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Applying to college as international student, I really hate what is called "the need of diversity " in some schools. When considering your application, the important factors are not high Toefl and SAT scores, or strong essays and recommendations. It is the country where you come from that counts. Colleges tend to accept student from as many countries as possible. Those colleges want to prove that they have a large numbers of international students, which will strengthen their fame in the country and the world. They are proud to show people in their country that they have international students from 30, 40, 50 or even more on theur campus. Provided that you meet the minimum requirements and you come from the least well-known countries, you will be accepted. In fact, Americam colleges don't need international students. It's just their foreign relations' policy. Considering native students appying every year almost makes them tired. Therefore, students from well-known countries like China or India are unlikely to be accepted although they have top SAT and Toefl scores . Fortunately, there are also many school commit to recruit students based on theis true talents such as Harvard, Yale ( may be because they are already famous, so they don't need to seek fame by that way). My advice for you is that you must pay careful attention to the school you want to apply. If that school already has many students from your country, choose another school.
Good luck.

By L_Wonder (L_Wonder) on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 09:31 pm: Edit

That's a strong generalization! How can you say that high scoring students from China or India are unlikely to be admitted, when they are many international students are from those 2 countries? There aren't enough students from "little-known" countries applying to schools in the us to challenge the amount accepted from bigger countries. Also, at my school I noticed that many students from countries like India and Korea attended many of the same boarding schools(in the us and abroad)and this probably has more to do with who gets in and who doesnt. you sound like you have been burned, and you are blaming diversity to make yourself feel better.
By the way, american colleges do need international students-they pay full price!

By Bigbigboy (Bigbigboy) on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 10:18 pm: Edit

To L Wonder
I have always emphasized that the case happens in SOME SCHOOLS. Are you sure you know the policy of every single Admission Staff? You may be not an international student so you don't understand. My friends, whether accepted or not to a American College, always advice me to choose the schools which doesn't have many students from my country. Moreover, I am not from Indian or China so I don't write this post for myself. Anyway, you are lucky to study in a good school. That's what I call a real school.