Chance an Australian?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi. Hate to take advantage but I'm in australia and now that I have sat results, any help is appreciated. I'm somewhat unfamiliar with the system, so I hope that you guys will chance me.</p>

<p>yale (top choice, early action)
harvard
uPenn
uc berkeley
Boston</p>

<p>(will DEFINITELY apply to safeties, can anyone suggest a school that might be a match for me?) </p>

<p>caucasian female
large public school, somewhat competitive (I'm the first to apply to the US)</p>

<p>literature/ english major (hopefully)</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2300 (cr 800, w 800, m 700)
SAT II: biology m 780
literature 800
maths is not my strong point.</p>

<p>rank- we don't rank but I would be in the top 5 out of 150</p>

<p>subjects:
english A+ (we don't have AP)
literature A+
chemistry C+
biology A+
History (revolutions) A+</p>

<p>pretty much perfect transcript except for some mediocre math results before I dropped the subject, will this hurt?</p>

<p>ec's:
Japanese exchange program (yr nine)
Qualified dressmaker (completed training this year)
Costumes for school musical
Two rock eistedfodds (dance competitions)- our school was state finalist
Year twelve student representative council
Year twelve student leader
volunteer for red cross (helping the homeless)
violin seven years- organised concerts to raise money for children with cancer
was featured in four art shows last year
debating team</p>

<p>awards:
academic awards- 6 years
art awards- four years
show champion at three state shows for oil painting and textiles
theatre studies award (costumes and direction)
will receive english, literature, history awards for graduating class</p>

<p>work experience:
customer service- optical superstore (1 year)
sales assistant- spotlight (fabrics and sewing advice) last three years
internship- fashion incubator</p>

<p>teacher references and counsellor references will be excellent.</p>

<p>essays will also be excellent. (a LOT of work has gone into them.)</p>

<p>I am expecting extremely good VCE results (in the top 95%.)</p>

<p>I hope the fact that my ec's and awards are not academic will not hurt. I'm submitting supplementary art materials as well. And my teachers have known and taught me for years, so will be very explicit. also, I have not done extra work over the summers (just worked at jobs, volunteering and self study)- will this hurt? we get six week summer breaks.</p>

<p>Any help is GREATLY appreciated!!</p>

2

<p>as it stands, it seems pretty slim chance you will get into any of the colleges mentioned. your academic results at school are going to hurt, especially not doing any math and getting C+ in chemistry. also your ECs seem pretty average. i think you need to reconsider your options and aim much lower.</p>

3

<p>In Australia it's quite common for even the valedictorian to get a B at a top school. Perhaps they grade harder, I'm not sure but I'm currently making the transition so I can tell later. </p>

<p>Whether the adcoms realize that at Australian schools it's much more common to get a C and still be the top, I'm not sure. Also >95% on VCEs don't seem that crash hot. A guy from here got into MIT with a 99.95 (Something like that) and he was really smart yet he didn't get in somewhere else. But then again I come from NSW so I don't know how good a 95 is in VCEs but if 20 people can get 99.95 then a 95 looks poor. </p>

<p>To me your ECs are amazing because in Australia no one does ANY ECs. Yes, you're meant to do ECs not for college but for yourself but most students do ECs that they like/love but also with college in mind. And also we have no clubs or anything as such here in schools and no one wants to join a club because they have more teenagy things to do in their free time and Australian unis don't care about these things. Trust me I tried making a club but no one including the teachers wanted to do that. </p>

<p>I mean if you have free time in Australia you play sport, watch TV, talk to friends, Internet. ECs are unheard of but once again adcoms will judge against you for that. And if you went to boarding school in Australia like I did, they won't allow you to go down the street to get a part time job or anything! We had to stay on school grounds or work in the dorms so for that I praise you for doing stuff you clearly like. </p>

<p>But your grades seem weak and you're just unfortunate in that you come from a educational system which is totally against what american colleges are looking for. I did everything we had in Australia (I was described by headmaster as our most active student in the last decade) yet my ECs look sub-par for the typical American Ivy League candidate so it's great you have such focused ECs in fashion. </p>

