Aussies Unite!

International Students
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<p>I hope you do! I’m applying to a couple of the same schools as you! but I think I should apply to more… currently only applying to four :S</p>

<p>yeah my grades are kinda stuffed too… coming 49th out of 160 but those 160 are pretty much in the top 2% of the state… like my school gets on average 40% of students with a UAI for >98 so like my grades dont LOOK good, but they actually aren’t that bad, after all they can’t give everyone a 100 in english!</p>

<p>yeah you get that whole “why do you want to go to america when australia is so much better?” look and i kinda want to say to them, that’s insulting because altough I may not sound it I AM american, so you basically just insulted me. And besides who wants to go to UNSW when you can go to a school like UCLA and get that whole football college spirit thing? thats what really gets me!</p>

22

<p>Exactly! ^^ I remember going to a careers fair/expo thing with my class a few months ago and when everyone was asking about where they’d go(I usually don’t talk about it so you must imagine that interviews with careers counsellors are awkward), I blurted out that I wanted to study overseas for the full college experience to ONE person. Somehow, I had teachers asking me about it by the end of the day and people outright telling me I’m insane for wanting to do their SAT etc…</p>

<p>Beeish, your grades seem really good! I’m sure you’ll get it. What are you all doing for EC’s? I need to seriously pull my EC’s up.</p>

23

<p>Wow, I had no idea that going to school abroad was so looked down upon in Australia. I’ve talked about going to university in America and most people were really interested in the idea. But then again, the colleges here are not like the ones in Australia. You do have some really quite good tertiary instituions, the only New Zealand university that is really any good is Auckland University which is extremely overrated.</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone applying this year! Would any of you mind posting your stats?</p>

24

<p>do you want my stats? cause I can give them to you…
and carpe-diem, thanks :smiley: just starting to get nervous because my GPA and rank look low… all depends on my HSC I guess… but comes out after some app deadlines :S</p>

<p>I don’t know if its the colleges that are looked down on… but americans? australians seem to hate australians without realising that we’re basically a poorer smaller america… i don’t know…</p>

<p>and I know! about the college experience, OMG in 2006 I went to a UCLA/USC football game and I was like I could totally get used to this… its soo awesome!</p>

25

<p>Yes please beeish, post your stats. Thanks :D</p>

<p>Ah okay. Well that makes sense I guess. A lot of New Zealanders aren’t fans of Americans either. Most people seem to think that every American is fat and stupid.</p>

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<p>to be honest some of them are haha, but I can say that… I’m american! lol</p>

<p>Citizenship: US Citizen residing abroad
Ethnicity: Caucasian/White and Jewish (don’t know why it makes a difference)</p>

<p>SAT: Best Score in One Sitting 2210 - CR: 720 W: 680 M:800
ACT: Haven’t and Wont be taken (took them in 9th grade and got a 28 though)
SAT IIs: French: 710 Chemistry: 740 Maths 2: 760</p>

<p>GPA: ??? Dont get a GPA but latest UAI Estimate which is a rank out of the entire state was 97.6 = better then or equal to 97.6% of 12th grade students in my state, and should have improved cause that was in july. Apparently GPA is 3.5/4 and rank is 49/160 BUT that 160 is in the top 2% of the state…</p>

<p>Classes for 11th and 12th Grades:
French Continuers,
English Advanced and Extension 1
Chemistry
Maths Extensions 1 and 2 (which apparently is a University Level Course and the higest level available)
and in 11th grade I also took Ancient History.</p>

<p>My grades are pretty solid - coming in High 80’s to 90’s for everything. My estimate for UAI like I said above was 97.6 But I go to a pretty competetive school as well. My ranks if that helps
18/160 students in English Advanced,
35/123 in Maths Extension 1
and 18/69 in Chemisty if that kind of places me,
My school also generally comes in top 5 if not top 3 in the final statewide exams</p>

<p>I did a semester in the US in 10th grade and was in almost all honors classes, except for French which I was taking French 4, and I got all A’s, like high A’s, my chem teacher told me I had the highest mark in all four of his classes and I should have been taking AP, but I didn’t want to (over 100% hehe I love extra credit - yes I was one of THOSE people)</p>

<p>School: Public - Academically Selective - All Girls - Sent Students to ivies from australia - normally ranked within top 5 of the state. (our system is state by state not nationwide)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars-
Basketball at a local rec center (10th),
In charge of French Cafe Stall at Community Languages Festival (10th)
counseller at a summer camp (10th)
Volunteer at my synagouge (9th-12th)
Member Music Ensembles (9th-10th)
Co-Chair Yearbook Committee (12th)
Member Jersey Committee (12th)
Part-Time Job (11th)
Babysitting
Work Experience in a Children’s Hospital, Film Productions Company and a Teenage Magazine. </p>

<p>Awards- High Distinction - National Qualifying Exam Chemistry Olympiad 2007
random other distinctions in australasian competitions. </p>

<p>Essays: Essay for USC is pretty solid, entertaining and different I hope. Other Essay about semester in the US and how it has changed me forever… also essay about my work experience at the children’s hosptial… (needed two for brown)</p>

27

<p>No the thing I get is:
“your sitting the SAT, hahaha americans are stupid that shouldnt be hard.”</p>

<p>and the thing is, its kinda true. Here I go to a private school and we’ve used university text books since year 11. although i cant claim i did brilliant on the SAT. (above avg.). To me, I kinda dont care. I know someone that failed their SAT and got into Harvard.</p>

