Admissions What are the chances of getting into an Ivy School from CA

[Liam C]

I live in Canada but I want to go to a university in the US after I graduate HS. Does anyone have any experience similar to this? What are my chances of getting into an Ivy league school compared to those who already live in the U.S? Any data, statistics, personal or secondhand experience, educated guesses are all welcome.

 

[DrSteve]

I live in Canada but I want to go to a university in the US after I graduate HS. Does anyone have any experience similar to this? What are my chances of getting into an Ivy league school compared to those who already live in the U.S? Any data, statistics, personal or secondhand experience, educated guesses are all welcome.

It's done all the time. Admissions criteria for said schools are the same regardless of where you hail from, unless there is a flood or superabundance of applications from certain countries, in which there may be a de facto quota in place. Financial considerations may alter the equation. As an international student your chances for acceptance will be lower if you express financial need. Please keep in mind that acceptances at these schools is ~ 5%, so it would be a dangerous strategy indeed to only focus on the Ivies

 

[Vanadium 50]

Half a week ago, you wanted to go to MIT. Today it's an Ivy. Fortunately, you have time for 150 more such flip-flops before you need to make a decision. What you really need to do is to focus on getting your grades up. Without that, neither MIT nor an Ivy is in the cards.

 

[micromass]

Why the focus on the Ivies all the time? Sure, you'll get an excellent education there. But there are plenty of universities in Canada where you can also get a very good education for a much less money. I honestly think that any foreign student trying to get into a US university for undergrad is completely insane. There are so many good schools where you can go for less that a quarter of the price.

 

[Liam C]

Half a week ago, you wanted to go to MIT. Today it's an Ivy. Fortunately, you have time for 150 more such flip-flops before you need to make a decision. What you really need to do is to focus on getting your grades up. Without that, neither MIT nor an Ivy is in the cards.

:/
I just said Ivy because it's hard to get into Ivys. No where in the post did I say I wanted to go to an Ivy school. There is actually a higher acceptance rate at M.I.T than at some Ivys, so I thought if someone could provide data about foreign acceptance it might give me a reference frame. Not flip-flopping.
And yes, your right that I need to boost my grades, but that doesn't mean I can't think about my future.

 

[Liam C]

Why the focus on the Ivies all the time? Sure, you'll get an excellent education there. But there are plenty of universities in Canada where you can also get a very good education for a much less money. I honestly think that any foreign student trying to get into a US university for undergrad is completely insane. There are so many good schools where you can go for less that a quarter of the price.

I just used Ivys as an example.

It's done all the time. Admissions criteria for said schools are the same regardless of where you hail from, unless there is a flood or superabundance of applications from certain countries, in which there may be a de facto quota in place. Financial considerations may alter the equation. As an international student your chances for acceptance will be lower if you express financial need. Please keep in mind that acceptances at these schools is ~ 5%, so it would be a dangerous strategy indeed to only focus on the Ivies

Thanks, this gives me what I was looking for.

 

[radium]

It's honestly not really worth thinking about the Ivys/Chicago/Stanford/MIT/Duke etc. at this point. The acceptance rates are so low that it's a crapshoot for anyone, except in special circumstances. My school has been getting well over 30,000 applications for the past three years at least. And it's very likely that most of them look pretty much the same.

 

[Liam C]

It's honestly not really worth thinking about the Ivys/Chicago/Stanford/MIT/Duke etc. at this point. The acceptance rates are so low that it's a crapshoot for anyone, except in special circumstances. My school has been getting well over 30,000 applications for the past three years at least. And it's very likely that most of them look pretty much the same.

Good to know.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Planning for your future is good. Fantasizing about your future is not. You are a C-minus student. Do you really think your problem right now is to decide which elite US school you will be going to in three years time?

MIT enrolls about five Canadian students per year. Are you one of the top five students in Canada? Are you even on the path to being one of the top five students? I note that you haven't posted a single problem in the homework sections; instead you're posting about video game fantasy technology like portals. More fantasy. Meanwhile, I can guarantee that those top five students are working their butts off.

 

[Liam C]

Planning for your future is good. Fantasizing about your future is not. You are a C-minus student. Do you really think your problem right now is to decide which elite US school you will be going to in three years time?

MIT enrolls about five Canadian students per year. Are you one of the top five students in Canada? Are you even on the path to being one of the top five students? I note that you haven't posted a single problem in the homework sections; instead you're posting about video game fantasy technology like portals. More fantasy. Meanwhile, I can guarantee that those top five students are working their butts off.

Man, some of that was true but that really hurt my feelings. I know you don't care though. It's just hurtful to think that just because I spent some time on physics forums asking about portals, something of which I was completely ignorant about, means that I'm not working hard. Thanks for participating in my threads, you are genuinely helpful(<--- read with serious inflection).
P.S
I didn't post in the homework section because I haven't seen any problems at a grade 9 level, so I figured if I did that would just piss people off or no one would bother answering. Can I post questions about math homework that's at a grade 9 level there?
P.P.S
Thanks for the reality check.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It may hurt your feelings to be told something you don't want to hear, but isn't that better than being told something comforting but wrong? And then three years down the road finding out that your goals are now out of reach?

Yes, you should post homework and homework-type questions in the math homework sections.

 

[Liam C]

It may hurt your feelings to be told something you don't want to hear, but isn't that better than being told something comforting but wrong? And then three years down the road finding out that your goals are now out of reach?

Yes, you should post homework and homework-type questions in the math homework sections.

Your right Vanadium. Being told what I want to hear isn't Science! Science is truth. Your last post gave me a lot of motivation. As soon as I replied I sat down and started doing math and I will continue and then turn off my PC after this post. Thank you for being my voice of reason.

 

[Liam C]

It may hurt your feelings to be told something you don't want to hear, but isn't that better than being told something comforting but wrong? And then three years down the road finding out that your goals are now out of reach?

Yes, you should post homework and homework-type questions in the math homework sections.

I know this thread is really old, but I want to reopen it because you did something really important for me. You gave me a reality check. It was brutally honest, but that's what I needed I guess. I now have an A average, am founder and president of the computer science club, founder and organizer of the model UN club, am top of my class in physics, great at math and am well on my way to kicking down the doors of any school I apply to. I'll be back again when I'm accepted at an awesome university. Just you wait Vanadium.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Congratulations!

And see - isn't it better to be working your butt off an achieving your goals than sitting on it and fantasizing about them?

 

[Liam C]

Congratulations!

And see - isn't it better to be working your butt off an achieving your goals than sitting on it and fantasizing about them?

Thank you, yes it is.

 

[Meir Achuz]

I have been involved a bit in admissions at an Ivy league school. They give preference to students from out of the way places to try to build an alumni base there. Being from Canada won't hurt you.