Asian , need help about chances

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>I'm a junior and I'm now seriously
thinking about colleges. Here are my stats</p>

<p>Freshmen year All A's
Chorus
Geometry H
English 9
World History I
Spanish I
Biology H
PE</p>

<p>Sophomore year
Chorus A
Algebra 2 B+
English 10 H B+
AP World History A
Spanish II B+
Chemistry H A
PE B+......</p>

<p>Junior year (current)
Chorus
Precalculus
AP English & Comp.
AP U.S. History
Spanish III
AP Chemistry
Physics H</p>

<p>I'm planning to take more APs in senior year..</p>

<p>Activities</p>

<p>-Chorus(select ensemble) for 4 years
also an officer in choral department
-Student writer for the Korean Daily (covers entire US and Korean community)
for 2 years.
-Student tutor and student leader for a non profit charity organization (specialized in education)
for 2 years.
-Internship at the Korean Embassy in D.C. for sophomore year summer.
-Volunteer at Inova Fairfax Hospital for 3 years (over 100 hrs service)
-Senior and leader in church community service group for 3 years.</p>

<p>Haven't taken SATs yet. (taking it next month)
On PSATs and Practice tests I normally get
Math-800
Critical Reading-740
Writing-800</p>

<p>real SAT chem-780
Planning to take SAT Spanish/Physics/US History</p>

<p>I'm not sure what I will get on real SAT.. I'm frankly scared...</p>

<p>A little background info.</p>

<p>I'm an international student (Korean to be exact)
I came and started learning English 4 years ago.</p>

<p>My GPA's not great (the heavy course load in sophomore year brought it down...I was still learning English then)</p>

<p>I think I can pull my GPA up with AP in my junior and senior year.</p>

<p>With majors and interests aside, what do you think my chances will be
if I apply to some Ivies and other top colleges?
Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins.</p>

<p>P.S. Being an international student, I can not do anything. I can't have jobs.
I can't do paid internship. I can't compete in science fairs (except for Intel ISEF) I can't compete in other competitions. I can't get scholarships (majority of them) I know those really count when applying to colleges. Will colleges consider and cut me some slack if I don't have a beautiful list of activities like citizens and permanent residents do?</p>

<p>Thank you for reading through... I really appreciate it.
Please give me a honest answer. Thank you so much.</p>

2

<p>I understand your pain about not getting jobs and the restrictions on competitions and scholarships. </p>

<p>It's a little hard to say without the SAT scores and I don't know if your school ranks. Is there a Honors Society at your school?</p>

<p>Way I see it, Harvard, Princeton, Yale is a reach for everybody. They're unpredictable and their applicant pool is very competitive. It might be a Reach reach for you, though, because of the lack of EC's. (Sorry.) Though to have leadership/officer standing in a church and a choral group might show some diversity and well-roundedness...</p>

<p>JHU might be a reach/match. My best friend got accepted there with 1100 old SAT's, a good GPA (I think 3.7/3.8) and a wealth of community service activities and summer volunteer programs. I heard it's a little easier to get into JHU as a humanities major than a science major (though she applied for pre-med).</p>

<p>I'm afraid I'm clueless about Duke. Never researched it nor frequented any boards about it.</p>

<p>Good luck with this year and keep the grades up and committment to EC's!</p>