Expert: Todd Johnson - 4/5/2008

Question
I am an international student studying in nepal. i have three colleges in my mind to apply after my a levels. one is swarthmore(if everything go according to plans) the other is carleton college(if some of the things dont go as planned) and the other is grinnell (if many of the things dont go as planned)
my grades are ok (usually 3As 1B and 1C) and i am taking the most difficult courese offered by my school. my rank is about 20/89 and it is unweighted. we dont get to see the recomendations and i have just recently got 2320 in the sat2 test(math2,physics and chemistry)
I need your advice regarding which colleges i should apply. I have no preferences except that i wot be able to join any of the schools without substantial financial help.
I also need to know what qualities do colleges look in the candidates. can you also help me in the recommendations as to which teacher should i approach.

Answer
Krishna,

First let me say that the three colleges you are looking at are 3 of the best colleges in the United States for students looking to get a great education. The problem with all three is that they are very difficult to gain admission even for US students and even more difficult for foreign students. No matter how good your grades and test scores none of these three is a guaranteed admission.

You need to find some colleges that are more likely to admit you in case you do not gain admission to any of these three. I would recommend that you check out the pages I have at my web site regarding international students and admissions to US colleges. This can be found at http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/international_students.htm

This will get you started on finding other colleges where your chance of admission is greater. It should also help you start to find colleges that provide substantial aid to international students. Again substantial financial aid is not readily available even at those schools where admission is somewhat easier. The combination of substantial aid for international students and easy admissions is very rare.

As to what colleges look for in students it is basically the same for international students and US students. Look at this page, http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/did_you_know.htm

For information on recommendations look at http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/recommendations.htm

I hope this information helps.