<p>The current school I'm attending, a highly-selective private boarding school, is full of brilliant students, whom I respect. But then again, it's kind of discouraging for me to see how much connections their parents have (to Ivies coaches, elite companies where their children get internships, to elite universities' professors who help with research) while I'm just a middle-class student whose father is unemployed. I can't even afford to attend school next year.
There are a lot of hard-working students indeed, and I don't mean to be bitter, but a lot of other people I know buy their ECs and awards with money, and form clubs on their own where they take turns being the leader. They also get private college counseling which costs about $30,000 a year, and they will obviously be better prepared for college than I am.
I'm an international student also, and I have to face very high expectations.</p>
<p>So my question is, are there any of you who made it in to extremely selective/top colleges without hooks, URMs, or any of the parental help that I've mentioned above? I really need some...hope to live for.</p>
<p>Attending a highly selective (very expensive) private boarding school is already a hook.
Nevertheless, many kids from public shools, without any hook, parental wealth got into the top ten.
(My kids among them.)</p>
<p>International students face extreme competition from all around the world.</p>
<p>How about pursuing a degree in your country?</p>
<p>I know a kid who got into Stanford, U of Chicago, and Williams last year who was a scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school. He comes from a very low income family, and he hustled his own way into boarding school and top colleges with almost no help from his parents except they filled out the FAFSA. He will be attending Stanford in the fall. No hook except that he is very, very bright.</p>
<p>There are plenty of kids in boarding schools who get into very good schools without being wealthy. Most kids in boarding schools get into very good schools in general. It may not be the name brand schools you covet, but boarding schools are very good at preparing students for good schools and they do focus on good fits so most kids are happy with results.</p>
<p>The key is to take advantage of the opportunities that the boarding school offers. The academics, and trying to be in the top 25% of your class helps with the bigger names. The relationships with teachers to mentor you. The extracurricular activities available to you. The whole deal is how you perform and the opportunities that you take advantage of–that’s what the colleges want to see, if you work with what you have, no matter what kind of school you go to.</p>
<p>Focusing on what other people have or not is a waste of time.</p>
<p>My daughter (Caucasian) went to Brown without any college coaching/sat prep, connections, and wrote her own application, needing a great deal of financial aid. She worked hard in school and took advantage of an extracurricular activity that only some of the students did, and she developed a great interest in it and took it to a dedicated level.</p>
<p>The fact that you go to a boarding school already suggests that you have an advantage. Your perspective is skewed. Most applicants are not from boarding schools and do not have great pull or connections. Don’t let the frenzy you see around you get to you. I know of many kids from public schools without hooks who got into high level schools.</p>
<p>To directly answer your question yes I know a student at Yale, one at Harvard, and one matriculating to MIT none of whom had any of the advantages you’re talking about. </p>