gre for international student

[philebus2]

I'm thinking to apply to an anthropology program (PhD). Do you think around 1200 GRE (around 600 Verbal n 650 Quant) points is enough for an international student? I'm considering universities like Harvard, Yale, UPenn etc. Thanks for the help in advance.

Comments

[philebus2]

2 reasons:
1. they have very good programs just what I'm looking for (folklore and material culture in Central America)
2. private universities give full funding for international students (it's much harder to get funding from public universities; it's especially hard to get full scholarships)

[lostreality]

ok but there are plenty of schools that are private and that are not ivy league.

I"m just saying if you only apply to ivy league schools, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment.

[philebus2]

Is it so hard to get into an Ivy league school? :)
Anyways the problem is always the same: I can only attend universities that give me full funding, but mostly big universities such as Ivy league or Stanford are so rich to give everybody scholarship, even to international students. It's not that I wouldn't go gladly to IU,UNC or UMichigan, but their resources are very limited, as I heard most of these don't give support for foreigners. Sadly the case is almost similar with smaller private universities, moreover they don't have so much money for research either. Of course I'm considering universities like Emory, Duke, NYU, Columbia or SMU. By the way do you know anything about those? How hard is it to get into such universities?

[signsoflife]

I'm wondering who you're turning to for information, here. Have you asked the schools you'd otherwise be interested in for information on the funding available for international students?

An Ivy League school is generally going to be several times harder to get into that an equivalently ranked and funded non-Ivy, just because. And don't underestimate the finances of large public universities.

[philebus2]

The problem with public universities that even if they have money, most of the time it's not for international students.

[theloudcafe]

actually, it doesn't matter if they're considered "rich" or not. most schools don't give away fin aid to international students. i've been looking at a lot of ivy grad schools, and noticed that it's very rare to see them give money to people from outside the U.S. you should check out the websites and inform yourself, before jumping to conclusions based on their reputation.

[anese]

Is it so hard to get into an Ivy league school? :)

Yes. It's not that it's impossible, but you are talking about schools that get thousands of applications per year for particular programs that may only take (in some frightening cases)10-20 people per year. Excellent candidates from within the U.S. get rejected every year.

Of course it's possible, but you can see why people get concerned when they see someone posting about applying only to Ivy schools. If what you say about funding are true, I can see why you are so particular.

I wish you luck, and I hope that these practices change someday--trying to find ways to pay for school is so unbelievably stressful.

[anese]

I meant to say, *departments not programs

[philebus2]

top anthro is more like 150 apps for 9 places, unless you're talking harvard, then it's 250.

[anese]

I should have clarified that I was basing this example on computer science really--I know for example, that last year top CS schools had upwards of 3,000 applicants.

I guess it isn't fair to frighten a potential anthro student with those numbers, but it sticks out in my head like a sore thumb.

(Weird metaphor I know, but my brain just broke)

[chasingskirts]

I thought it was hard to get into a grad program, period, be it private or ivy league.

I always feel like people are always discouraging others when it comes to applying for ivy league universities. Graduate programs are difficult to get into by nature, some are just more selective than others. But I'm assuming philebus2 is mindful enough to apply to more than just ivy league university.

[philebus2]

Of course, I've just asked about these schools, because these universities would be my first choices.

[nibea]

I'm at a state university and am an international student (from Germany) and have full funding. Just wanted to shout out that it is possible... they have three international grad students in the psych program here, all fully funded, and during the orientation week I met several international grad students from different apartments and most of them had funding as well...

[nibea]

different departments of course... d'oh ;)

[gangur]

We have TONS of international grads at my big state school too. All fully funded.