Chance a Romanian Student for Top Schools in the US

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello all!

//Excuse possible grammar/writing mistakes, but I don’t really have the time to go through this more than once.

I’m reaching a point where you could say that I’m a bit desperate, but I don’t really know what to think anymore after reading all the posts about successful students on this forum. Thus, I reached the conclusion that I should try and ask you guys about my case.

I always wanted to study at an US university. At first, I was thinking/dreaming about Harvard/MIT/Princeton etc. However, after I took the SAT for the first time, I was disappointed. Even though my dream school is Stanford, I’m really afraid that I won’t have any real chances due to my SAT Scores. On top of that, the fact that I require full fledged financial aid may also represent a deal-breaker.

So, in a nutshell, I’m a future high school senior from Romania and I want to know whether I have any real chances at Stanford, the Ivies (Harvard, UPenn, Amherst, Princeton etc), Caltech, the UCs as well as schools that offer full scholarships. (I’m also thinking about NYU Abu Dhabi)

Academic Results:

high school average (for the first 3 years) 9.75 / 10

GPA: 3.9 = 9.75 x 4 /10 (I don’t think that this is entirely correct since a 5 hours per week Math Class weighs the same as a one hour per week History Class in our system)

Rank: the 2nd in my classroom (30 people) and in the top 5% in my high school.

Our high school is one of the best ranking in Romania and my profile of study is called Mathematics- Computer Science(that’s what it emphasizes) We also have an intensive English programme (more than any other high school in Romania) + extra classes about the geography, politics, culture etc of the US and UK.

SAT: 2110 (CR 740, M 700 :frowning: , W 670 E 8 )

SAT Physics 710 :frowning:

SAT Math II 750 :frowning:

SAT World History 600 (Didn't actually study for it, I was just curios so I decided to take it on that day)

Extracurriculars: (i’m trying to be as concise as possible so you actually read them)

An issue would be that I lack prizes in academic competitions such as olympiads and etc and I’m more of a well-rounded (or spread out) student. To be honest, I wouldn’t like being otherwise, but I heard that some unis prefer more lopsided students.

Academic: Won a few “Mentions” at the local stage of the Physics, Computer Science and ITC Olympiads.

Other ECs:

(No particular order, maybe you can help me select the best ones for the Common App)

I’m including almost all of them so you can get a better sense of who I am.

  1. Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellow 2014 at Purdue University
  • Department of State programme, fully funded, one month in the US. It was mostly about International Relations, Project Development, Law studies etc.) I was the only one chosen from a pool of 300 Romanian applicants. Won a 500$ grant during the programme's project competition to start two EC Clubs.(below)
  1. Founded The Humanities Club and The Science Club in my high school. I'm not going to go into details, but things are going pretty well and we are planning to hold a public speaking competition and a science fair for the high school students from Bucharest. We're also inviting different high-profile people to speak at events in our high school.(2014-today)
  2. Founder of a website/startup called Voievozii.ro. Got a 1000$ grant in a project competition from Youth Bank to promote Romanian entrepreneurs and inventors. Held a small science fair at our high school with the aforementioned inventors and the whole school attended. The media also talked about our event. (2012-today) I've learnt a lot about programming, graphic design, video filming and editing, organizing events etc etc etc. Voievozii basically taught me almost everything about starting a project.
  3. Founding member of a Coalition for the Development of Education that aims to completely transform the Romanian Educational System by uniting all the education-related organizations in Romania. This coalition will first bring the orgs and high-ranking officials from the govt in a structured dialogue and afterwards work on tangible reforms.
  4. Released a few Android and IOS games. (2014 -today) (I programmed and designed the graphics)
  5. I was invited to author an essay that was published in a book called Romania's New Wave. I wrote about changing Romania's educational system, the impact of tech on our generation, broader geopolitical aspects such as Romania's place in the European Union etc. The book includes essays from entrepreneurs, inventors, former ministers, activists and leaders of the Romanian society. The book is under the Foreign Policy brand and adopts a crowdfunding model that allows it to be shared as much as possible. The book's coordinators also invited me to participate in a talk show on a major Romanian news channel.
  6. Chief Designer/Project Manager at Open Vote (2014-present)

I helped design and produce an app that allowed Romanian citizens, home and abroad, to report voting fraud with the help of pictures and geo location during the 2014 Romanian presidential election. There were many reports of bribery, vote tourism, mismanagement of the voting stations etc. The biggest issue that Open Vote helped uncover was that of Ro Embassies abroad which, under the guidance of the Prime Minister that was also a candidate, limited the number of Romanians who could vote because the diaspora was not favorable to him. Open Vote also represented a bad experience due to the quality of the product in the end, but that is another story. We have also received and AD grant from Google and lots of media coverage.

  1. Youngest participant at the Young Leaders for Tomorrow's Europe Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia (2014)

-I was chosen as a participant after going through an application process that admitted only 20 participants out of 400 applicants. Full expenses paid by the organizers. The focus was on international relations.

