Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

Hello

I'm a prospective international applicant from Brazil, and I want to to ask other applicants or anyone else a couple of questions regarding the admission process for foreign students.

I would also like to get in touch with accepted and deferred applicants to get some insights about certain issues of the application process.

First question: How do Universities in the US analyze the extracurricular activities of int'l
students? (This is a major worry for me after browsing some of the applications of this website and seeing things like "one year in Africa with the Red Cross"...or "summer research project in NASA")

Second: How much competitive is it if you apply for aid in colleges which are not need blind?

Third: For the grading system, should I send them a conversion table of grades of my school(since it's not the american nor a similar system) to the admission committee?

Fourth: Is it true that if your country is under represented in the University your chances are higher?

Sorry for all these questions, but it's difficult when you are so far away...

By Rosarosaef (Rosarosaef) on Tuesday, April 08, 2003 - 07:58 pm: Edit

the colleges will get in touch with your high school with any questions they have about your grades and activities. they'll translate your grades,find out the meaning of awards, the levels of committment to ECs, and corroborate measurable abilities. but before they do that, they'll have to be interested enough in you to investigate. so essentially, you should do all that first yourself, providing conversion tables, explanations of awards, translations, testimony to your activities, and anything else that makes it easier for them to evaluate you (but do try to keep it as short as possible).

as far as aid is concerned, i think you're going to have problems. need blind admissions policies rarely extend to international students. sometimes exceptions are made, but they will have to want you very very much (if you are 7 feet tall and play basketball well, even stanford just might find money for you).

yes it is true that at some universities, students from under-represented countries stand a better chance of acceptance, but what good is acceptance if you don't have the money to go?

sorry if this is bad news, but that's the reality.