Advice for an international student

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

We do not do rankings or GPA, however I guess it would be 4.0/4.0 and rank 1-2/60
SAT – to be taken (predicted 2150+)…I am scared I will not get above 2200…Will it really matter for universities listed below (I know there are the most competive in the country)? Even though I am an international applicant doing IB Diploma?
SAT II – to be taken (Maths and Spanish)
IGCSE – 10A*s (something like an A+ in the US)
I am strongly interested in languages that’s why they take up almost my whole free time as ECAs…

Academic awards
Maths Challenge - gold certificate
Czech Olympiad – 5th place (Praha 9)
Maths Olympiad - 3rd place (Year 5)
Took part in the Czech Chemistry and Physics Olympiads

Languages
CEFR Awards
Czech - native speaker
English - as a native speaker (hopefully, even though it is not my first language)
Spanish - doing IB HL (B2)
German - C1
French - B2
Portuguese - B2 (self-taught)
starting with Italian

Summer activities - again languages
English camp (2013)
Spanish camp (2014)
German camp (2015) – will be attending for sure

Sports + sports’ awards
Handball 5 years - many times we came third or better in the Czech Championships (not anymore)
Handball – I came third in accuracy shooting in the Czech Handball Championship decathlon
Floorball 2.5years - we came third (once) in the Czech Championship (not anymore)
Beach volleyball 1.5years (not anymore)
Football – 3 years
Table tennis – 2 years
Sportsman of the year 2013
In 2007 I came first in a swimming competition for people, who do not swim competitively
A collection of 22 medals from different kinds of sports

Volunteering/Jobs
Tutoring my family (English) - how can I prove this?
Charity “ninos de la calle” – raising money for children living in the streets of Mexico City (for the men taking care of them)
Public reading
IB CAS (creativy, action, service) – each at least 50 hours
School open days

Leadership positions
Sports captain in different sports including handball
School ambassador

You will be probably asking why don’t I do handball, floorball or beach-volleyball and the answer is simple, yet sad…. I did not have time to attend 4 practices, each 2.5hours long a week and still be able to continue with these grades and languages.

I would be most likely majoring in languages, to be exact Chinese/Arabic with Spanish
The colleges I want to apply to…are: Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, UCLA, UCB, Duke, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, Northwestern University,Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Armhest, Northeastern, Uni of Chicago, NYU and John Hopinks University (If I don’t get accepted, I will stick with the UK universities - that’s why I want to apply only to these colleges).
Chance me please? Will chance back :slight_smile:
Any advice appreciated… :smiley:

2

What is your financial situation? Will you apply for financial aid?

3

@momrath Yes, I need to. Our family income is below 50 000…

4

Your extracurricular activities are definitely competitive for all those schools. Sports aren’t necessary. Perfect grades in an IB curriculum are a huge plus.
But we can’t really predict your chance of getting into most of those schools until we know scores. They are super important. They could make or break your chances.
With such a good profile, I assume you’re going to get great scores. Assuming you get a 2100+ you have a very good chance of getting into NYU and Northeastern. The problem is the aid. Northeastern gives no need-based aid and NYU gives terrible aid, and NYU is likely to reject you since you need plenty. (They are need aware for intl’s) I know a valedictorian with 2,200 SAT scores who got only 15000$/year from Northeastern. And a similar student at NYU pays full price, but they didn’t apply for aid.
Most likely, you will get into Georgetown since they are need-blind. But they are not full-need, so that could be a problem. Hopefully they will give you a good finaid package.
Amherst is also a possibility since it is a little less competitive than HYPSM because it isn’t as famous. And they are need-based and full-need. But obviously it depends on your scores. A 2,200 would make you competitive.

5

Thank you for your answer. I think that the IB Diploma and its scores should not be a problem, however I am really afraid of SAT I, on the other hand SAT II seems ok. Regarding my ECs , do you think the colleges will not mind that I do just languages,table tennis,football (-soccer) and some volunteering? Should I do something over summer apart from the language camps or that is enough to show my interest? I am thinking of applying to Harvard as EA, do you think it will help somehow? What about awards - here in the Czech Republic we do not have many opportunities. And lastly, is it a disadvantage to be an international student? Thank you :slight_smile:
And what about schools like Brown, Duke etc. ?

6

Your ECs and grades are acceptable for any college. Your scores – either the SAT I or the ACT – will be important. Predicted IB scores are helpful, but not as significant. Your essays and recommendations are very important.

Need-blind vs need-aware is not the major factor. What you need to look for are colleges that demonstrate to meet full demonstrated need. This means if you are accepted, they will give you what you need (according to them) to attend.

Yes, it is a severe disadvantage to be an international student – who needs financial aid! The competition is fierce.

These schools are need blind for internationals and guarantee to meet full need:
Amherst, Dartmout, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale

Cornell and Georgetown are needblind but do not guarantee to meet full need. Columbia is not need blind and does not guarantee to meet full need.

These schools are need aware for internationals but also guarantee to meet full need. Even though some of these schools may not be well known in the Czech Republic, they have excellent academics and would most likely be interested in your profile.
Brown, Colby, Davidson, Emory, Grinnell, Hamilton, Macalester, Middlebury, Pomona, Stanford, Swarthmore,
U of Chicago, U of Pennsylvania, Vassar, Wesleyan, Williams

Some of the others on your list may fall into this category. You’ll have to check their websites.
My understanding is that the UCs don’t give need-based financial aid to internationals.

In addition there are several schools that offer merit scholarships to internationals, but these are very difficult to secure.

I don’t see much advantage to applying SCEA to Harvard.

7

Thank you. I will look into all of them. How many schools do you think I should apply to at most?

8

Apply to as many as you can afford and can handle competently. As I said your essays are an important element of your application, especially the “Why College X?” essays. This is hard to tackle if you’re unable to visit, so you have to do on-line research into the culture and character of the college. You need to express what you can contribute to the campus community, not so much what the college can do for you.

Eastern Europe is a hotspot that is of interest to colleges today, so think about how you can leverage your life story into compelling essays. I don’t mean that you should give the admissions committee a history lesson, but rather you should indirectly imply that your background would be a positive diversity factor.

I would note that Middlebury is a language magnet, and that Williams and Amherst like scholar athletes.

9

Thank you for all your help.

10

Suggest ACT > SAT for you- at least try both!

11

Why would you say so? I have tried both as a practice, but I keep getting under 30 in English and CR in ACT, and in SAT I easily get over 700 in writing… :slight_smile: