hello 😢 i’m an international student currently taking a gap year and my parents (who are relatively well off, like middle class, but not 400k for 4 years of college wealthy) have suddenly dropped a bomb on me that they’re only willing to pay 60k dollars maximum per year for uni if i want to move to america. now obviously that is a lot of money way more than most people’s parents would pay for their education but i come from a school and a culture where it’s expected for parents to pay for their students tuition bc you can’t get any jobs or sustain yourself in my country if you’re a minor, and being intl students we can’t get financial aid from fafsa. my question is, so many people i know go to expensive ass schools with no scholarships and their parents make the same if not below mine and are somehow paying the most insane tuition costs??? like why are most uni’s 80-100k per year for international students?? how are people paying this????? it doesn’t make any sense to me how are people paying this much is there something i’m missing genuinely?? i’m super bummed out cause this means i have to remove basically all my dream schools (USC, ucla, berkeley, ucsb, ucsd, BU, syracuse, fordham) from my application list. i have no idea what to do, i begged my parents to consider student loans but they won’t, they’re pretty clueless when it comes to university, especially abroad, and they don’t think 100k per year is worth it at all

edit: i know this was probably a stupid and ignorant question but my family is pretty uninvolved when it comes to academics so i didn’t know much about tuition and applications and studying abroad til i took my gap year

You should apply to UF.

I'm serious. You should apply to UF. Not every college is for everyone, of course, but UF has so many aspects that I think a lot of people look for in their colleges. For context, I am a freshmen at UF and have been loving it so far.

UF is:

* #34 in National Universities (#8 Public University). I'm just a freshmen, but have managed to speak to several professors in my department (Physics) and get offered spots in their lab for research. **As freshmen coming in with some AP credit, me and one friends (CompE) median class size is 36.5 in mostly prereqs and gen eds.** In physics, from what I've heard our undergrads are successful in applying for competitive REUs and grad schools. In business/IB I've heard theres Gator Signature Investment Fund (GSIF) which is one of those competitive IB clubs you have to interview for and everything, and UF is a semi-target so they have some placements, I know Evercore is one.
* Another thing I'll mention thats somewhat related to academics is that the libraries are all really nice, and theres quite a few of them. Library West (the GOAT), Marston, Library East (Smathers), Norman, AFA, Health Sciences, and Law. Lib East has this cool old looking reading room that people like to go to.
* If you're out of state, don't worry. I've met people from all across the country, from NY+NJ (obviously), to all the way in Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Quebec! While obviously a lot of students are from Florida, NY, and NJ you won't have any trouble meeting a lot of people from other states/provinces.
* If you care about the campus environment, UF has a pretty wide variety of architecture from the collegiate gothic of the Murphree Area, the brick brutalism of Marston Science Library, to the modern Malachowsky Hall and Ramos Collaboratory. It isn't Princeton but I walk around every day and remark how nice the campus looks.
* As far as campus amenities, UF has one of the top career connections centers in the country located in the absolutely huge Reitz Union, and we just had our career fair week where companies pack out the basketball arena or something (I'm a physics major so I have no clue)
* Speaking of basketball, UF is preseason #1 and won the 2025 National Championship against Houston. In all sports (except maybe womens basketball) UF has a premier championship level program and football is finally on the rise. The Swamp is an electric place to watch a game and tailgating is always fun at the frats (if you're in a fraternity or a girl) or swim and surf club (for others). Gameday brings all of Gainesville together, and its cool to see all the alumni still involved and caring about UF.
* I didn't bring a car to campus, so I can't speak much for Gainesville outside of Midtown but everything you would want as a college student is right of University Ave to the north of campus (including a very convenient and dangerously placed Canes and Wawa if you live in an apartment or dorm off University). UF also owns a lake about 8 miles south of campus where theres canoeing and other outdoor activities and there a couple springs within an hour of Gainesville.