<p>Wouldn't you rather go to like ANU or Melbourne Uni over American safeties as well? Because you might not get in as you're an international, average ECs (to the American eye) and weak grades (to the American eye). </p>

<p>But I really hope you do as I can see you're a truly active person that the American colleges are really looking for. </p>

<p>You also need 3 SAT IIs for Harvard I think so maybe World History?</p>

<p>PS. Not doing maths hurts. But you got a 700 in SAT Is so perhaps you can just take Maths IC for Subject Test number 4 to show you're decent?</p>

4

<p>wow, thanks! yeah, my grades do seem weak on account of the c... but everything else is pretty much 100 % which my teachers say is crazy because like no one gets 100 % in english like I did. Do you mean my subjects are weak, or my grades are weak? because I couldn't really do any better in any of them besides chem. What if I raise chem?
shore, I'm expecting at LEAST a 95. like a 95 if i bomb. And i can't get a 99.95 cos i haven't got spec or a language, but I'd like a 99 ;) and yes, melbourne u over safeties. but just to make sure.
thanks for being honest. shore, did you get into any top schools? (btw i do know sid lol)</p>

5

<p>I'm going to a top boarding school in America, not up to college yet so can't comment. Now that you told me 95 AT WORST then your grades look good. </p>

<p>But that C+, now to someone like me (Australian) that's okay because we can all get them and get top 5 in the year (I got a C in Latin and came top 5 at a top Australian school that you can probably guess) but to an American adcom, will they realize this considering you're the only one from your school applying? So what I meant was I think your grades are strong but maybe not so strong in the eyes of the adcoms? </p>

<p>And your summer seems very productive so no worries there. </p>

<p>Its just bridging the gap between the two systems is hard. </p>

<p>Raising Chem would help but keep in mind they look at your GPA for the last four years so a lot of it is already done. </p>

<p>Great work on the English though and keep in mind that not doing math looks atrocious. In NSW, even the humanities keen students did at least General Maths which is like easy to mid Precalculus I guess? So I really strong must reiterate that I think you should do SAT Math IC just to show you can handle it. You probably should have done math over chem but alas, can't do much about that. Good luck though.</p>

6

<p>omg thank you. you've been so much help. yeah, it must be hard for you because even though you live there, you're treated as an international.</p>

<p>so how hard is the math SATII? in relation to the SATI i mean. i had to study hard for it because it's not my favourite thing, but i guess i could. i took chem so i could do biomed in australia if i wanted. in melbourne, it's not unusual to drop maths completely. about half don't have maths after year ten, and no one really minds. it's all focus on prerequisites for uni.</p>

<p>where are you applying?</p>

7

<p>Dude you need to aim lower.</p>

8

<p>i'm applying to lower australian schools, not US ones.</p>

<p>btw forgot on my ec list that I'm SRC and student leader. It's one of the ones i'm putting on my application.</p>

9

<p>Having all A+'s and just one C+ should actually not be as deadly as you think. But when you say you dropped math, this would hurt a lot because many universities in the US require a minimum number of math credits.</p>

10

<p>SATs look good, ecs are decent but could use improvement. Not having math and the C+ in chemistry will hurt though. Have your guidance counsellor try to explain that if possible. While I think you have a decent application, I can almost say with certainty that you won't get into your first four choices. Any advantange you gained from your SAT scores will only help you balance out your lack of math and poor results in chemistry. For a school like Berkeley, the math would probably hurt alot more considering Berkeley's background in sciences/engineering. Also, I wouldn't bother putting in-school academic awards if you're an international. You could have your gc mention it to support any claims he/she makes about your academic standing but admissions officers don't care much.</p>

<p>as for the Math SAT II, the level one test is fairly easy but the level two test is significantly harder (though not killer). For the level one test, many unis (I think UCB was one of the first) don't look at that anymore but it can help offset your lack of math grades slightly.</p>

