How does being international affect one's chances?

[colldood]

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]

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]

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]

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.