<p>I attend a local school in Hong Kong , which means no AP courses and the GPA system would not be used. To what extent will this hurt my application? </p>
<p>Intended Major : Elec Engineering/Computer </p>
<p>(International Applicant, no green card)</p>
<p>Chinese (Hong Kong)
Male
Grade: Year 12 , (still have Year 13 to go)
School:Low performance Public High school (~1500) , students struggle to enter university , let alone Ivy League
Home:Upper Middle Class
Courseload: 'Most rigorous' is not enough. 'suicide' is more appropriate (juggling Hong Kong A-level , SATs and British A-levels at once) </p>
<p>GPA- No such thing
Ranking - 10/90</p>
<p>SATs:
Math I: 800
CR:730
Writing:710</p>
<p>Math II : 800
Physics : 790
Chemistry : 790</p>
<p>AP:
No APs , but does British A-levels count?
A-Level Physics - A
A-Level Chemistry - A
A-Level Biology - A
A-Level Maths - A
AS-Level History - A</p>
<p>ECS:
Committee of Student Council
Chief Editor of School Newspaper
Debating Team Captain
50 hours of community work
Worked as a computer repair technician</p>
<p>Awards:
Best student for English
Improvement Award from Year 12 to Year 13
Sports Day Gold Medal
Swimming Contest Gold Medal</p>
<p>Other :
-Very good Recommendation Letters
-Essays are decent
-Fluent English and Chinese
-No financial aid needed</p>
<p>Which colleges do you want to go to? Usually the adcom takes into account that you didn't have APs available, and it won't hurt you. Your scores are pretty good, but your ECs are somewhat lacking.</p>
<p>I disagree. The UC schools are REALLY picky about their international students, let along their out of state students. It may not be as SELECTIVE as other schools, but I think it's personally easier to get into Harvard than to get into UCLA or UCB as an OOS/international student. Certainly, you are good, but to me, you seem like a pretty average UCB applicant.</p>
<p>CMU: Match
Purdue: Safety
U Chicago (Econ): High Match, they cut a lot of slack for internationals
UPenn: Slight Reach, their engineering program is less selective than their arts&sciences and business
Cornell: Reach, engineering is really competitive
Brown: Slight Reach
Duke: High Match
Caltech: Big Reach
UCLA: High Match
UCB: Slight Reach</p>
<p>Ok , Thanks for the input. I managed to squeeze a bit "negligible" ECs into my resume hoping to level my gap in my ECs. </p>
<p>Oh , my 10/90 is only my Year 13 rank , will my 15/90 in my year 12 hold me back? </p>
<p>ECS:
- Committee of Student Council (Yr 12)
- Chief Editor of School Newspaper (Yr 12)
- Debating Team Captain (Yr 12)
- Soccer Team member(Not school team) (Yr 11-13)
- Olympiad Team in Informatics member (Yr 11) (Never got into finals)
- Volunteered Planting Trees (Yr 12)
- Chess Tournament Player (Yr 12-13) (Never got into finals either)
- Worked as a computer repair technician (Yr 11) </p>
<p>Awards:
-Best student for English
-Improvement Award from Year 12 to Year 13
-Sports Day Gold Medal
-Swimming Contest Gold Medal</p>