Australian applying to Ivy-league schools

Student Lounge International Students
1

I am year 9 student from Australia who plans on applying for the top U.S universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford. I have already started studying for the SAT and improving my extra-curriculars. Using the official FIDE chess rating system, I am currently ranked in the top 20 under 16s from Australia. Would this help on my application? I’ve won countless numbers of awards for it and have been playing it for almost 10 years. My other extra-curriculars are clarinet and Tennis.

There is an ATAR(Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) that compares your rank to every year 12 student in the country, with 99.95 being the highest score you can achieve. Even though they mainly look at SAT, would it be useful to include this on the application given I achieve a high score? . I am fairly confident I can achieve a 1500+ on the SAT, since I am starting early and most of the maths questions I can already complete. I have heard of things like AP classes, and GPA, but I’m not sure if they are possible in Australia. My final question is, will they look at my school reports from each year? I ask this because I am afraid they will look at my year 9 reports which have very good results but not excellent ones.

2

Too early. Come back with real results

3

You are doing fine.

4

Competitive chess, clarinet and tennis (are you on a school team?) are fine ECs. No need to add any others: top schools like to see depth rather than breadth for ECs. Too many ECs looks like resume padding. Focus on your school work, and study hard for the SATs and you could be a compelling candidate. That said, know that the odds are dramatically against you at all the schools you listed. If you’re serious about studying in America, you need to apply to some less-selective schools as well.

5

Mate don’t worry about your year 9 results, I’ve asked the education USA office in Sydney and they told me that they place more emphasis on your senior grades. Don’t stress too much about your ATAR, anything over 99 is fine, and make sure you continue your chess and explore other interests as well, as apart from fine grades at school, you need something that makes your application compelling. As for AP, I self studied it and it wasn’t worth it, trust me.