<p>Hello everyone, I'm an Australian student hoping to be accepted into an American university for Fall 2012. I'm looking predominantly at Ivy League colleges at the moment, otherwise I will probably stay in Australia for my undergraduate degree and possibly go to America later on. </p>
<p>Anyway, I'm guessing that some of you have a better idea of what constitutes a good application for American colleges than I do, as an Australian.</p>
<p>Can anyone shed some light on my chances? If there are any other colleges that you think are suitable for me, please list them as well, I need all the help I can get! :)</p>
<p>Academics:
*Predicted National Rank: 99.8%+ (Hopefully 99.9% or 99.95%)
*Year 11 Scores (All highest difficulty): Maths (94%), Maths Specialist (87%), Chemistry (96%), Physics (96%), Literature (83%) and Computer Science (94%)
*Finished Computer Science in Year 11 (Accelerated) and topped State.
*Won subject prizes (top score) in school for Physics, Literature and Computer Science.</p>
<p>Awards/Honours
*Robotics Competition National Champions, State Champions (3x)
*National Chemistry Quiz - Certificate of Excellence (100%)
*Australian Computational Linguistic Olympiad - Gold Medal
*Full HS Scholarship (Private College)
*Musical Tuition Scholarship (Private College)
*Various National Maths Awards - High Distinctions (Top 5%)</p>
<p>ECs:
*School Robotics Team Mentor (100+ Hours)
*Interschool Debating Team Member (4 Years)
*Interschool Chess Team (4 Years)
*Various volunteer work with charities (connected to school)
*Student Council House Captain
*Various orchestral and ensemble involvement (7 Years, Cello)</p>
<p>Without SAT scores we can’t even venture a guess. It’s the great leveler, especially where internationals are concerned. We have no clue how hard it is to get the grades you have or how much your awards mean in context.</p>
<p>Tons of kids from your country are beating down the doors at every ivy. Are you one of the one or two from your country each will give money to? It’s impossible to say, but a 2300 plus SAT will help.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I haven’t done my SATs yet, probably won’t be able to for a while.
I’m guessing, however, that I should hopefully be able to get 2300+.
As far as my Awards and ECs go though, are they competitive enough?
After looking at some of the posts on CC, they seem a little weak to me, but I’m not sure if they’ll take the fact that I’m an International in to account.
Also, most importantly at this stage, are there any other top colleges that I should be looking towards applying to?</p>
<p>You are aware that medicine is a graduate degree, right?</p>
<p>Anyway, why are you looking only at Ivys? There are some really good music schools out there that aren’t Ivys. I know CMU is good for computer science.</p>
<p>You really need to take the SATs or ACT. I really can’t chance you but I can tell you that HYP are crapshoots.</p>
<p>I’m aware medicine is a graduate degree (it is in Australia as well). I am considering pursuing pre-med or a biology based science course, as I did some work experience in a hospital and really enjoyed it, but to be honest I’m not really sure. Computing is one of my strengths and passions, but I’m not sure if I’m cut out for a career in it.</p>
<p>Music is just a hobby for me, though it’d be great to be able to join some musical groups in college!</p>
<p>I am looking at other universities apart from the Ivies (my thread title may have been a little misleading) but it’s obviously a little easier to gather information on the Ivy League, particularly as an international student. Apart from the Ivy League, many American universities (particularly small Liberal Arts Colleges) aren’t well known internationally regardless of how good they are.</p>
<p>I’m planning to take the ACT in April. Unfortunately, my local testing center for the midyear SATs are booked out already, so I’ll probably sit my first SAT in October. :S</p>
<p>My parents are also concerned about the possibilities of actually getting into a top American college from Australia unhooked (most accepted Australians are athletically hooked). They are worried that the application process will be counter-intuitive to my application for scholarships from Australian universities (which I’ll need to take up if my American applications are rejected).</p>
<p>Any further advice is really appreciated :)</p>
<p>Admission to elite US universities is very tough, especially for internationals needing aid. There are a few that are need-blind, but they have the lowest admission rates. That said, your profile is very strong; MIT and Stanford should be on your list.</p>
<p>Cool, thanks greennblue
As MIT is a technical college and I’m not sure which major I want to do, will that be less suitable for me than a college with a liberal arts curriculum?
Also, how does Stanford compare to the Ivy League and are there any other Californian colleges that are worth considering as well?</p>
<p>MIT is a world leader in CS, Robotics, and all of the sciences. They also offer all of the usual humanities classes. If you love science as you say, you would not mind meeting their rather extensive science requirements, even if you decided to major in Literature or something.
Stanford is just as good as any Ivy. One of my daughter’s classmates was accepted at both Harvard and Stanford, and chose Stanford. The other top-caliber California schools are CalTech (perhaps even more technical than MIT), UCLA, and UC-Berkeley. The last two are publics which for an out-of-stater are expensive.</p>
<p>@greennblue
Thanks again for your help. MIT and Stanford sound very good, I’m definitely considering applying to both of them as well @Vanaalst
Thanks for your confidence in me. To be honest though, I don’t think it’s very useful for me to chance you. As an International student I can’t really judge your application to American universities.
