🇺🇸 Universities in United States

56 universities evaluated for international families.

The US remains the world's largest international student destination (1.17M students) with unmatched breadth — from 2,000-student liberal arts colleges to 60,000-student research universities. The system rewards breadth, extracurriculars, and personality in admissions. Key challenges for international families: F-1 visa uncertainty under changing administrations, the OPT lottery for post-study work, and costs of $35-65K/year. The test-optional era is ending — Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Stanford have all reinstated SAT/ACT requirements for 2026+.

Post-Study Work

OPT: 1 year post-study work (3 years for STEM). H-1B lottery for long-term.

Application System

Common App / Coalition App

Avg. International Fees

$35,000–65,000/year

University	Network	Employability	Teaching	Curriculum	Institutional	Student
Amherst College	A	A	S	B	S	S
Babson College	A	S	A	S	A	A
Boston University	B	A	B	A	A	A
Bowdoin College	B	A	S	B	S	S
Brown University	A	A	A	S	S	S
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	A	S	S	S	A	B
Carleton College	B	A	S	A	A	S
Carnegie Mellon University	A	S	A	S	A	B
Case Western Reserve University	B	A	A	A	A	B
Claremont McKenna College	A	S	S	A	A	A
Colgate University	B	A	S	B	S	S
Columbia University	S	A	B	A	A	B
Cornell University	A	A	A	A	S	B
Dartmouth College	S	S	S	A	S	A
Duke University	A	A	A	A	S	A
Emory University	A	A	A	A	A	A
Georgetown University	A	A	A	A	A	A
Georgia Institute of Technology	A	S	B	S	A	B
Harvard University	S	S	A	S	S	A
Harvey Mudd College	B	S	S	S	A	A
Johns Hopkins University	A	A	A	A	S	B
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	S	S	S	S	S	A
Middlebury College	B	A	S	A	A	S
New York University (NYU)	A	A	B	A	A	A
Northeastern University	B	S	B	S	A	A
Northwestern University	A	A	A	A	A	A
Ohio State University	A	A	B	A	A	B
Pennsylvania State University	A	A	B	A	A	B
Pomona College	B	A	S	B	S	S
Princeton University	S	S	S	S	S	A
Purdue University	A	A	B	A	A	B
Rice University	B	A	S	A	S	S
Stanford University	S	S	S	S	S	S
Swarthmore College	B	A	S	B	S	S
Tufts University	B	A	A	A	A	A
University of California, Berkeley	S	S	A	S	A	B
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	A	A	A	A	A	A
University of California, San Diego (UCSD)	A	A	B	A	A	B
University of Chicago	S	S	A	A	S	B
University of Florida	A	A	B	A	A	B
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	A	A	B	A	A	B
University of Maryland, College Park	A	A	B	A	A	B
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	A	A	A	A	A	A
University of Notre Dame	A	A	A	A	S	S
University of Pennsylvania	S	S	A	A	S	A
University of Rochester	B	A	A	A	A	B
University of Southern California (USC)	A	A	B	A	A	A
University of Texas at Austin	A	A	B	A	A	B
University of Virginia	A	A	A	A	A	A
University of Washington, Seattle	A	A	B	A	A	B
University of Wisconsin-Madison	A	A	B	A	A	B
Vanderbilt University	A	A	A	A	S	A
Wake Forest University	B	A	A	A	A	A
Wellesley College	A	A	S	B	S	S
Williams College	A	A	S	B	S	S
Yale University	S	S	S	S	S	A