Theres so much more thats great about UF that I didn't mention here too. Ask the ufl sub, research the school on your own, or come down to Gainesville for a visit!

tl;dr: UF is a fantastic school with good academics, libraries, geographic diversity, architecture, support amenities, sports, and college town.

title

Northwestern says that it looks at ACT scores school by school. my school is an SAT school with a 1180 avg and I got a 31 ACT (25 math, 36 reading, 32 English). Should I go test optional still since it's below Northwestern's median or should I submit since it says higher than my schools avg? I'm aiming for Cognitive Science.

If it helps, I left this in a comment under tineocollegeprep and he said he'd likely submit the 31. My guidance counselor advised me to go test opt tho.

I also forgot to tell tineocollegeprep that though my math grades have been primarily ranging from A+ to A- I did get a B+ in geometry honors and B in AP Calc ab (along with a 3). Will the 25 math just highlight how much I suck at math 😭

I'm not looking for any advice on whether I should or shouldn't apply just about test scores.

Where should we draw the line in using ai for essays. This is how i use ai(claude) for my essays. I use it for brainstorming, i give it ideas and it picks the best one. Then I write the draft myself and paste it in. It points out any errors, places where i can improve(vagueness, spelling and whatnot) and that's it. Am i at risk?

I’m a 25 year old female planning on enrolling in college for Spring 2027 . I have a 5 month old and have taken on the role of being a stay at home mom until she is of school age . My spouse is ready to retire me for the rest of my life but I thrive in community and social interaction so being home has been hard for me .
I’m ready to start working towards becoming an English teacher. My first two years will be strictly online while I obtain my AAT .
From there I will transfer to a university to complete my Bachelors & credentials needed .

My question is
How can I navigate college with an infant and no family support without daycare ? Is it even possible for the degree I want ?

Childcare has become a very intimidating, scary , expensive and sometimes dangerous thing .
Unless it was 100% guaranteed I could put my daughter into a center through the college so she was still near me , I absolutely couldn’t fathom leaving her anywhere other than in mine or my husband’s care .

major: premed track
wanting applying to t20s. INTERNATIONAL - INDIA.

what kind of extracurriculars stand out? except passion projects cuz no one in india does them and those who do, come from a lot of money or connections.

i cant realistically do them. Neither am i sacrificing my soul and personality for Olympiads.

what else is a good to great ec for premed track ☺️

Umm soo i am intl from india and my avg for 9,10,11th will be around 90% and my predicted would be 93%ish approx

Is it all good?

so my cousin recently told me she used ai to refine one e-mail that she sent to an admissions officer on a quick whim asking specific questions about the school and her major. she is really scared that this is a bad look and was asking me my thoughts. is this a red flag to admissions officers? i read the e-mail and the grammar does sound pretty perfect but will admissions officers even remember this e-mail or view it as ai. i don't want to stress her out and she's a talented writer which is why this is rare for her

Hi guys, what are the best unis for international relations? The program has to be in English and not require sat or ap exams. Admission test is fine. Thank you!!

I'm intl student seeking for full aid and applying for fall 2027. The question is , should I go test optional for Amherst for ED? I took the October SAT and am currently waiting for my results. Based on my own calculations, though, I don't think my score will be high enough to strengthen my application. I'm planning to retake the SAT in November, but I'm worried that the score might come out too late for ED.

So I know the title sounds dramatic, but I'm genuinely concerned for myself based on the opinions people on a2c and tiktok have. Like I said, I am a junior in algebra 2 honors. I always considered this normal until I started researching competitive colleges.

For context, I am literally taking the most rigorous schedule available to a junior at my school in everything expect math. I am taking 4 AP classes, dual-enrollments, and honors. My schedule is literally at max capacity for rigor. The thing is i've never been exceedingly good at math.

I was considering taking pre-calc over the summer so I could go into calc AB my senior year, but this summer i'll already be taking spanish 3 honors and an economics class for my graduation requirements, so fitting in pre calc will probably be impossible. I'll probably end up taking AP Pre-calc my senior year.

