<p>To Turtle
Ooh, my TOEFL score is much lower than yours it’s 83. That’s why I’m not planning to apply for top colleges. Do you think I should retake it? Actually, one american counselor advised me to take a time and spend it on writing my essays and personal statements instead of spending time on preparing for the TOEFL. Then I thought that I’m not going to apply for the Ivy’s anyway, so that’s enough to have a score higher than the requirement??? By the way, my GPA is 4.00, and I have got awards of math Olympiads and Russian language Olympiads too.</p>
<p>To Dana
Ohh… Wait wait… Err… You said that you got math Olympiad award? Russian language Olympiad? What kind are they? How hard are they? And, do you mean IMO (international mathematics Olympic)?
Big awards will give you substantial boost to your profile. For instance, if I were a member of admission team and saw one with Olympic medal but 400 Reading SAT and 650 Math SAT, I would not care SAT so much…
Therefore, maybe you should give it a shot for those top schools too. It won’t give you any harm. When choosing the top school, you should, nevertheless, check out if the TOEFL standard is recognized as “required/must/minimum/cut-off” or “recommended.” For example, I remember that Brown has no exact cut-off, but Tufts has (100), so in this case, just completely throw Tufts away from the list.</p>
<p>Your counselor is right; essays are very important. My suggestion is: if you think you can do better on TOEFL next time (such as lousy noise in the previous test day, too nervous, too new to test, etc.), then practice a little just to be familiar with TOEFL and take it again for your full potential.
I think your time left will be used for essays, since in my case I have to check them again and again and… again. Don’t forget to let any English-skilled person (such as your teacher) have a look at your essays too.</p>
<p>To Turtle
Come on!! Of course it’s not IMO!! I’m not genius! It’s just an Olympiad among the capital school students. Russian one is too. Actually, there is no boosting awards. Ohhh, after writing all those things it seems like there is no chance to be admitted in good college.
By the way, according to IMO thing my bro participated in it. He’s now studying in US. Comparing to my bro I have nothing to write as awards, yet he had so many of them that he didn’t know which ones to pick and write. (haha)<br>
But, anyway, thank you for your advice and encouragement. Do you have any colleges to recommend me?</p>
<p>To Dana
Well, those awards you won could still be recognized as national ones, so I’m sure they are not completely meaningless.
And also, don’t be too obsessed by comparing to others! Suppose if I did that - compare with your brother -, I’m sure I would be so discouraged too.
Whatever you feel about yourself, try to think like this: no one knows exactly what are our chances; they may be more or less. So, don’t forget to shot for some good colleges too. There may be some chance we don’t see.</p>
<p>College suggestion? Hmmmm I would go to look at couple of generous (yet usually competitive) colleges (about 1-3 of them, number depends on time you have on the essays) and a few low-tuition-fee colleges (I think it’s reasonable to search with the filter tuition < 15000 or even <10000 if you want to). I think the search result like happymomof1’s is a capable one.
Right now I am so sleepy, so I cannot search each of them specifically and recommended best-fit colleges for you immediately. What I did was just go to college’s site, see the stats, feel the pictures or things they want to show me, and if they’re right then apply.
By the way, don’t forget that I’m not an expert too.</p>
<p>Dana, I agree that winning a local math/language competition is something you should definitely use as part of your application. It may not be IMO, but it’s MOSCOW, the competition level is high, and getting awards in it is significant. Good luck!</p>
<p>Hey I’m a student from Thailand too!
I’m applying to US in Fall 2012 and yes I’m in the same boat with you. My parents can only afford around 10,000-30,000 but I really want to go to US. I’d been there as an exchange student when I was a sophomore. I LOVE MY EXPERIENCE AS AN EXCHANGE STUDENT IN US VERY MUCH! Best of Luck to all the intl student and the coming class of 2016!!! :D</p>
<p>Hello simply22.
I thought this thread had already been dead! lol
Nice to meet you. You’re first Thai student I’ve seen here.
If you don’t mind, where would you apply to?
You should be success; your English is good, probably better than mine (I did badly on TOEFL, scored less than 100).</p>
<p>Hi Turtle and simply</p>
<p>I am Thai too!! Actually I have seen at least another 2 Thai here who still get in class of 2016.</p>
<p>@turtle1609
Are you from Thai school? I guess TU or MWIT? I also get Toefl less than 100 too!</p>
<p>Hello creamania.</p>
<p>2 Thais get to class of 2016? From, I guess, government scholarships?</p>
<p>I’m from Thai school, but not TU or MWIT. I’m from Bangkok Christian College (and with this fact, it is not hard to know exactly who I am, seriously 
).</p>
<p>Anyway, are you applying to US colleges for class of 2016 too?</p>
<p>No, I mean 2 Thais in this board that I have seen so far.
for Thai scholarship, there are more than that.</p>
<p>and yes, I am apply for class of 2016.</p>
<p>Ummm and you’re from international school? Or TU or MWIT?
Maybe we might meet each other at somewhere next semester :D.</p>
<p>From TU</p>
<p>Hope to see everyone next semester too!!
and anyone from your school has applied to US ??</p>
<p>Yes, but really few (like 2-3 per year).</p>