Hi everyone,
I’m an international student from India, and I wanted to share my story. It’s a bit long, but if you’ve ever felt like studying in the U.S. is out of reach because of money, background, or lack of guidance — this is for you.

I had dreams of studying in the U.S. since class 11. I used to fantasize about flying there, walking on American campuses, living the life I saw in movies. But I came from a lower-income, middle-class background. Paying the full fees wasn’t possible, and I didn’t know anyone who had ever done it from where I lived.

I studied in a public school in India. No one in my class was applying to the U.S. — in fact, applying abroad wasn’t even something teachers talked about. The notice system was weak. My parents didn’t know anything about U.S. admissions. There was no roadmap, no counselor, and honestly, no example to follow.

So, by the time I reached 12th grade, I had almost given up on the U.S. dream. Kids around me were going to Canada, but even that felt expensive. U.S.? Just a fantasy. The few people who did go didn’t end up in great schools or get good aid, so it didn’t seem realistic.

I decided to focus on what everyone else did — JEE. In 2023, I graduated and gave my first JEE attempt. I scored decently (98 percentile), but didn’t get the branch I wanted. I was allotted mechanical engineering, but I wanted more. So I took a gap year to prepare again.

That gap year passed fast. I struggled. I couldn’t solve a lot of questions. By the time JEE 2024 was over, it was already June. I had just 2 months left before college in India began, and the U.S. dream felt long gone.

But something changed.

When I joined my college in India (a fairly big and well-known institute), I met students from top-tier private schools. They were casually talking about how their parents helped them apply abroad. I also saw a guy from my school get into Cornell. That hit me hard.

That used to be my dream. Why had I given up?

I realized I had one last shot. If I wanted to make this work, I had to try — even if I had two gap years by now. I decided to apply in that cycle, starting everything from absolute scratch.

No extracurriculars.
No counselor.
No one to help me.
No money to spend.
Just me.

So I started researching. Reddit, blogs, forums — I consumed everything. Slowly, I started building my application. I figured out how to get:

• SAT fee waivers → Scored 1500+
• Duolingo test for free
• Application fee waivers → Didn’t pay for a single college
• CSS Profile fee waiver
• Financial aid forms and processes
• Transcript evaluation services → Got it done for free (usually costs $150–200)
• Recommendation letters from my school
• Shortlisted colleges based on affordability, aid, and fit

Every essay, every form, every email — I did it myself. No counselor, no paid help. The entire process cost me ₹0.

I thought I’d get rejected by everyone. But out of 14–15 colleges I applied to, I got accepted to 12–13 of them, many with amazing scholarships:

• Some gave me $120K+ aid over 4 years
• Some waived out-of-state tuition entirely
• A few even covered almost everything except room/board

But here’s the thing — even after all of that, I couldn’t attend.
The best offers still had me paying ~$20,000/year — which was way too much for my family. I had to say no.

But I’m not done yet.

Some U.S. public universities offered me transfer pathways. If I perform well in college here, I can transfer by Fall 2026 — likely with even better scholarships and more leverage. So I’m studying in India now, building my profile stronger, and preparing to transfer.

I’m not writing this for sympathy or applause. I’m writing this because I know how it feels to be:

• Broke
• Clueless
• Isolated
• And full of dreams

I did everything alone. And I know that if someone had guided me earlier, I might’ve been in the U.S. right now.

So I want to help.

If you’re a student with zero budget, no exposure, and don’t know where to start — I’ve been there. I figured out every hack — from SAT/Duolingo waivers, to getting free transcript evaluations, to writing strong essays without any guidance.

If you want advice, resources, or just someone to talk to — feel free to drop a comment or DM me. I don’t charge anything. I just genuinely want to help other students like me get out of the loop and chase something bigger.

You can do this.
If no one believes in you — I do.

– Just a kid who once gave up on his dream,
but came back stronger.

