Can I get a merit scholarship?

<p>I'm a Canadian citizen living abroad. I applied to Harvard for SCEA and was deferred, and have also submitted RD apps to Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, and Amherst. I realize all these are extremely competitive choices, so I'm mostly relying on McGill as my safety school. I realize that based on objective stats alone, I am competitive for admission. But when it comes to scholarships, how big of a chance do I have in terms of getting one? I know the standards for scholarships are based on academics, but am wondering how big of a factor the subjective parts are. These are my stats (copied/pasted from the Harvard SCEA thread):</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2350 (760 CR, 800 M, 790 W)
[</em>] SAT II: 750 Literature, 790 Math II, 800 French, 800 Chinese with Listening, 790 Spanish, plus two other (bad) scores that are currently being rescored due to a mix-up
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Calculus AB (4), Chinese Language (5), English Language (5), English Literature (5), French Language (5), German Language (4), Macroeconomics (4), Spanish Language (5), US History (4)
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: Hardest Possible
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National AP Scholar, National Merit Semifinalist; internationally recognized language proficiency certificates in Mandarin, French, Spanish, and German, AP Spanish Excellence Award, Spanish Honor Society, National German Exam Gold Certificate (96th Percentile Nationwide); AMC 12 School Winner; National History Day State Finalist (Historical Paper); ABRSM Grade 8 Piano, Michigan Music Teachers’ Association Level 10 Piano, recital at fairly well-known international arts venue outside the US; Scholastic Writing Silver Key, Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition – Commended, guest writer for Mensa’s young members’ magazine
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Foreign Language (Volunteer Tutor, Teaching Assistant), Piano (Solo/Ensemble and Church Accompanist), Church Youth Group, School Newspaper (Editor-in-Chief), Literary Journal (Editor-in-Chief), Writing/Journalism Club (Co-President), Math Club (Peer Tutor), Cambridge University Math/Science Summer Courses (Math and Nature, Astronomy), International Travel
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: Publishing Company Proofreader (1,500 pages), Spanish III Teaching Assistant (160 hrs), Solo/Ensemble and Church Accompanist (300 hrs), Interpreter for School Immersion Trip to French Alps (200 hrs)
[</em>] Summer Activities: Cambridge University Math/Science Summer Courses, Moving, Travel, Language Study, Reading
[<em>] Recommendations: Should be quite strong
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[<em>] Country (if international applicant): Canadian Citizen
[</em>] School Type: Private (applies to all 3 high schools; first was a large international school overseas (top 5-10% attend Ivies/Stanford/MIT), second was a small, competitive college prep school with 10-15% attending Ivies annually and most of the class going to top 50 USNWR schools; third was an even smaller school that regularly sends students to the top UCs)
[<em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Income Bracket: Middle
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Not hooks, but certifiably fluent in five languages (English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, German), graduated from high school at age 16 (currently on a gap year), traveled to North Korea, visited 27 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Africa
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: Standardized testing, multilingualism, international perspective, varied academic interests (languages, applied math/physics, history to some extent), essays (?), adaptability to different environments, being diverse/interesting (?)
[</em>] Weaknesses: GPA (relative to the rest of the applicant pool), two lousy SAT II scores
[/ul]</p>

<p>I think that you would almost certainly get a merit scholarship: you are a Canadian citizen and most of the Canadians that I have known that have gotten merit scholarships have not been nearly as strong as you academically or EC-wise. Best of luck!</p>

<p>Wow, that’s great to hear! Thanks. :D</p>