Chance an international for... well... a lot of places.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I never thought I would see the day when I would become neurotic enough to actually use this account and start a "What are my chances" thread. Anyway, in pursuit of the American dream, I applied to the maximum number of colleges the common app would allow me to. My list has 20 colleges including extremely high reaches and safeties, although I'm not sure how the safeties would feel about providing financial support. I wasn't planning on applying to US colleges until my physics teacher suggested I did so this summer. In other words, my EC's weren't planned from the beginning and I had only 2 months to prep for the SAT. Luckily, my physics teacher included this information in his superb recommendation, so colleges may take that factor into consideration.</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):
770 Math
670 CR
680 W
1440/1600 2120/2400 (possible retake in January?)</p>

<p>SAT II:
Math II:770
Chemistry:750
Biology:720 - This one has me worried because I was in the Biology Olympiad</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.62 with a HUGE upward trend.</p>

<p>Rank: 2/37 overall.
1/37 for Junior and Senior years. </p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load: 13 courses. Our "elective" science and math courses (all 5 of them) are said to be based on the UK's A levels. Got 5's in all of them.</p>

<p>YGS(national exam): Best score is in the 99.6th percentile nationwide.</p>

<p>TOEFL-IBT: 109</p>

<p>Awards: School's academic honors award.
Trivial table tennis and science project awards (not even on app)</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>President of the regional branch of a youth political organization. Took part in organizing a protest which gained international attention. The organization turned somewhat radical, so I abandoned it.
Had an unofficial "business" compiling class notes and selling them to students at various schools.
Did independent medical research which was sent to journals, but didn't get published.
Class President (2 years)
Founder and captain of school's table tennis team.
Biology Olympiad.
Self taught guitar player.</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:
Freelance translator whenever I find work. It takes up about 10 hours per week on average. I mostly translate research papers for graduate students at the local university.
Staff member at a gym.
Worked in my uncle's factory for 2 summers.</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community service:
Community service club (president for 3 years). In my country we are only allowed to be in one school club. This was mine for all 4 years. We organized a few clothes runs, blood drives, fundraisers etc.
Currently volunteering to help Syrian refugees.</p>

<p>Summer Activities:
Physician and pharmacist shadowing.
More translating work?
Manual labor job.</p>

<p>Essays: Common app is 8/10.I talked about the hardships of my 9th grade state run boarding school. The individual school essays seem marginally better.</p>

<p>Teacher Recommendation:
Physics teacher: Work of art. Couldn't have written a better recommendation myself.
English teacher: Didn't show me but it should be great, I've known him for 6 years.</p>

<p>Counselor Rec: He had me translate it. It was pretty good.</p>

<p>Interviews: Not getting any of these :(</p>

<p>Background</p>

<p>Country (if international applicant):Turkey
School : Private school. Second or third best in a province of 1 million+. Has never sent anyone abroad for college.
Ethnicity: Middle Easternish White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 45000 on a day with a good exchange rate.
Intended majors: Biochemistry and Economics
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Legacy at my last place safety.</p>

<p>Harvard- May be getting an alumni reference from a former neighbor. Deferred SCEA but a guy can dream, right?
Yale
Princeton
Dartmouth.
Amherst.
Cornell CALS - Might get an alumni reference from an old family friend.
Grinnell.
Middlebury (possible ED II)
Colgate (also possible ED II)
Bates
Colby (another possible ED II)
Connecticut college
University of Richmond (Richmond Scholars program)
Skidmore
Lafayette
Earlham
Gettysburg
Trinity (Connecticut)
St. Lawrence
Le Moyne College</p>

<p>I'm open to advice for both my application and my laundry list. I still haven't applied to about half of them so there is room for a substitution. This post turned out a bit longer than expected, sorry for the long read. To make it up, I'll chance you back.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>@burak96‌ - You seem like an excellent candidate - an international applicant from a non-English speaking country with your qualifications and English language skills will definitely stand out from the crowd.</p>

<p>I think your SAT score is fine - 670CR/680W is fantastic if English is not your first language. You mentioned you are a legacy to one of your safeties - is one of your parents a native English speaker?</p>

<p>Having applied to so many schools, I hope you have found the time to prepare really good supplemental essays for those schools that require them.</p>

<p>It seems you have done your footwork regarding financial aid - many of these schools provide generous aid to internationals. Pay attention to the financial aid reporting requirements and deadlines. I assume most are CSS profile schools - Princeton has it’s own financial form but you can import CSS data into the form.</p>

<p>I’m not going to make any predictions, and you can’t chance me back as I’m a parent, but I’ll wish you good luck.</p>

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<p>^^^As the above poster said, you are a very good candidate!</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>Thanks @BldrDad. Your critique really means a lot to me. My father was actually a faculty member, we moved back and forth a lot during my childhood. I went to elementary school in the US for 4 years, but I’ve been living in Turkey and haven’t used English on a regular basis since 2008. Most of these places are indeed CSS profile schools- the fee is kind of a pain but it’ll be worth it if I get accepted with aid into even one of them. If your son/daughter is also applying this year I wish him/her the best of luck as well.</p>

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<p>Thank you Paul. I’m really starting to feel a lot more optimistic.</p>

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<p>@burak96- Thanks! My daughter went through this all last year, she’s now a freshman at Harvard :slight_smile: Let me know if you have any further questions.</p>

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<p>@burak96 I think you have a pretty decent chance man! </p>

<p>Your test scores are great, and your combination of ECs are quite unique, imo. </p>

