Heyy, everyone. Im in my junior year, and an international student from Pakistan. I really wanted to apply to top colleges in the US next year, and wanted some insight of how i’m doing till now. Am i on the right track?
Heres my profile until now.
Note that we dont follow the highschool system here in Pakistan, My school follows the UK system where we appear for Gces and then Alevels.
SAT: 1440 (gonna give it again in this coming october)
SAT 2: still have to give those too
GPA: 4.0
Olevels: I had 8 A*s and 4As
Alevels: My results are due march but i have a pretty big courseload. I have 7 subjects (the usual is 3 or 4) and im doing the AICE diploma, the only AP equivalent for my system. regardless , expected grades are all As
Class ranking: 1/150
Extracurriculars:
Debate club(2 years and counting) Founder. I basically brought debates to our school by leading the intiative and hiring a coach too
Ranked top 5 in the country, won best new team, my first year, also made it to numerous knockout rounds at the national level
MUN club (VP) n(3 years and counting) numerous best delegate awards
Volunteer at local orphanage teaching kids maths and english 6 hours per week for a year
Interned at a Corporate Lawfirm for three weeks last summer
Deputy head prefect on the student council
Head Literary society, coedited first literary magazine for our school
I’d really like to apply to a few ivies and liberal arts colleges out there. I have my heart stuck on claremont Mckenna and Dartmouth but who knows?
I appreciate any insight you guys might have and would really appreciate tips and pointers on what you guys think i should add.
It’s hard to say. Your stats are good but you don’t have what ivy leagues and the top colleges look for these days : a Spike. You need to have a specific talent or activity that you are skilled/passionate about and you need to prove your commitment to it through your Extracurriculars. As far as I can see, your ECs are a bunch of random stuff thrown together with no theme. Their are going to be lots of applicants worldwide who did the same as you or better. Colleges want unique people. Not those who fit into the general category
Congratulations on your hard work and success! Your application will be strong.
For international applicants, especially, the financial side of the equation is crucial. Colleges/universities give less financial aid to international students. They very often consider how much an international student can pay in the admissions decision. People can probably provide the most helpful info if you provide an approximate amount that you’re able to pay per year.
You are well qualified for many, many schools. The difficulty at the most competitive several dozen schools (out of something like 3000) is that more qualified students apply than there are seats available. Quick example: a few years ago we visited a tip-top LAC that said 70% of applicants were fully qualified to succeed in every respect at the school. At the time, it accepted 14% (now lower), so fully 4 in 5 fully qualified applicants were denied admission. (This is all applicants, not international.)
If you will need financial assistance, I suggest you google “colleges that meet full financial need” and “colleges with generous merit aid.” The former may not in the end meet full financial need, and may or may not include international students in that, but it’s a good place to start. These schools, unfortunately, include many of the most competitive ones, which are also often the most wealthy, i.e. Harvard. But some of the schools are more accessible in terms of admissions.
The same with merit aid. But if you apply to some schools that offer generous merit aid and where your stats are very strong relative to the 25/75 ACT/SAT range, you might receive some aid. Some examples of schools where you might receive generous merit aid, but where you’d still probably have to pay a fair % of costs would include Clark University, Denison University, Kalamazoo College, and the College of Wooster. All of these are quality LAC type schools.
And certainly you’d be a reasonable applicant at Dartmouth and CM, and you might want to apply to a couple of other reach schools that meet full financial need.
If you don’t need financial assistance, I’d still suggest you apply to some “safety” schools where your stats are relatively high.
I’m really not sure. However, i am considering Economics, Finance and Political science as strong possibilities. For the first two, I’m trying t develop my ECs accordingly. Just began a really big tuition program that employs teaching volunteers from all around Islamabad and Rawalpindi. We’re giving alot of students who dont have money for tuition with free resources for the Olevel courses of world history, sociology and geography etc. these are subjects that you rarely see being taught in schools.
Some good possibilities for those interests (I’m assuming you can contribute a lot toward college costs). All of these are very strong in economics, political science/government, and history.
Macalester College: One of the top urban LACs in the US. It has an international focus. It is in St. Paul in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul).
Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA: Also very strong in these areas. It has a beautiful campus in a small PA town. The location is relatively remote, and it will require a lot of travel to reach after you fly into the closest airport.
College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA: It is one of the top public universities. It is a mid-size national university and is larger than the typical LAC, with about 6500 undergrad students. It also has a business school and law school. Weather is very nice.
These are all more competitive than the schools in my first post, although all schools on both are very good. The last three in this post would have some general similarities to Dartmouth. Macalester is much more urban. Dartmouth is a small town in a rural area, very much like Dickinson. Good luck!