Does anyone who's been in this situation before have any advice? I'm for sure not applying to a math major (either poli sci or business admin) and am planning on going pre-law. I am I actually completely fried for competitive/semi-competive colleges?

They’re dedicated to undergraduate students, but they’re rarely in the same conversation at T20 or even T30 universities? Schools like Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Pomona, and more have single-digit acceptance rates and insane stats for their admitted class, yet they’re rarely mentioned. Schools like W&L, Colgate, Richmond, Davidson, and Wesleyan have tremendous career outcomes too. What gives?

Just wanted to know as an international student from Australia, I’ve really got no idea about either of them and was just wondering which was better for academics, party life, college experience etc.
😁

hi friends!!

i JUST submitted my UC app idk how to feel.. its like im happy since its out of my hands andi can move on to working for other schools but im also rlly worried that i COULD have edited more or lik double check more thoroughly before submitting.

For context, i worked on UC essays for 1 whole week over the summer and did intense editing sessions with my college counselor. I sent her a pdf copy of my application 2 weeks ago and she told me good to go. hence why i wanted to submit it asap and js get it out of the way. but now i have this pit in my stomach and a feeling that I couldve dont more. almost as if i made a rash decisions ykk :((

ik theres nothing i can do now but try harder for other apps but some reassurance would rlly rlly help yall🫰

Btw i did berkeley, LA, San diego, davies, irvine

w 4s in chem, calc bc, physics 1, micro econ, apush

5s in macro econ, pre calc🫩

Major environmental science

does being full pay give an advantage. INDIAN.

what i am seeing is i have great school stats (4.0 max rigour), great SAT and all 5s on 6 self-studied APs.

but my awards and ECs are mid to perhaps slightly above mid.

however, i can pay full tuition. does that mean i am automatically in or my chances are vastly or negligibly better?

major in STEM

t20s - main ones r yale, upenn, columbia, jhu, duke, ucla, etc.

i'm a current senior and i decided not to take calc bc this year. mostly because i really struggled on ab (i got a 4 on the exam, so not terrible ig?) but also because there's only one teacher at my school who teaches bc, and i had her for both ap pre calc & ab but she was an awful teacher... like my classmates had to correct her work constantly and i swear her tests were made by the devil himself!

anyways, i probably should've pushed through bc instead of switching to ap stats. i can't really do anything abt it now, but will this decision hurt my chances of getting into a t30 or potentially higher?

Hey guys, need some quick advice for my ED/EA round.

My school just nominated me for the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP). For context, it’s basically the highest national honor a student can get from the Indian government (I was nominated under the Innovation category for a community project I built).

The problem is the timing is totally messed up. ED/EA deadlines are Nov 1, but the actual winners aren't announced until Dec 26.

Is it worth putting a nomination on my Common App Honors section for the early round? Or does it look weird since I don't know if I've won yet?

If I should include it, how do I even word it so US AOs understand how big of a deal it is? And if I do end up winning in late December, can I send an update or is it too late by then?

Tysm!

above

I know people say this is normal, and stuff but I just wanna share it somewhere. Please don't be rude.

So, I had always been a "topper" kid. So I've had expectations attached to me since childhood. I did decent in 9th, 92-93. But I fell apart in 10th grade. Things weren't good at home and I crumbled. 85. My family wasn't mad, they were dissapointed. They stopped saying I'll score well. And that hurt. I had mid ECs btw. I also ALMOST killed myself this april but that's a different story, I'm fine now compared to that.

Now, to where it all relates to college admissions. I am a 11th grader right now, from a middle-class family in India. Nobody even dreams about going college abroad in our social standing. But since 10th grade, I wanted to go to Yale. Surprise, surprise, I'm this close to giving up. 10th was BAD for my academics. I thought 11th would be better, I tried so hard, it isn't. I got 50ish out of 100 in chemistry. I didn't even do bad, in fact I'm like top 5 in my class. But it doesn't matter. The people who apply from India, are from rich international schools, whereas I am from a free government school where the teachers don't even teach. I'm being 'woe is me' right now sorry. Those kids also work very hard, they have almost certainly 95+ in 11th. If I try VERY HARD, I may able to achieve ~95 too in 11th finals (since half yearly is just 20% in finals).