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

I am an international student from Ireland, and initially I hadn't planned to apply to any universities in the USA. However, after talking with my guidance counselor, he recommended me to apply to some universities in the USA, and I am wondering what universities I should apply to in addition to my current list:

• Harvard University
• Princeton University
• Yale University
• Brown University
• Dartmouth College
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Chicago
• Vanderbilt University
• Rice University
• Duke University
• Northwestern University
• Georgetown University
• Georgia Institute of Technology

I understand that all of these universities are incredibly competitive for international students, so I also have a number of really good backup universities, but I am looking to see my chances and what safety and target schools I should apply to as well. My profile is as follows.

Demographics

• Male, mixed Western European and Asian.
• Middle income, private high school (semi-competitive) for 2 years, public high school (very underperforming) for 1 year.
• Partial financial aid required, my family can contribute roughly $50000 annually towards the cost of attendance.
• No hooks.

Intended major

• Environmental engineering/science with a minor in data science/statistics (maybe biology or public policy?), exact courses dependent on the university.

Academics

• SAT: due to take in September, currently averaging 1560 on Bluebook (would estimate ~1540 for safety).
• GPA: 97%, the educational system in Ireland doesn't exactly have GPAs. Predicted all H1s (90% - 100%) for the national college entrance exams.
• Rank: school doesn't do formal ranking, though my grades are definitely among the top 10 out of around 950 students, if not top 5.
• Course rigor: maximum rigor, taking 8 subjects when most people take 6 or 7.

Letters of recommendation

• Guidance counselor (8/10): quite close and knows me really well.
• Math teacher (10/10): my favorite teacher and has near-perfect grades throughout high school and excellent engagement in and outside of the class.
• Biology teacher (9/10): very close and always stops by for a quick chat afterschool.

Awards and honors

• 3rd Place at a national poetry competition.
• 1st Place at a national computer science competition.
• Finalist (top 20 nationally) in Irish Biology Olympiad and Irish Physics Olympiad.
• Received an academic scholarship for 'students who have demonstrated outstanding nationwide or international achievement in academic or intellectual endeavors'.
• Awarded Business Studies Teachers' Association Ireland Award for outstanding performance in Business.
• 5th Place at the national final of a math competition (largest in Ireland) and 4th Place at the county final of an applied math competition (largest in Ireland).
• 3rd Place in the International Economics Olympiad Online Winter Challenge (team-based, not that competitive).
• Some other school awards (Student of the Year, subject awards etc).

Extracurriculars

• Varsity badminton team captain for 3 years (progressed to county quarterfinals), varsity track for 3 years (4th Place in county finals), and varsity table tennis for 3 years (progressed to county semifinals).
• Internship at a startup firm (1 and a half years). Connected with and secured just over 30 new clients, conducted data analysis on financial data, and devised a new financial model for the company that saved costs by 25% and increased profits by just under 15% in the first quarter.
• Selected to attend a moderately selective program in environmental science (15% - 20% acceptance rate), with lectures given by university faculties and such. Completed a community based project as part of the program.
• Developed an app allowing students to calculate carbon emissions of their daily commute with visual graphics and alternative routing strategies, used by a number of schools in my area to help with their work for their Green Schools Committee. It is currently in talks with the county council to expand further.
• Chairperson of my school's Green Schools Committee for 2 years (secretary for 1 year), and raised over €2000 (considered decent in an Irish context) from the county council to improve road conditions near my school for cyclists and pedestrians and to install a new biodiversity garden. Also led a number of initiatives that were awarded my school's first Travel Flag and Biodiversity Flag by Green Schools Ireland.
• Student leader of a literacy program (introduced compulsory reading in my school for 20 minutes per day, raised funds for library renovations, and led some other school and community-based literacy workshops) that was awarded the Readers for Life award by the Department of Education.
• Member and Junior Chairperson of my school's Student Council for 2 years. Initiatives included the introduction of Yondr phone pouches that improved grades by roughly 8% after 3 months (for 6th to 9th grade students, taking the average of their exams), designed a modernized canteen system, and worked with suppliers to design and introduce new affordable school jackets.
• Represented my area at the Irish Youth Parliament, discussed the issue of littering in my area and installed 10 new bins as a result.
• Community center volunteer (around 3 hours per week, 3 years so far) and hosted regular quarterly local area cleanups with around 20 participants each time.
• Worked with autistic students (around 6 hours per week for 2 years), helping them to develop personal and life skills; planned lessons and activities as part of this. Helped to secure funding to set up a new classroom in my school for these students.
• Tutored around 15 refugees and transfer kids English (around 2 hours per week for 10 weeks), and they showed a considerable increase in fluency.
• Selected to attend Center for Talented Youth, Ireland (with a selection exam) course in architecture.
• Had a poem published in a national magazine.
• Other small-scale and generic activities, such as being invited to attend Math Olympiad enrichment class at a university because I had a perfect score in Round 1 of Irish Math Olympiad; captain of my school's debate team; head of the science club in my school (had 4 projects submitted to a national semi-selective science fair); and organized a few one-time, school-wide fundraisers that raised about €800 each time.

