Chance an international homeschooler

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'd like to know what my chances of getting into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst and Dartmouth are. I cannot afford to have any safeties because I'm an international student and need full financial aid. A basic overview of my stats is below:</p>

<ol>
<li>SAT Reasoning- 2320</li>
<li><p>SAT Subject tests:
World History- 730
Biology(Molecular)- 790</p></li>
<li><p>I will be appearing for a five AP exams this may and I'm well prepared to score above 4 in all of them. I have taken many courses on Udacity, Coursera and edX. I will also be appearing for 5 exams from the National Institute of Open Schooling(NIOS), a government-organisation in India for homeschoolers.</p></li>
<li><p>The most important factor is that I am a homeschooler. I have homeschooled myself in the last two years of high school to focus on research in psychology. Will being an international homeschooler have an adverse impact on my application?</p></li>
<li><p>My extracurriculars include:
*ISEF Semi-finalist
*Founder of a start-up publishing company that bridges the gap between self, traditional and vanity publishing.
*Founder editor of my high school newspaper(This was during the first two years of high school. I am a homeschooler now)
*Won lots of quizzes, debates and other related competitions, not only at the high school level but also at the university level.
*I am ranked 681 in the world in Scrabble(Rated by WESPA, the body that governs competitive scrabble across the world)
*I am a freelance journalist and have published articles in some of the most popular mainstream publications of India including The Bangalore Mirror, The Hindu and others.</p></li>
<li><p>I need 100% financial aid as my total family income is <$5000</p></li>
<li><p>I hope to major in Psychology/Neurobiology and minor in Molecular Biology.</p></li>
<li><p>What do I do about teacher and counselor recommendations and the international supplement? I can get eachers who taught me before I opted for homeschooling to write recommendations for me. Since I attended regular high school for 2 years, I will also be sending transcripts from my time there. Will I end up confusing the adcoms?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I'd greatly appreciate honest feedback.</p>

2

<p>The adcom is going to have a very tough time, trying to figure out if you’re the real deal. Given the amount of international competition, I suspect they will pass on your application and quickly move on to other candidates with a more traditional background.</p>

3

<p>@Sosomenza- Thank you for your honest feedback. Will really good essays coupled with LORs from people including the professor whose lab I’m working in right now help my cause?</p>

4

<p>nik,</p>

<p>Are you a junior this year? If so, you have some time to really prepare yourself for college applications in the fall. </p>

<p>You sound like a great student! The tricky part is simply the fact that there are relatively few spots at American colleges for international students, so you will want to really communicate clearly what it is you did and why you did it when you homeschooled.</p>

<p>Yes, getting letters of recommendation from former teachers, mentors, really, anyone who knows you well and knows what you are capable of, would be very helpful. Definitely, the prof whose lab you work in would be perfect!</p>

<p>I don’t agree with sosomenza; you just need to be able to tell your story with outstanding essays, a great counselor letter (written by your parent or another adult who acts as a facilitator/counselor/ etc), and very strong awards/honors, which you have.</p>

<p>I think your safeties need to be schools in your own country.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would add more schools that meet need and look for schools that have full tuition scholarships for top students. Keep working on your college list.</p>