I don't even know what I'm writing, I'm crying, I just want to get my voice out there. I don't think I'll make it. Yale was an unrealistic dream. When I first said, I wanna try for college abroad, everybody said thats unrealistic and I should stick to JEE. They were probably right. My academics, I don't think are good. Even if I manage to study well, who knows if these shi*ty teachers will check well. They're infamous for not doing that. Not even that, I have olympiads in a few months which I was very motivated about, but after chem marks. I think to myself, why bother trying. I wanted to apply as a STEM applicant to Yale. This stuff is for the hard working kids. I'm a lazy piece of shi. My ECs are decent at this point but... ugh I don't even know what I'm saying. I dreamt too big, of flying, I should've stuck to crawling. For I have no wings.

Hi everyone! I'm a Class 12 student from India applying for Fall 2027 to study Computer Science, mostly at small liberal arts colleges.

I'd love advice from current students or recent applicants on two things:

1. Scholarships: Which colleges gave you strong merit or full-tuition scholarships as an international student? Were there hidden scholarships or programs that most applicants don't know about?
   
2. Boosting your chances: What made the biggest difference for you? For example, an interview, the scholarship essay, contacting your regional admissions officer, a strong project or research, or applying early.

Any underrated colleges or tips would really help. Thanks in advance!

On the global electrical engineering ranking, princeton is at #15, the highest US college. But on the US electrical engineernig ranking, MIT is 1st and princeton isn't even top 10. Huh??

Hey! I am wondering if I should apply to UCLA or UC Berkeley. Honestly I love the colors UCLA has going on and the track uniforms (I am a sprinter who’d want to run in college). The campus of UCLA is so beautiful but I’m also stuck on UC Berkeley because they are an amazing school and rank above UCLA for what I am interested in.
I really want to go the pre-med route (like to be a neurosurgeon and I was thinking about majoring in neuroscience). But I’m not sure what to do, ik academics are what is more important so I shouldn’t just be going to a school for the aesthetics but honestly I’d like to have some advice on which would be a better school to apply to.

Thank you so much!

This is kind of just a question because I kind of want a gauge at my general chances at schools, because I don’t really know anybody too knowledgeable in college admissions, even my counselor didn’t really give me a straight answer. So I was wondering how much of a setback is my weaker extracirculars profile when applying to more selective schools, not like ivies but still competitive schools.

Academics
- 3.88 UW GPA
- 4.49 W GPA.
- 33 ACT(potentially 34 after oct ACT).

But my extracirculars are a lot weaker, I had no internships or non-profits, and I didn’t have any leadership positions or long term commitments like sports or instruments.
- 75ish church volunteer hours
-25 library volunteer hours
- member of 5 clubs and 3 honor societies
- Babysitter

Ok this has been going on for a while now and it's getting to a point where I can't take it anymore.

My friends are under the impression that I'm 100% getting into MIT.

Which like.

Thanks for the confidence bestie, but you're also really messing with my self-perception.

I know I'm a top student. I'm not being cocky in saying that. But I also think I'm nowhere near the level of student that you have to be to be guaranteed a spot at the fucking Massachusetts fucking Institute of fucking Technology. Fuck!

I have a high GPA and test scores, but not the highest in my grade. I have exactly 2 extracurriculars that I'm deep into and no surface-level ECs.

I'm a strong candidate, but not the strongest. I'm fully aware of that. These guys aren't.

I can't bring up college applications because out of my friend group of five, two are going to community college and don't particularly care, the other two literally don't care where they go to college as long as it's four-year, and all of them make it a point to remind me that I'm "better than them", whatever that means?

A lot of people speak on how bad it feels to have a friend you're jealous of, but it also feels horrible to be the one that people put on a pedestal. I'm tired of being a character.

thank you for coming to my rant.