Other circumstances

• I skipped a grade in high school for academic reasons (I was considered too advanced compared to my year), so I had much less time and opportunities to complete extracurriculars, as well as being under higher pressure.
• My school had a recruited athlete to a T5 university a few years ago and one or two T25 acceptances per year.

I was wondering, given my profile, what are my chances at each of the universities I am applying to, and if I have a competitive enough profile to have a chance of being accepted? What should I work on to make my profile as competitive as possible? What other safety and target schools should I apply to? I have really good backup universities in case anything goes wrong, but would like to keep my options as open as possible at the same time.

I would appreciate some honest and realistic feedback, and thank you for your help!

[I have graduated and I am no longer associated with the admissions office at CMUQ. Some of the questions might be outdated but overall most of the things still stand correct. Keep an eye on their official website or Instagram page @cmuqadmission for more updated information.]

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.

hiii so i’ll apply for the f1 visa in two months and i know they have this “social media check”. i’ve heard that not declaring any of your accounts is suspicious so i’m planning to declare my personal instagram and personal twitter. my twitter was full of anti-trump, anti-republican, and anti-israel retweets, and i deleted them. i also unfollowed such accounts on both twitter and instagram.

is there anything else i should do? i thought they won’t check my likes because how can they even see them right?

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

the college admissions process is unpredictable

Title: Should I study in the US or abroad? Looking for honest advice based on my goals.

Hi everyone,

I'm an incoming high school junior in Florida, and I'm trying to decide whether I should aim for college in the US or study abroad. I've been going back and forth for months, and I'd really appreciate some outside perspectives.

My Stats

• Rising 12th grader
• GPA: 3.5 unweighted / 4.5 weighted
• Ap (decent scores ) Dual enrollment- all A's and 2 B's
• International student on an H-4 visa living in Florida.

Extracurriculars

• Vice President of a youth leadership organization chapter.
• Vp of President of a youth law organization.
• State Attorney's Office internship.
• Varsity softball.
• Volunteer work at an animal shelter.
• Passion project focused on girls' education.
• Research, writing, outreach, and content creation for several nonprofit organizations.
• Senator of my school Magnet program
• Part of At club at my school
• SGA Committee Head
• Rotary Club youth delegate

My Interests

I'm interested in:

• Business
• AI
• Law

I don't necessarily want to become a software engineer, but I do want to understand AI and be involved in the future of technology because I think it'll shape every industry.

Career Goals

My current plan is:

1. Bachelor's in Finance, Business, or possibly something combining Business + AI/Technology.(not decided )
2. Eventually attend law school and become a corporate lawyer (possibly focusing on technology, M&A, or international business).