28

<p>hey guys, I’m applying to these schools, in order of preference:</p>

<p>yale SCEA
harvard
dartmouth
princeton
MIT
stanford</p>

<p>there are no safeties cuz i’m gonna stay in australia and go to UQ (where i’ll get a free ride) if i don’t get into the US.</p>

29

<p>p.s my stats.</p>

<p>SAT: 1950
SAT II: find out in 10 days.
GPA: ??
Rank: non-existent.
UAI: 90-100 (my school gives a 10 point range)</p>

<p>honour roll.
mikardi business prize.
nominated for young australian business person of the year.
prizes in english, religion, math, sociology, business, art.</p>

<p>classes:
university prep math. (I think thats your extension???, i dont know, the stuff my cousin was doing for general was easy.)
university prep english. (literature perspective, war lit, journalism, film)
sociology (race and ethnicity, social deviance)
business (marketing, econ, finance, and hrm)
religon (philosophy, youth min, ethics and psychology of religion)
art (painting and drawing)
fashion design.</p>

<p>all A’s and B’s. (as you know its impossible to get an A in some subjects, like no one at my school got an A in math last sem, but they got a 97. this happened to me in sociology.)</p>

<p>The EC’s I put on my app:</p>

<p>young achievment australia (finance director, company partner)
school yearbook (editor)
newspaper (editor)
youth ministry (leader)
student goverment (representative, worked with UN)
formal committie (fundraising)
fashion show (model, designer)</p>

<p>music–piano and saxaphone
blog–creator and writter
community service–3000 hours plus with animals.</p>

<p>last summers spent with family, travelling abroad, and working in my fathers firm.</p>

<p>strong essays.</p>

<p>summary of reseach including formal research into the fields of the psychology of religon, marketing and sociology (race and ethnicity)</p>

<p>art:
shown at the national portrait gallery and univ. of newcastle.</p>

<p>conversational in japanease and french. (high distinction in jap. language cert.)</p>

<p>fin aid: parents will put in US$25,000 a year.</p>

<p>thats me!</p>

30

<p>community service–3000 hours plus with animals??? jesus chirst!
your stats are pretty good… as in good I mean excellent lol</p>

<p>what uh are your essays about?</p>

31

<p>wow…3000 hours is truly dedication. which schools are you applying for?</p>

32

<p>^^ O.o I agree. I can’t imagine doing 3000, good on you! </p>

<p>My school has neither AP or IB (the most difficult courses are called Stage 3’s so I’ve put myself down for all except Math) so I’m trying to find someone to tell me how you self-teach. <– I know, stupid. Lol.
Does the UNSW Australasian comp thing go on your application? Cause I’ve been in it every year since third grade and have quite a few HD/D’s. I don’t know, I saw it on someone else’s app and didn’t know what she was on about. </p>

<p>I’m going to go call it a night because I was just on to print out an essay. Sweet dreams…or something. Lol.</p>

<p>xx</p>

33

<p>yeah what is everyone doing about the AP IB thing?</p>

<p>I wrote my essays about my brothers autism.</p>

34

<p>i’m just ticking doesn’t offor AP/IB/Honors and hoping that they understand the whole ext 2 thing</p>

<p>I’m putting some of the UNSW comp stuff, mostly Chem Olympiad NQE my shining moment lol</p>

35

<p>hey holysalchow
i’m from the lovely dunedin which is great well actually it’s not great at all i can’t take like any exams down here there may be one SAT exam date at the university in the whole year.
what year are you in?
oh and what are you doing subject wise and in preparing for SAT and SATll?</p>

<p>where i’m from people give you the wat the hell look if you even mention studying in aus or even auckland i don’t even bother to mention the US.</p>

36

<p>Oh really? I wasn’t aware there were any places in the south island other than Christchurch that offered the SAT exams. It’s a pain how everything seems to happen in the north.
I’m in year 12, going into year 13 next year. What about you? The subjects I’m taking next year are: English, History, Spanish, IT, Media Studies & possibly French by correspondence. I’m going to get the SAT books from college board. What subjects are you taking?</p>

<p>That’s odd, maybe it’s because I go to a private school where lots of people look to go overseas after they graduate.</p>

37

<p>thats likely i go to a public school and even then it’s a school far more into its arts curriculum then anything else. i’m in year 11 going into year 12 next year. i hate that we can only take 6 subjects. I’m taking English, maths, history, chemistry, biology and physics next year but i’m really wanting to take french, german, art history and media studies as well. so i’m just a tad annoyed.</p>

38

<p>Really? I think 6 subjects is plenty! I think you’ll find that level 2 NCEA is quite a big step up from level 1, and you’ll be glad you don’t do more. Next year I’m doing scholarship Spanish, English and Media Studies so that means I’ll be doing eight end of year exams :confused:
What kind of grades do you get? Like merits, excellences etc? And what do you think of NCEA? I personally hate it. I really hope John Key decides to do something about changing our education system.</p>

39

<p>i also hate our education system and yes i’m a mostly excellence merit student apart from creative writing which i screwed up earlier this year.
i get what you mean about 6 subjects being enough its just you have to make the choice which i really didn’t want to do.
where are you looking at for universities?</p>

40

<p>your education system confuses me… haha I did four subjects in year 12 and five in year 11 :S</p>