A friend of mine is an international student interested in attending college in the US. He's a senior but didn’t know anything about the application process and did not apply this year. What do you recommend for him? Is it the best thing for him to attend college in his country for a semester and apply as a transfer student? Would that give him good admission chances(he's got a solid profile with a 1580 SAT score)?
Since he's an international student, he should use this year as a GAP year and make sure all the components of his college application are perfect. Otherwise he will be considered a transfer students and at many top schools the admit rates are much worse for transfers.
-Instead of taking college classes, he should be taking online AP course which will be more impressive since top colleges want to make sure he can thrive with US based curriculum.
-He should take a some writing courses so he can execute a very good set of college essays, (especially if he's not the best writer).
-He has time to curate some good extracurricular activities which is something often lacking on International applications.
-He should use his time wisely to properly research colleges and if he requires some sort of financial assistance, it's very complicated for Int'l students so he should have a full understanding of that. It would be a pity to get accepted into a set of good colleges and learn that their finaid packages are lacking.
To keep this community safe and supportive:
He has two options, either apply for the spring intake for 2023 or attend a first sem. , preferably in the US in the Universities (that have Fall 2022 open; trust me there are open) as a transfer student so he 1. Gets an earlier chance to get accustomed to the new environment; 2. Stands a greater chance to getting a transfer; 3. Gets an easier transfer process w/o the requirement of a WES evaluation and getting the visa documentation and so on.