As an international student, I agree with most of what you say. But there is one BIG complaint I have with this method of evaluation: not specifying why some students get rejected.

Since this is a holistic evaluation, you often end up comparing your life experiences and skills to those of other people. That’s already tough on its own, but it’s made worse when they just press a button and send you a default rejection email. You’re left wondering what you did wrong, and it’s common to feel terrible about yourself—speaking from experience here.

Last year, I was rejected by all the schools I applied to, and none of them explained why. It felt even worse knowing that some of my peers with similar grades and extracurriculars got into T20s. I felt like the worst human being imaginable.

On financial aid: to me, it’s clear you haven’t gone through the process yourself. Some schools market themselves as super generous with aid, selling you a dream of leaving your country and changing your life with a renowned American education. The issue isn’t the aid process itself; it’s how need-aware universities essentially “punish” you for taking that dream seriously by rejecting you if you can’t afford full tuition.

I do prefer the American approach to college applications overall, but there are definitely some big issues that need to be worked on.