@monrath I asked her about her acceptances and fa. She told me that UChicago put her on the waitlst. Hope and Beloit: TBA. Other colleges aforementioned accepted her. She received fa between $8~25k. I had been told that her family planned to sell their house to support her, but the economic slowdown didn’t allow that to happen. This “slightly new” situation occurred after she received the package. What she worried was that some colleges do not, at least seems not to, accept those international students whose families cannot afford to pay the full even if the schools would offer scholarships later. She thought she had to write down figures indicating that her family could afford to pay more than it could; at least they tried to work around to come up with the money to do so. Her GPA is 3.93 unweighted. Her school does not offer any honor or AP classes since most Korean schools do not except specialty high school such as foreign language high school. UChicago is the only elite school she applied, and she is on the waitlist. After reading “25 tips from the dean”, I wonder if she was a “courtesy waitlist.”
Question: what sort of things should she do to improve her chance while working during the gap year? Do you think colleges would “understand” her gap year? She plays cello and piano and volunteers at an orphanage. She wants to study humanities while her father wants her to become a nurse. Initially she wanted to become a chemist so that she could create a medicine for her sister who suffers a mild case of infantile paralysis. In Korea, many high school graduates take “gap” years to get high scores at College Scholastic Ability Test. Old days, like in 80s and 90s, some students spend 10 years taking the exams. Going back to the girl. Her case is a bit different. She studied at an alternative school, which is somewhat similar to american schools. That could be one of the reasons why she achieved SAT scores while excelling in her extracurricular activities. She wants to work and save money while studying for SAT/AP exams for one year, the gap year, and to apply for elite schools with generous fa.
“Helping to support her family.” - I guess some colleges appreciate her efforts in helping her family and study/prep’ing for college by herself. But, I think since elite college must have seen 'em all already, I am not sure her high SAT scores and “improved” activities would get her into any elites.
Again, my advice is to either go to the least expensive school from the admitted or find lesser expensive schools.
Thanks in advance.