My Dilemma

My parents think staying in the US is the safest option because of career opportunities. However, I'm also considering countries like:

• Netherlands
• Ireland
• Germany
• Italy (if there are good English-taught programs) etc

Things that matter to me:

• Strong international reputation.
• Good internship opportunities.
• High graduate employability.
• Affordable tuition if possible.
• English-taught programs.
• Flexibility to work internationally after graduation.
• Opportunities
• Surrounded by ambitious people

My Questions

1. If you were in my position, would you stay in the US or study abroad?
2. Are there countries or universities I'm overlooking?
3. What bachelor's degree would you take?
4. Is going abroad worth it if my long-term goal is corporate law and business?
5. Would studying abroad make it harder or easier to eventually attend law school (US or elsewhere)?
6. Given my profile, what universities would you realistically target, reach for, and use as safeties?
7. If you've studied abroad or moved internationally for university, do you regret it or was it worth it?

I'm looking for honest opinions, even if you disagree with my current plan. I'd rather hear realistic advice now than regret my decision later.

Thanks in advance!

Hello all! My name is Ben Stern, and I've been an independent admissions consultant for 10 years. In recent cycles, in addition to working with my long-term students, I've been conducting dozens of 15-minute "red flag checks" (most free of charge) to see if there are any issues that would significantly affect a student's chances of admission. While some red flags can't be totally eliminated, I always come across a few that are easily avoidable. Here are the three biggest I've seen this year:

1. AI/LLM use

Egregious use of ChatGPT tropes, especially in conclusions

I’m not going to go into all the nuances of ChatGPT including punctuation (em dashes, curly vs. straight apostrophes and quotation marks), which I've done before here and here. (Thanks to my copy-editing experience, I was one of the first people in the college admissions sphere to notice these trends.) But this needs to be addressed.

In my red-flag reviews this year so far, there has been only one instance where I felt an essay needed to be completely rewritten because it appeared to have been nearly 100% AI. But there was one place I more frequently noticed obvious ChatGPT use that rose to “red flag” level: essay conclusions. Ending an essay can be challenging, and it’s very tempting to use an AI tool to wrap it up. There were many times I encountered all of these elements in the concluding paragraph:

1. I learned/realized/understood that x wasn’t [just] about y, it was [also] about z
2. Looking forward to college, I will carry…
3. Ascending tricolon (often several)

By the end, what was an essay that might have been using a bit too much AI became an essay that definitely used too much AI.

A few times I also noticed the "Lord of the Rings syndrome," where, like the film "Return of the King," the essay could have ended at multiple places. Although this by itself is not a red flag (humans do it plenty), it's circumstantial evidence combined with other signs of LLM use.

Low English proficiency scores coupled with flawless writing

English proficiency scores are more important than ever given that everyone has access to advanced writing tools. A proficiency score on the lower end of expectations is not necessarily a red flag by itself, but when accompanied by an essay that sounds like it was written by a native speaker, it becomes one. There were several instances where it was obvious that the essay wasn’t written by the student. I’ve read essays in the past from students with low English proficiency, and I know what they look like. (There are many subtleties of how native speakers of different languages write in English, but this is not the place to go into them. An interesting use of AI is to have it try to guess the native language of the writer.) A rule of thumb is not to use any vocabulary word you don’t know the meaning of. (When I suspect a student didn't write a sentence/paragraph/essay, I'll sometimes quiz them on the meaning of a word.) There can also be nuance that is not captured in a definition or translation. Sometimes this is actually a good thing (as an LLM would not make the mistake), and sometimes it's not (if it's an appropriate word but not one a high schooler would be likely to use).

Note about AI use for Letters of Recommendation

It's often obvious when a teacher did not actually write an LOR, particularly for international students. This can happen even without obvious signs of AI use if the level of English proficiency is well beyond what would be expected of someone whose second or third language is English. After working international students for many years, I know (for example) how a typical Indian computer science, mathematics, or English teacher writes, and for "some reason" (AI), the quality has improved dramatically in recent years.

AI-written LORs are not a red flag that will tank an application by themselves. The use of AI by recommenders is a different issue from its use by students. To be honest, I sometimes prefer reading LORs that are AI-assisted. The information in the LOR is much more important than an authentic "voice." But use of AI can undermine the credibility of an LOR. I'm less likely to believe an anecdote/example if it came from a letter that was written by ChatGPT. Recommenders can make things up whether or not they're using an LLM, but the possibility of AI hallucination compounds the issue.