<p>Also, we have seven colleges in common, so maybe we might be freshmen at the same institution next year haha</p>

<p>Good luck! :)</p>

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<p>@adityajk1997‌ Thanks mate. I’ll send you a PM some time in April to see if we become classmates. :)</p>

<p>Good luck to you too</p>

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<p>Oh wow I think your ECs are fantastic :slight_smile:
Harvard: With your SATs it’s a reach but your ECs might help you
Yale: Reach
Princeton: Reach
Dartmouth: Low Reach
Amherst:Low Reach/Match
Cornell CALS - Low Reach
Middlebury (possible ED II): Match
Colgate (also possible ED II): Match/Low Reach
Bates: Match
Others I’m not really sure about. The only reason some of these are reaches are because the ivies are very unpredictable and your SAT score is on the lower end for HYP. Good luck :slight_smile:
Chance back?
<a href=“Chance me for Vassar I'll chance back :) - Vassar College - College Confidential Forums”>Chance me for Vassar I'll chance back :) - Vassar College - College Confidential Forums;

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<p>@12345n Thank you. The others are there because the ones you chanced are indeed quite unpredictable. I’m considering retaking the SAT and perhaps withdrawing from Yale. I hope this whole process works out for both of us.</p>

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<p>@burak96‌
Wow. Your ECs are amazing.</p>

<p>I am an international applicant too! Just curious, how would one, like yourself, with amazing ECs fill in the CommonApp? How do you, with such extensive accomplishments, do yourself justice with 10-activities-only list and the short amount of space for detailing your activity?</p>

<p>My ECs are not as good as yours:P but I keep running out of space in the CommonApp. :(</p>

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<p>@AlvinT Thanks! I never thought they were that amazing. I should probably add that there is a not-so-impressive side of many of my ECs.</p>

<p>For example:</p>

<p>-In the said political group, I was the head of a division with only 30 or so members. A google search of the group’s name shows that it is fiercely anti-american which may raise a red flag even though I’ve explicitly stated that I’ve changed ideologically and have no remaining connection to them. Also, thousands of people played a bigger role than I did in organizing the internationally famous protests (look up “2013 Gezi Park protests” if you are curious). </p>

<p>-The table tennis team as a whole was terribly unsuccessful.</p>

<ul>
<li>We translators aren’t acknowledged at all, so my name isn’t on any of the papers that got published.</li>
</ul>

<p>-The community service club only meets for 2 hours per week and was listed as such.</p>

<p>-I was appointed rather than elected as class president for one year after the elected class president got expelled.</p>

<p>10 activities was just enough because I don’t have any significant or interesting ECs other than the ones I listed.</p>

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<p>Update and shameless bump: Middlebury it is for ED II. Harvard alumnus recommendation letter confirmed. </p>

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<p>Harvard - reach for everyone, deferment is not promising, but still not out of the question
Yale - reach
Princeton - reach
Dartmouth - reach
Amherst - low reach
Cornell CALS - low reach
Grinnell - safe
Middlebury (possible ED II) - match
Colgate (also possible ED II) -match
Bates - match
Colby (another possible ED II) - match
Connecticut college - safe
University of Richmond (Richmond Scholars program) - safe
Skidmore - match
Lafayette - safe
Earlham - safe
Gettysburg - safe
Trinity (Connecticut) - match
St. Lawrence - safe
Le Moyne College - safe</p>

<p>You’re a competitive applicant at top schools. You really don’t need so many safeties. Just don’t mention the downfalls of your ECs. Best of luck!</p>

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<p>@qwerty97‌ Thanks! I have so many safeties because you can never be sure as an international asking for a lot of aid. Unless ADCOMs browse these boards, they won’t know about the downfalls except for the 2 hour/week community service bit. Best of luck to you too! </p>

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<p>I’m also Turkish haha you don’t see many of us on here! We have quite a bit of common schools, I am also applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Amherst, and Colgate. You seem like a very strong applicant. I wish you the best of luck and maybe we’ll end up at the same school!</p>

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<p>@bosphorus Well, this is the first time I’ve seen a fellow Turk here. I guess that means we don’t have as much competition as applicants from Asian countries. Are you from Robert Kolej by any chance? Your username and school list made me think so. </p>

<p>If you have a chance thread, I’ll gladly chance back. </p>

<p>Sana da iyi şanslar :)</p>

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<p>Except for your first 4 choices you have a decent shot…mainly because of as you have already said, your low SAT scores and ‘slightly’ SAT 2, especially the biology one as you have clearly pointed out…I would recommend you to retake in January, I raised my scores from 2140 to 2230 in one month…and you clearly still have time…But, some colleges accept only December scores, so check each colleges’ preference…If you can raise your SAT to near 2300 then you might have a decent shot at HYP , Amherst, Dartmouth and Cornell also, but you can never be sure about them… But on the other hand, your EC’s are really excellent, so they might just tip the balance…Thats the best I’ve got.</p>

<p>Could you chance be back?..<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1725426-my-last-chance-thread-please-give-your-opinions.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1725426-my-last-chance-thread-please-give-your-opinions.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@michaelite‌ Thanks. I’ve chanced you back. Best wishes.</p>

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I am only going to chance you on the schools I have done proper research on.

Grinnell - match
Colgate - match
Bates - match
Colby - match
Connecticut college - safe
Lafayette - safe
Trinity (Connecticut) - safe

I think you are going to get into at least one of these schools (if not more) with your full financial need met. You have some very impressive stats there!