What is the % of international students (I'm from Australia) who get into Harvard college (undergraduates)?

Question

9% of people who apply for Harvard College (Cambridge, Massachusetts) successully get into Harvard as an undergraduate. What is the international student percent? I am from Australia. When does the Harvard/USA year begin, go for a summer break and finish up for the year? If your parents are earning over $100000 (just over) US do your parents receive financial aid as an international student (there are 3 kids in my family...my parents couldn't afford to pay $48000per year for me alone). How much financial aid would we get? Their income will become alot lower (50% less) within a year. They (Harvard) make you list your parents income for the last 3 years..what happens if their income goes to about $60000US a year (for the next few years?)? Would they have to pay much towards the fees even though the previous year it exceeded $100000US.

I would really like to apply at least to go to Harvard College (this is a tier of Harvard University-the undergraduate section-6000current students)

What year would I apply? I finish year/grade 12 at the end of 2008 (we are from Australia...our year begins in february and ends in December...our summer/holidays is from December to the end of february). What time of the year would I apply?

I am very good at Chemistry, Physics, English and maths. I also know another language. I am alright at sport. Do I have a chance? Also, what is a better test/exam to sit, the SAT i tests or the ACT? I can sit them in Australia.

Answer 1

SInce you have already done a lot of research, you have an idea of what the situation is.

I know three kids who have gone to Harvard in the last two years. All three of them went to elite high schools. One was #1 in his class, the other two were # 2 and #4 in their classes. But each of them had won at least one gold medal in the National Science Olympiad contest, and numerous State medals. Each of them was a soloist in the State student Orchestra and one of them played oboe in the professional Orchestra. They all were either captains or high achievers in their school debate teams, math teams, student government, and theater groups. Two of them were Captains of sports teams and the other was an alternate to the US National team in a non-school sport. One got 2400 on the SAT and 800 on each of two advanced math SATs. The others did almost as well. One of them was a descendant of early US white settlers, one was a Pakastani and one was an Arab.

And all three of them were really nice guys who were articulate and interesting to talk to and had great senses of humor.

That is the kind of kid who gets into Harvard. The 800 SAT kid, by the way, started out as a astrophysics major and decided to change to a different major because he couldnt keep up with the other kids who were too far ahead of him in math!

Harvard has a lot of money and if you get in they will loan you some, but in order to get a grant that you dont have to pay back, I think your family income has to be no mor than about $75,000 - still most kids would take the loan and go, if they got in.
THat is the kind of person that Harvard accepts.

If you want to go to school in the USA there are a lot of other schools that are very good schools but much less competitive. And you have a realistic chance of getting some kind of scholarship.

Take a look at the PRinceton Review list of 300 colleges, or the US News top 100. All of those schools are good schools where you will get a good education at a much lower stress level and probably less cost.