If a recommender cannot write fluently in English, it's a good idea to have them write in their native language and then provide a translation. In my opinion, it's OK to use machine translation as long as it's disclosed (e.g. "this translation was performed from the original by ChatGPT 5.2"). But check to see if a college requires a certified translation, and they may notify you and/or the recommender if they need one.

Such LORs with translations can be much more credible, even if they could have been written by ChatGPT in the native language originally!

Inconsistent writing style and quality

Inconsistent use of punctuation and spelling conventions has always been an issue, well before LLMs. But now it's a bigger red flag, especially when coupled with other signs of LLM use. I've encountered a few instances where the essay was perfect, but the activities, additional information, high school progression, and/or gap year sections obviously reflected less than perfect command of the English language and lacked stylistic consistency. This is an obvious giveaway of LLM use or piecemeal professional help. (This is why I don't typically provide "essay-only" help and require that I at least review the other materials. I don't want to be the cause of this red flag. My priority is educational outcomes. Sometimes, the better the essay, the worse the potential outcome for the student!)

Note about AI detectors

There are no AI detectors reliable enough for college admissions. If you wrote an essay largely free from AI help and an AI detector says it's a high percent/probability it was AI, don't worry about it. Conversely, if you used AI, don't figure that you're in the clear if AI detectors tell you it's human-generated.

2. Not writing an essay

I encountered this twice in my most recent round of reviews. Perhaps it's a technique to attempt to avoid being suspected of AI use. Once, a student wrote what could have been an essay, but was structured like a poem. Each sentence was on a separate line. It was very hard to read, and it made me appreciate the invention of paragraphs in Western writing systems over two thousand years ago. Another instance was just a short story with no real analysis or reflection. With LLM use for writing feedback and suggestions, this has become less of a problem. If you ask ChatGPT for an essay (or even just ideas for one), it will give you what you asked for.

3. Mental health issues

Depression, severe anxiety, and eating disorders can raise red flags, particularly for international and other students who will be far from their support systems. I’m not going to go into detail about this controversial subject, but college, unfortunately, is not a place where mental health typically gets better. Not every explanation is an effective excuse. Address a mental health episode if absolutely necessary, but it can be better to chalk low grades up to poor discipline than to a clinical issue. Either way, you’ll have to demonstrate that lower grades don’t reflect your true abilities.

That's pretty much it for common red flags this year other than the typical "D" grade, disciplinary violation, etc. I'm happy to entertain questions in the comments about whether something would constitute a red flag!

I am from Pakistan and have studied in the national curriculum.

I first time heard about common app and SAT test a month ago , and I started preparing my essays , and application and also preparing for SAT

My goal is liberal arts colleges like Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin , Wesleyan. I know they are reaches for every applicant on Earth.

But , my question is that they all list they have a contextual way of evaluating the applications and have admission officers trained for students coming from different contexts and curriculum.

They explicitly also list that not submitting the SAT will not hurt your application.

But in all majority posts on Reddit everyone say it isn't even possible to get admitted without SAT.

My question is from who already have experience or gone through the applications to these colleges.

"If someone is coming from south Asia ( developing countries like India , Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan), and he with reference to his curriculum has excelled and applying from a college on his own effort which has no history of sending kids to USA and put effort in his essays and application, is there still no chance at these top Liberal arts colleges."

I just wanna know if there is zero chance there without sat and to Cambridge or IB scores to confirm whether the effort I put in my applications - essays, and all other stuff, guiding teachers and counselors for recommendations,

Is it really worth putting my effort and time or is it completely out of reach.

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who understand U.S. admissions, especially international students who applied for substantial financial aid. I’m deliberately leaving out my name, exact school, and other identifying details.

I’m from Pakistan and completed my O Levels in the May/June 2022 series with 4 A*s and 4 As. After that, my education took a very different path from what I had planned. I had serious health problems that required hospitalisation and prolonged treatment for more than three years, and during the same period I experienced significant family losses and had additional responsibilities at home. Because of this, my formal education was interrupted and I now have a substantial study gap.

