So basically I live in South Africa and when I filled out the chance questionnaire it had a zip code and my zip code has four numbers and I am wondering if that you could affect my chances with getting in.
It could help or hurt your chances depending on the university. Sometimes university wants international students to help with their standing. If you want being an international student to help I'd suggest going to larger and more popular universities because they tend to have a quota.
It will be more challenging to gain admission for several reasons, but certainly not impossible! The main factor that lowers international student admission rates is that schools try to mostly accept domestic students. Only about 10% of the student body is international at most schools.
Country of origin is also considered - for example, students from China and India face lower acceptance rates because the majority of international students are from these two countries, and colleges want to make sure that their international pool represents the whole world. Being from South Africa, a less common country of origin, will increase your odds of admission.
One more thing that makes it harder for international applicants is that the international pool is self-selecting. International applicants are more often than not top students in their home country or went to an elite private school.
Hope this helps!
The chancing profile is really not intended for international students. Unfortunately, the results will not be that accurate for you as an International student.
You can by pass the zip code by entering a fictitious zip code but again, the chancing results will only be very loosely accurate for an Int'l student.
In general, all International students are at a slight disadvantage when applying to American colleges because a.) most do not have the same course rigor and many countries do not have the same K-12 amount of schooling (13 years) b.) lack of ECs and leadership opportunities and c.) financial aid is generally not abundantly available for Int'l students. Therefore not only are the admit rates lowers but there are fewer options since less than 1% of colleges have the budget to fully fund an international students tuition, room and board.
The lack of a 5th digit on the zip code is the least of your problems. I would just stub on in like 10019 OR 90027 and fill it out to the best of your ability and see where you fall.
So if you get 50% probability for a school, just cut it back to 35-40% because they will most like be "need aware" not "need blind" for International students.
To keep this community safe and supportive:
This is not a responsible answer. There is no evidence that International student help college standings or rankings. Larger or popular universities DO NOT have a quota for accepting Int'l students.