11

<p>VCE Lit is just as hard if not harder than AP Lit..so ur fine there!
A 99.95 will look impressive but won't garuntee a thing. I mean, the only school I didnt make was cornell (??) whilst making much harder ivy leagues.
The VCE score and ur school report are your most crucial facets in the academic section. </p>

<p>A 95 is very ordinary! Aim higher. A min of 99 is what I would suggest. I mean, half my school got over 95 and 20% of my school got over 99 in VCE...</p>

<p>You are looking good, just concentrate on VCE, dont give a **** about what others are saying, because you and i both know there is no point applyin to average US universities</p>

<p>Good luck and let me know if u have more questions</p>

<p>PS: dont talk abt me :P ... haha just make sure the details are right. I only didnt make cornell but the fact that i made Princeton and Wharton surely overcomes that :D</p>

12

<p>lol shore did first! sorry, did i say something wrong? i didn't even know about cornell...</p>

13

<p>Hi! I'm a fellow aussie too, but I'm applying next year. Comparing your ECs to students who've gotten into US unis (ivy leagues mostly), they look pretty good so dont stress too much. Your work experience and ec activities do show your interest/passion/talent at art, what major are you thinking off btw?</p>

<p>And also can you/anyone else comment on the difficulty of the Literature SAT II exam compared to Australian standards, in particularly the HSC in NSW? Thanks heaps in advance :)</p>

14

<p>I don't know about HSC, but VCE lit is relatively more difficult than the SAT II. I'm assuming it's the same difficulty across Australia. there's more of focus on vocab and critical reading in the SAT though. the aussie system is more of a holistic interpretation. Just read heaps and you'll be fine. even if you aren't awesome at it, there's opportunity to do well because of the accessibility of the questions.</p>

15

<p>I think your course work may be a problem--no math? it seems very limited.</p>

<p>im aussie too, and i had no idea i could put making school musical costumes as a EC', new Ec to add to the list for me--</p>

<p>and it all really depends on things like scaling.
i find it a little amusing you say at least you will get a 95.</p>

<p>you need somthing brilliant about you to make you get into those schools--your going to have to do better.</p>

16

<p>lol dude why is that amusing? what about all those people who predict 99+? there are a lot... use an ENTER calculator. they're ace.
I'm putting the costumes under school musical, which is surely an EC.</p>

<p>and since everyone keeps talking about the math, let me just say, if it helps at all, i had math to year 11. so 5 years of high school math. i just didn't take it this year. I'm sure it's still as bad as you all say, but still ;)</p>

<p>for EC's would it help that with the fashion design thing, i started a business last year making personalized formal dresses for high school girls, then used the profits to make costumes for hospitalized children etc? I asked them all what they wanted and ended up with all the usual (pirates, fairies...lol) now some other kids are continuing the program. i guess i thought i'd put it on my app, and tried to make my chances thread as basic as possible. so could anyone chance me with that in mind for EC's?</p>

<p>thanks so much to everyone who replied btw. i love CC.</p>

17

<p>I'm aussie too... applying this year, but from New South Wales... hence taking the very stupid HSC </p>

<p>your ECs are really good for an australian... i'm struggling with them, in fact commonly have bad dreams that I dont have enough.
your SAT reasoning is definetly high enough, you have to remember that its not the only thing they look at, I remember hearing a story about a guy from Sydney Grammar - got 2400 yet still didn't get into Yale, but you look pretty rounded... hard for me to say chances for an international, cause I'm technically NOT international (US PASSPORT WOOT!)
some schools DO require 4 years of maths I think, but most are 3... so I would check on that. Also are you taking the highest level? don't know how VCE works, but I know with the HSC like Extension 1 english looks hella better then standard...</p>

18

<p>well we only have english and lit and english language. lit is considered the highest but i have both lit and english so it doesn't matter.
i have 5 years of math. only just not in year 12. i feel like everyone thinks i have NO high school math or anything. i'm sure its still bad and all, but still.</p>

19

<p>they only count high school from year 9, so you would have 3 years... just double check... I was worried too cause I thought I didn't have enough social science... but then I took ancient history in year 11 so it all worked out.</p>