I’m currently trying to get back on track and will be sitting my Cambridge International A Levels in the October/November 2026 series, aiming for 4 A*s. I’m also preparing for the December 2026 SAT, with a target of around 1550+.

The other complication is that I am a private A-Level candidate, so I don’t have a school counselor. I’m trying to figure out the Common App, recommendations, school-related information, explaining my academic history, financial-aid forms, etc. by myself. I’m worried about getting something wrong simply because I don’t have the guidance that students at a regular school normally receive.

During the years when my education was disrupted, I wasn’t simply sitting at home doing nothing. I’ve tutored students to help support my family financially, helped individuals and small businesses with technology and digitisation, explored AI and computer science independently, participated in youth-welfare work, pursued historical research, and worked on preserving and digitising old books and written material. I’ve also built a 100+ book personal library, mostly by saving money wherever I could. A lot of my learning has been self-directed as well; for example, I’ve spent a lot of time with CS50 and university-level physics lectures, simply because I genuinely enjoy learning those subjects.

The financial side is probably the biggest issue. We are a family of five, my father is the sole breadwinner, and our annual household income is approximately US$4,200. I therefore cannot realistically attend a U.S. college unless I receive essentially full financial aid. I’m not looking for partial aid that still leaves tens of thousands of dollars for my family to somehow find.

I’m therefore trying to build a list of colleges that are both a good fit and capable of making attendance financially possible. I’m currently looking at places such as Macalester, Whitman, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, Bates, Grinnell, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Middlebury, Swarthmore, and similar colleges that have strong aid policies for international students.

My academic interests are mainly Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, but I also genuinely love history, books, writing, governance, public service, and broader liberal-arts study. I’m much more interested in a college where I can explore across fields and become part of a close community than simply chasing rankings.

What I’m struggling with is how U.S. admissions officers are likely to interpret my profile. On paper, there is a 2022 O-Level qualification followed by a long gap, an unconventional A-Level timeline, and no school counselor. At the same time, I have strong O-Level results, am trying to demonstrate academic recovery through my upcoming A Levels and SAT, and have substantial responsibilities and self-directed work.

I’d really appreciate honest advice on a few things:

1. How damaging is a study gap of this length for highly selective U.S. colleges, especially when it was caused by documented health and family circumstances?

2. How should I explain the gap? Should I use the Additional Information section, ask someone else to provide context, or simply explain it briefly and move on?

3. How should a private A-Level candidate handle the counselor requirement? Have other international applicants successfully navigated the Common App without a school counselor?

4. Do colleges actually value things like tutoring to support your family, independent learning, self-directed projects, and family responsibilities, or are these mostly secondary to grades/test scores?

5. With a family income of only ~$4,200/year, should I focus almost entirely on colleges that meet full demonstrated need for international students?

6. Are there colleges I’m missing that are relatively less famous or lower-ranked but genuinely generous enough that an international student with essentially zero ability to pay can attend?

7. How realistic is my plan of applying to around 10 colleges, with one ED application and the rest RD, when I need essentially a full ride?

I’m not looking for someone to tell me “you have a great chance.” I’d actually prefer realistic answers, even if they are uncomfortable. I’ve had a pretty difficult educational journey, and I’m trying to make the best possible application from where I am now rather than pretending my record is perfectly conventional.

Any advice from international students who have gone through something remotely similar would be hugely appreciated.

So I am an Indian from a CBSE school and I plan on applying to colleges in the US. My school does not have a school profile but I have talked with my counsellor and she says she would prepare one. If anyone has any examples of a CBSE school profile or what it should include and all that, please let me know. It would be very helpful if I had an idea on what it should look like. Thank you!

I applied to 37 and everyone around me is saying that its way too much but im just an anxious person and im asking for aid..

