How does being international affect one's chances?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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colldood
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:45 pm

How does being international affect one's chances?

Post by colldood » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:48 am

I know for public schools like Berkeley they have a big incentive to admit US citizens and so it is much harder for an international to be admitted. Do we have a good idea if there's a big difference for other schools, and in particular if private schools care?

Legendre
Posts: 217
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:05 am

Re: How does being international affect one's chances?

Post by Legendre » Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:50 pm

There is certainly a diversity quota. If only the best is admitted without care for nationality, we might end up with an all international student cohort.

Admissions data at Princeton: http://www.princeton.edu/gradschool/abo ... ea/MAT.pdf

Looks like the number of internationals is around half of the total admitted. Which could mean that international students have a harder time as they have to compete with the rest of the world for 50% of the places, while USA citizens compete with locals for the other 50%.

quinquenion
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:34 pm

Re: How does being international affect one's chances?

Post by quinquenion » Sun Dec 30, 2012 2:31 pm

My impression has been that Princeton makes less of a distinction on domestic vs international students. If you look at the applied math stats, you'll see that they don't mind having an all international cohort (2010-11), and that admitted internationals as a percentage of all admits ranges anywhere from 11% to 78%.

http://www.princeton.edu/gradschool/abo ... ea/APC.pdf

(Note, there is almost certainly still a bias towards domestic students. I just don't think Princeton is the best example to cite).

rmg512
Posts: 97
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:15 pm

Re: How does being international affect one's chances?

Post by rmg512 » Sun Dec 30, 2012 7:43 pm

I've heard it's better at Berkeley for international applicants than most other public schools, but I was told by the principal application reviewer at UC Riverside that it's much more expensive to admit international applicants and so their odds of getting in are significantly lower. Private schools don't have this uneven financial pressure, though, so they probably tend to admit more international applicants.



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