If your grades aren’t that strong right now, all the more reason to go back and get great grades. Stop worrying about top colleges. They are no guarantee of a successful and happy life.
So being at a US boarding school does improve my chances if we exclude everything else?
What? Who said being at a boarding school improves your chances if everything else is excluded? You can’t exclude the “everything else.” The everything else is what actually gets you in.
You seem to have no idea what top colleges are looking for. Please do some research. If you truly want to get into a top school, you need to know what they want and SHOW it to them. They can’t just admit every kid who goes to boarding school.
Understand this: your boarding school might get you to the gate, along with grades and test scores. Without the “everything else”, you aren’t going to get through the gate. Certainly not wihtout the grades in the first place.
Yeah no i obviously understand that. I mean like if u take 2 candidates that have the same grades , same ECs same everything, but ones from an under represented country and ones from an american boarding school. Which ones i most likely to get admitted?
You can’t change the fact that you are an international by going to an American boarding school. You will still be applying as an international from an under represented country no matter where you go to high school.
They prioritize based on their institutional needs. If they need an athlete, he gets in. If they need an oboe player, he gets in. If they need to appease a fabulously wealthy donor, she gets in. If they need or want a student from Andorra because they haven’t had one for seven years, he gets in. If they need to maintain their connection with X Boarding School and want to take one more student, she gets in.
It’s impossible for anyone here to say.
Yeah I just dont know what to do for next year
A couple of things.
An international applicant attending a US boarding school will still be considered an international applicant.
Colleges admit students, not boarding schools. Whether you will be a stronger applicant attending a different school is something none of us can guess.
All other things are never equal.
Yeah I’ll guess ill just stay here until the end of high school coz its my best foot forwards for when its time for college apps
“So being at a US boarding school does improve my chances if we exclude everything else?”
As others have said, you can’t exclude everything else.
Your grades are going to matter more than anything else. If you are somewhere that you can be happy and keep ahead in your classes, then you are more likely to do well.
If you do well wherever you are, then you improve your chances of getting into a good university.
You seem to have noticed that being at a “prestigious” high school does not make life wonderful. This will be true when you go to university also. You should find schools that are a good fit for you. I will admit that “which university is highest ranked” is relatively easy to find out, whereas “which university is a good fit for you” is much more difficult to figure out.
You didn’t understand what people are trying to tell you.
If you are NOT happy, you won’t do well in school regardless if it is a boarding school or not.
When it’s time for college apps, it wont matter where you are, when you apply, because you will be judged as an international student and your chances will be like every other international candidate. You wont get a boost from being at a boarding school.
My advice would be to stay through this academic year. That will give you more time to adjust. If you are still unhappy by the end of the year, transfer back to your old school and consider this year as an interesting “exchange” year.