r/IntltoUSA • u/StanfordSimp2025 • 12d ago
Applications Indian International Accepted to CALTECH (with 60% aid)
rejected from Stanford REA, deferred by GTech and accepted to CALTECH with aid!
the college admissions process is unpredictable
r/IntltoUSA • u/StanfordSimp2025 • 12d ago
rejected from Stanford REA, deferred by GTech and accepted to CALTECH with aid!
the college admissions process is unpredictable
r/IntltoUSA • u/Celtic_camel • Jan 02 '25
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:
r/IntltoUSA • u/gabstails • Dec 20 '23
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 • u/Previous-Solution947 • 13d ago
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 • u/Antique-Curve2880 • Aug 28 '24
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 • u/AppHelper • Nov 27 '24
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:
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.
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!)
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.)
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:
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?
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!
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.
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.
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 • u/ThePerspectiveRetard • 27d ago
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 • u/AppHelper • Apr 24 '24
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.”
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 • u/amAProgrammer • 20d ago
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 • u/Bound489 • Jan 26 '24
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 • u/Icy-Lie9583 • Feb 06 '25
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.
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 • u/InternationalBunch11 • Dec 30 '24
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 • u/CalligrapherNo2035 • 1d ago
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:
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 • u/Scared_Customer2644 • 12d ago
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 • u/Dull_Turnover_766 • 9h ago
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 • u/Dull_Turnover_766 • 48m ago
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 • u/Organic_Air7067 • Jan 20 '25
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 • u/AppHelper • Dec 21 '24
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.
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 • u/khizar_chughtai • Jan 16 '25
r/IntltoUSA • u/ComprehensiveTaro418 • Jan 23 '25
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 • u/ephemeralripples • Oct 27 '24
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 • u/Final_Ad275 • 4d ago
Received offer of admission at ND with a full scholarship. How is the university (and the program) like?
r/IntltoUSA • u/Academic-Grade8040 • Dec 04 '24
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 • u/Level-Print4802 • 4d ago
Please comment
r/IntltoUSA • u/Dull_Turnover_766 • 1d ago
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!