I’m a high school sophomore and I go to a relatively small international school in eastern europe as a foreigner. We have a different system here and I’ll do IB Diploma next year.
Since I realized recently that I have about 2 years before college application, I started to think about the issue seriously.
I would like to major in maths at university and my dream would be unis like MIT, Cambridge and Stanford. However I know that these univeristies are extremely competitive and it’s very hard to get in. Still I aim for the best and want to give it a try.
I know a good IB score will be helpful and I am rather confident about this, but that might only be a part of the application. Apart from that I will need some extracurriculars, like community, leadership etc.
Our school is cool but it doesn’t have that many people. Every year only about 50 students graduate from the international program. So as you can imagine it is not competitive at all. Vasity sport teams and all kinds of clubs starting from freshman year are out of the question.
I think first some academic competitions will help. For example the AMCs. Also there is one obligatory part of the IB Diploma called CAS and is about community and service. So when I start IB I can do that.
I have read the Applying Sideways article and I do have passions to pursue. But of course you have to prove yourself in some activities. If given a chance I will be happy to busy myself with all the after school activities but maybe because I haven’t been in this country for a long time so I’m unable to find anything like clubs or volunteer communities outside school.
Can anyone give me any advice or suggestions? Thanks for reading and appreciate your help
Cambridge admissions, or UK admissions in general, is much different than US admissions. Cambridge won’t care about community service and leadership, or any EC’s unconnected to maths.
What is your budget? Start there. You will NOT be granted a student visa to study in the US without proof that you can cover your expenses here- you can’t show up and “figure it out”.
How about Ivy League schools, as in your topic title? In any case, with respect to U.S. colleges strong in math, these suggestions may widen your options at the suitable time: For Students Seeking a College Strong in Mathematics.
if I get admitted then yes I can get financial support from my family and cover my expenses. But the universities need to be good enough so all the money and efforts are worth it.
Will your family qualify for need based aid…or are they willing to pay about $80,000 per year for your college education here in the U.S. at one of those Ivies….because by the time you get to college it’s very likely the all will cost that much PER YEAR.
Go to each college website. Search for financial aid for international students. The info is clearly stated in each college website.
Your family will need to provide FIRM documentation that these funds are already available and easily accessible…in other words…not in real estate that must be sold, not in future earnings, not in loans that haven’t already been approved, not in possible borrowing or gifts from family and friends…you get the idea.
Extracurriculars are more important in the US as compared to Europe. But your standardized test scores will also matter a lot (SAT, ACT, TOEFL). So make sure you do well on those.
Other thing to keep in mind is that your IB predicted scores aren’t given as much weight in US. They will instead look to see what your completed grades are. They will also be interested in your scores from grades 9 and 10.
The essays also play an important role. Make sure you have an interesting story and can write well. This helps a lot. A lot of other factors outside your control also matter (Institutional priorities, URM status, etc).
The final IB exams are in may and june in my school but the time of application is normally the year before so I guess I have to submit the predicted grades from the mocks?