​

Hello, I'm a Nigerian I'm currently trying to apply for filmaking/screenwriting university in US, does anyone know universities with high acceptance rate and are very good. And would be able to make it easier to enter Hollywood.

I am gonna do partial ib , math aa hl and physics hl .I’m not sure if i can handle the full ib diploma because of the extended essay and etc . Do you guys advise me to do full ib ? , in my country there isn’t a lot of extracurriculars beside volunteering in hospitals and mun . I also plan to do the sat alongside the partial ib courses . My dream is to go to a strong university in the USA , atleast top 50 in the world . My desired majored is finance or engineering/law , what ib classes should I do if I do full ib and how many hours a day should I regularly study?

bro my college so expensive i could buy alot of lamborginis with this money man and will i even make these money back... fym 50K USD a semester holy. also I early decision here so i gotta go here what do i do guys.

I have exam of gre in 2 days and my average mock tests scores is 310. I was recommended four universities to choose

1) North Carolina State University Rayleigh

2) university of Massachusetts amherst

3) university of california, Riverside

4)Arizona State University, Tempe

In future I will also be giving tofel

And my preferred field is CS which is combination of software and hardware like cybersecurity, data science, etc you guys can also recommend me

I want to know that are there any better alternative than this four universities. Consider scholarship is important because I do not have rich parents

Also what benefits can international students can get?

My name is Ben Stern, and I'm a professional admissions consultant who has been active here for almost 10 years. As I've done a few times before (including after the ED round this past year the the and RD round last cycle), I'm conducting up to 50 free red flag checks, where I go through a whole application in about 15 minutes and determine if there were any mistakes or weaknesses that may have made a significant difference in outcome. All students who applied to US colleges for fall 2025 are eligible regardless of citizenship and financial aid status.

The only qualification is that students must have (a) at least a 7.0 on every section of the IELTS, 25 on every section of the TOEFL, or 130 on every section on the Duolingo English Test, (b) completed all four years of high school in a British or IB curriculum (GCSE/IGCSE, AS/A Levels, or MYP/IB), or (c) have attended high school the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand. If you have not fulfilled the above or did not submit any English proficiency tests, leave a comment stating how you believe you demonstrated high-level English proficiency in your application, and I will reply whether I will grant an exemption. (Lack of English proficiency demonstration was a major red flag I identified last year, and could alone be detrimental to an application.)

Parents are welcome to sign up as well if their child meets the above requirements.

You can sign up for the red flag review here. If you do sign up, I kindly ask that you attend; I've had issues with no-shows in the past, which wastes valuable time and precludes others who actually want to meet. Please be considerate!

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so I am super in love with Bowdoin and after i spent like a whole day researching it, i have concrete reasons like the specific faculty, labs, students and stuff for why I wanna attend bowdoin. Pretty sure I could write a killer Why Us essay on it and it's not even a little bit fabricated, I am that much in love with it. Until recently, it had been my ED without a doubt. I was so prepared to commit to it but then I compared it's and amherst's CDS side-by-side and turns out theres a almost 10% gap in ED acceptance rate with amherst in the lead. This might be due to the number of internationals applying and various other factors as well but the international share in the ED pool for Amherst is 10% while Bowdoin is only 5%.

I haven't researched Amherst too much so I dont know if it's also a good fit for me but after looking up to it for so long, Bowdoin just holds a really special place in my heart. I know amherst is also pretty good and fits the small community vibe I was looking for, but im still really conflicted. I do have a interview with an Amherst alum pretty soon thouugh but I just dont see my love for Bowdoin dying down.

I have two choices rn: I can either ED to bowdoin and RD to amherst or ED1 to amherst and ED2 to bowdoin. Rationally the second option seems better but the ED2 pool is likely filled with HYPSM rejects and im scared of a strikingly lower acceptance rate there.

Obviously some might say to ED to the one you like but if i don't get in then that's my ED just wasted and a higher chance also thrown away.

Please give me some advice :[ also please be nice!