  1. I won the 3rd prize in a nation wide poster design contest organized by the US Embassy in Bucharest. My poster was displayed at the Embassy, American Corner etc

(a few online courses from Coursera)
10. Learn to Program: The Fundamentals from the University of Toronto (this taught me all the basics)

  1. Gamification from UPENN (I loved this course due to Kevin Werbach, a great professor at Wharton)
  2. What's your big idea? from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (amazing intro to entrepreneurship + the lean startup)
  3. Journalism course “How much freedom do you have on the internet? – Digital rights and wrongs” by CJI (September 2012)
  4. Participated in the Mini Model United Nations that took place at Cosbuc as the delegate for the Russian Federation (April 2014) Won the best delegate award.
  5. Participated at the Global Enterprise Project – National Challenge by Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise Romania (March 2014)
  6. Participated (didn't finish because I didn't like what was happening there at all) in the Center for Excellence in Physics after passing a difficult admission exam. (2013)
  7. Designed the poster and graphics for the 2014 Freshman Ball ( 3000 attendants) and helped organize the 2012 freshman ball.

Future projects

  1. I was invited to speak at a TEDx conference
  2. I will launch a new kind of online retail store this summer
  3. A crowdfunding campaign for a board game.

As you can see, I’m a bit too spread out. I love programming, designing, working on projects and I think that’s my main disadvantage because admission officers might not see that I actually love trying and doing a lot of stuff in my free time. I just think that because there are so many things on this planet, it would be shame not to try them and ultimately, create something truly meaningful with the acquired knowledge.

Thanks in advance! I know I was a bit too long-winded…

2

Would you like to have a fun, well rounded experience? Do you like sports? You know Purdue is there anything wrong with Purdue?

3

Well, I played tennis for 8 years, but sports are not necessarily my priority. Purdue is on my list as well; however, it does not offer as much financial aid as I would like…

4

You may want to try some other private schools that don’t have laws restricting aid to foreign students. These schools may not get as many applications from students like you and might find you a worthy candidate.

Lehigh, Bucknell, Union, Stevens Institute

What did you want to major in?

Based on your stats, the schools you mentioned are a long shot.

5

I think you have a good chance especially because pf your passionate ECs. If you get to a 2200 you might get into one of the top schools. Good luck!

Chance me back! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1769031-what-are-my-chances-at-these-schools-p2.html
You will need to read through the comments cause I got a 31 on ACT and I added some colleges (BostonU, UTAustin, Northeastern)

6

the ivies and Stanford and those level schools are very high reaches, not because I don’t think you’re qualified or capable but because there is just such huge international competition for those schools, plus only a few are need blind and guarantee to meet 100% of need for international students which it sounds like you’ll need, the inly one I know of is harvard but I’m sure there are others, if you’re going to be applying for aid then you definitely need to look at private schools that are need blind for international students otherwise if you require a lot of aid then even if you had a 4.0,2400, and won international awards they just couldn’t afford you and so won’t accept you. Also just out of curiosity what part of Romania are you from? I’m american but I used to live in moldova for a couple years. But also remember that you can still succeed and have a great time and get a great education and wonderful opportunities from non Ivy leage or Ivy League level schools. But I think raising your sat certainly won’t hurt and maybe try some say subject tests because I think a concern the schools might have is that since you are from eastern europe the curriculum might be different, or as they might see it inferior, so taking subject tests and doing well on them will prove your knowledgeability on those subjects. But good luck with everything, even if you don’t get into one of the top schools you listed you seem passionate enough to succeed anywhere!

7

Hey! Thanks a lot for the feedback :smiley:

@BatesParents2019 Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll check them out.

@tomatoes124 Sure! And thanks for the encouragement!

@xSucksToSuckx I’m originally from Tulcea, but I moved to Bucharest right before kindergarten. Thanks a lot for the answer though. I’m aware of the tough international competition sooo…I think I’m gonna try to get a better SAT Score, since I only took it once (same for the Subject Tests).

8

I’ve done some research on international students. A website that you might find helpful is http://www.iie.org. This is a group that helps international students interested in attending collleges in the US. You have some impressive ECs although you need to focus them a bit as you complete applications. There is a lot of competition for international students, but Romania does not have a lot of students applying or attending US colleges. In terms of financial aid, I think you are going to have the most luck with private universities with big endowments and a track record of offering generous financial aid to international students. The following colleges all have a fair number of international students receiving more than $50K/year in financial aid: Yale, Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, U.Chicago, Skidmore, Stanford, Bates, Trinity and Harvard. Of these - Wesleyan, Skidmore, Bates and Trinity are the easier ones to be admitted to. Don’t forget to take the TOEFL

9

@Wje9164be Don’t suggest to @TheodorMarcu that Wesleyan and Bates are easy to get into. His or her stats are below average for these two and the schools are small. Realistically, an international student is looking at a 10% chance or lower unless stats are very high.

10

“easier” does not mean “easy”

11

Hey I saw that you’re from Romania. Do you by any chance know the Colegiul National Elena Cuza? Do they ever send kids to the Ivy League universities or to Oxbridge? Thanks! @TheodorMarcu