Good luck though, I hope you get into Brown :)</p>
<p>Profile Update:
I just finished a month of full-time work as an IT Technician.
It’s no “I grew my own software company from scratch and it’s called Microsoft” but I guess it counts as work experience (and I got paid well too :P).</p>
<p>[This is coming from someone who will probably be rejected everywhere, but anyway… I’m an Australian, so I thought I’d have my say here]</p>
<p>If I were you, I wouldn’t bother mentioning the high distinctions. Most competitive applicants will be scoring in this range. Personally, I undertook 7 competitions in year 11 and scored high distinctions (or better) in 6 of them. Many others are in identical situations. You do have decent linguistics awards, and although few people consider the chemistry competition as much more than a quiz, 100%'s still good (>< I remember being really annoyed for dropping a mark for one of the non-chemistry questions on it in year 11rageeeee). I would also not bother mentioning the scholarships, as most applicants should be good enough to get a scholarship at an Australian private school (or be admitted to a selective school). Scholarships are usually awarded in year 6, and so they’re not really relevant anymore. </p>
<p>On the whole, your application looks good and you’ve got great credentials, but you don’t stand out. I could be biased - most of my friends have olympiad qualifications, 99.90+ and the like, but you haven’t been one of the best in the country in any individual competitions, let alone the well known competitions (such as the olympiads, AMC, language competitions run by places like Alliance Francaise…). You’re a strong student (an excellent one at that!), but keep in mind that there might be 5 or so places for non-athletes at any given ivy league, and you’ll be competing against people with a combination of international olympiad awards, 99.95s, places on the national debating team, model united nations, significant community service, international conferences, music diplomas… you get the picture. Admissions isn’t about a list of achievements, but you have asked people to judge you solely on what you’ve written here.</p>
<p>I wish I had done more competitions, but unfortunately my school isn’t very competitive and, apart from in maths, doesn’t enter many competitions at all. I’m trying to push the science department, in particular, to let me do the Olympiad entrance exams, but it’s difficult as there aren’t many other high-achieving students in my grade.</p>
<p>It is true, the high distinctions are just fluff - I wish I had higher scores, but as I said; I mostly do maths competitions and maths is not my strongest subject.</p>
<p>I just don’t know what to do at this stage to make my application look stronger :S</p>
<p>Oh, just one other thing - you said that “there might be 5 or so places for non-athletes at any given ivy league”, surely that isn’t right? Did you mean Australian applicants?</p>
<p>I was referring to Australian applicants. Obviously they don’t have a set number, but it’s not likely that they’ll admit 20 in one year… and the competition is tough.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong - your credentials are very strong, but all I’m saying is don’t rely on them to get you in. Your school does seem to do quite a few competitions (most schools don’t offer the robotics competition, to my knowledge), but it’s a shame that they don’t have the AIMO or NQEs in the sciences. That said, you don’t “need” to have these sort of competitions to be admitted, but you’ll be competing against people who’ve succeeded at the highest level in these. I know that two IMO team members, two IPhO team members and an IBO team member applied last year… and I also know of a lot of students from my state who scored ~ 99.95 who applied. Most of these people will be rejected. Even with stellar records, it’s impossible to tell whether you’ll get in.</p>
<p>In terms of your application, there’s not much that you can do. From what I gather, you’re about to start year 12, so you really need to focus on your HSC/VCE/TEE/SACE/whatever you’re taking. You do have a good record, but continue to succeed in whatever you do, and write strong essays. Think carefully about how you can show admission officers your personality. If I were you, I’d also think very carefully about choosing universities in Australia, as there are some fantastic courses which would rival the programs at many of the Ivy Leagues. If you’re interested in science, consider the PhB at ANU, and if you get 99.95 and know that you want to do medicine, USyd offers a combined pathway into graduate medicine, and you can complete the TSP with an undergraduate science degree. ANU also has a bachelor of computational science which is very strong, and if you want to do undergraduate medicine, Monash pays all of your tuition fees and gives you $6,000 spending money per year if you get 99.95 (ANU pays $12,500 per year for 99.90+ and USyd pays $10,000 for 99.95). I know that the two degrees I’ve listed at ANU are very flexible, so you could study disciplines outside of science at a high level and complete research in these, but I’m not so sure about USyd and Monash. Anyway, you might find these courses more suited to your interests than a liberal arts degree, and they might be more financially viable if you don’t get a lot of financial aid from American colleges. Keep an open mind.</p>
<p>Well that seems like a fair estimate, although from what I’ve heard (correct me if I’m wrong) most ivies don’t have a separate quota and supposedly judge internationals equally with the rest of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>The “Robotics Competition” I mentioned was Robocup Junior Australia. It is one of those rare non-math competitions that my school offers. My team was invited to compete internationally but was unable to for various reasons.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information on Australian universities; I’m definitely looking interstate too.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you as well! If there is only one thing I have learnt from my use of these forums it is that Ivy League admissions are a lottery, but it sounds like you have pretty good odds to me! :)</p>