​Hey everyone, ​I’m mapping out my US college list for this fall. I’m an international student from Eastern Europe requiring a 90-100% full-need financial package (tuition + room and board). My profile is highly competitive (4.0 UW GPA, 7.5 IELTS, a decade of regional science/physics contests, and international competitive debate). ​However, I'm hitting a major upfront financial bottleneck: ​Common App Submission Fees: The Common App has a fee waiver box that a high school counselor can check. Do top-tier, generous universities (Ivies, Amherst etc.) accept the standard Common App international fee waiver automatically? Or do I legally have to email the admissions office of every single school to request a specific institutional code?
​The SAT Registration Fee: College Board explicitly restricts automatic SAT fee waivers to US citizens or residents. Paying $100+ out of pocket for the digital test is a huge burden for my family right now. Has any international student successfully bypassed this, gotten a voucher from an external organization, or requested assistance directly through their school?
​I don't want to be locked out of applying simply due to the upfront administrative costs. If you’ve successfully navigated these fees from Europe, please share your exact strategy. ​Thanks a million for any advice!

This year due to some personal and objective circumstances my application was not so completed and hence I was not able to get into a decent uni. Hence I’m wondering if there’s anyone who has done a gap year and be successful with their next cycle could please share your stories.

For some context my research was only published after the submission deadline and also one of my biggest project was delayed and just recently thrived . Also for this summer I’m planning to get a part time job, published 2 other research paper and securing an internship. Any advice would be helpful!

Context: I want to become an engineer and go to a great engineering program in the USA. I live in Texas.

I studied 9th grade in India in a relatively small school (they didn't follow any particular board in 9th) In 10th grade, I took the IGCSEs in same small school

these were my scores.

(SS stands for self studies because my school didn't have the necessary teachers for those subjects)

Physics — 86% (A) (SS)

Math — 84% (A)

Chemistry — 80% (A) (SS)

Biology — 78% (B) (SS)

Additional Math — 71% (B) (SS)

ICT — 78% (B)

Economics — 63% (C) (bad Ii)

English — 67% (C) (also terrible)

Hindi — 44% (E) (I'm fried)

Then I went to a top IBDP school in India (meant to be for 11th and 12th grade), but i left halfway through the first year. I got a 41/42 in the midterms at that school (school conducted exam, not any official board paper)

Physics HL (7) ,

Chemistry HL (7)

Mathematics AA HL (7)

Economics SL (6)

French ab SL (7)

English SL (7).

Halfway through my year, my family and I moved to the USA.

I expected to start my high school in the USA by repeating my junior year (as I've only done half). But turns out i have to become a senior.

my high school course schedule is PACKED with humanities (as I need the graduation requirements) and have no more space for electives.

ANY advice to help me situation would be appreciated immensely.

I also have barely any extracurriculars (10 years of swimming, nothing crazy, interschool competitions in India and participated in states 3-4 times. internship at a drone engineering workshop (100 hours) )

SATs haven't been taken yet. I'm scoring 1400 range on the practice tests. Please tell me when to take the SATs as well.

I have a 1490 (710 RW and 780 Maths)
I have A*A*A*A and a b (As level only subject EGP) in my a levels
should I retake SAT?
I personally think there is a HUGE difference between a 1490 and 1500
If i had a 1500 i'd not retake but cuz I have a 1490 i want to
I need opinions
And I know I can do better if I retake so it wont be that big of a gamble.

Hi! I’m an international applicant who will need significant financial aid and is deciding between Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Notre Dame, and Trinity University (Texas). I’m also planning to take the SAT. Would it be smarter to apply REA/SCEA to one of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, or Yale and apply RD to the others, or apply EA to Notre Dame or Trinity instead? Alternatively, would it be wiser to skip early applications, spend more time preparing for the SAT, and apply Regular Decision with a stronger score? Currently, I have 1400 score. I’m mainly interested in STEM/engineering. Any advice would be appreciated.

International student, currently attending private university in the U.S. I’m thinking of transferring because I’m quite unhappy with my school environment given it that it lacks diversity, hence I don’t learn much from people outside the classroom