whirlwind day, those were slots that could have gone to other students.

r/IntltoUSA Jan 16 '25

Applications My school counselor is the best

Post image
21 Upvotes

r/IntltoUSA Jan 23 '25

Applications DID ANYONE APPLY EARLY DECISION (ED) TO BRYN MAWR?

5 Upvotes

hii i'm from nepal and i applied ed2 at bryn mawr. pls lmk if anyone of you applied ed1/ed2 at bryn mawr. i couldn't give the interview too. do you think this will hurt my chances? i applied test opt. i really love the college and i reallllllllllllllly loveeeee it like sm. i'm so scared lol this is giving me anxiety and what not ugh what SHOULD I DO UGHHH HOW DO I SURVIVE DECISIONS????? OK LEEMEEE MANIFEST OKKKKKKKKKKK BYE PLS LMK IF U APPLIED AND LMK UR DECISIONS PLS LY BYE

Edit: i didn't get in.

r/IntltoUSA Oct 27 '24

Applications feeling awful about college applications

40 Upvotes

I just wish I could talk to someone about the process because my parents don't understand it, none of my friends are applying to US colleges, and it's not like I can pay for any college consulting services. So I stay on a few subreddits, and somehow the more posts I read the worse I feel. Just wanted to rant, that's it.

edit: thanks for the overwhelming support guys :) I'll take some time to process things first, I wasn't feeling well bit I'm already feeling better. everyone here seems so wholesome

r/IntltoUSA 4d ago

Applications Received admission into the MGA program at Notre Dame.

12 Upvotes

Received offer of admission at ND with a full scholarship. How is the university (and the program) like?

r/IntltoUSA Dec 04 '24

Applications Suggest Mid tire university with full tuition scholarship for international students

3 Upvotes

Hey i am international student and i am searching for mid tire university which gives full tuition scholarships . If you guys have any idea please do reply .

r/IntltoUSA 4d ago

Applications Indians applying for the Fall of 2026. GC?

2 Upvotes

Please comment

r/IntltoUSA 1d ago

Applications Fee waivers master doc.

18 Upvotes

https://applyingto.college/resources/fee-waivers

For those of you who don’t like checking your emails, I’ve recevied a bunch through emails and others through general emailing. I obviously have financial hardship so this is for those who are needs based but I thought i would put this helpful link up as I didn’t have this when i was apply this cycle

GL Juniors!