Chance an international, please

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, I'm an international student from Czech Republic and I'd like apply to several US solleges and universities this year. I'm not sure which schools I'm gonna apply to, but I have about 20 "prechosen" schools.</p>

<p>SAT I - 690CR/750M/680W (Oct 09, first time taken, no practise at all before the test)
SAT Subject test - Math II 800, WH 770
Very good grades at school, but not the best in the class. On the school report, I have usually 2-3 "2" (= B in your system) and the rest (11-12) are "1" (= "A" ).</p>

<p>I haven't finished my essays but as I'm not used to writing in the "american" style, I dont suppose they will be outstanding. On the other hand, they will be quite original, because I have nothing to compare them to. </p>

<p>Very good recommendation from one teacher (I read it because he had never used commonapp.org - I'm the very first student on our school who apllies to US school - so he asked me to help him. I have excellent reputation with almost all members of the staff so he knew he could trust me). Especially the "evaluation" part is excellent, which surprised me a lot, because I awaited something in the czech styl - very conservative, reserved, modest and afraid to either praise or criticise too much. The "ranking" part is not so good, mostly in the "top 5%" and "top 10%" but quite low on very important questions - leadership, concern for others and maturity. And only one "top 1%".
The counselor and other teacher hasnt written it yet, but I'm pretty sure how theirs will look like. The counselor will praise me very enthusiastically and the teacher (out "class teacher", dunno if you have some similar position) will be very reserved - she cant deny my achievements but as we had some conflicts, she wont emphasize them so much.</p>

<p>ECs:
Definitely worse than you guys. There are very few ECs connected to schools as you have (sports, clubs etc.),
so I could list only some summer jobs (I was working at some strange places like butchery, helping in a forrest or handing out newspapers)
sports: chess (I played the highest junior league (de facto captaion of the team), I have constantly been among the top juniors in our "region", I played in many international tournaments, third best player in our club etc.
I have many achievements in competitions in various subjects - math, physics, geography, history, a bit english and some other cross-subject competitions.
Maybe i could list some more things, but I would have to think about it.</p>

<p>So what do you think (If you were so patient to read it all...)? Do I have a chance to get to some good college and get a quite high scholarship? If not, what should I improve to stand for a chance?</p>

<p>Thank you very much for all answers!</p>

2

<p>Thanks, I hoped for somehing better… :-(</p>

<p>Hope you’re kiddin, man…</p>

3

<p>so thank you very much for a very encouraging “help”… Still hope you’re kiddin but if you’re serious I’m screwed…</p>

4

<p>Oh man, after the first post I was sure you were kiddin but when you repeated the same I waivered a bit. I thought that if I didnt apply for FA I would have a good chance on most of the schools (except fot Ivies-like ones), but as I need “some” money, it will be very difficult to get anywhere.</p>

<p>Ony my list are schools like Dartmouth (very long reach, used to be my dream school but know I’m considering dropping it), Middlebury, Carleton, Colgate, Grinnell, Bates, Connecticut, Colby (all are quite a reach…), Kenyon, Oberlin, Sewanee, Trinity, Washington and Lee, and some others which either have no application fee (so it costs exactly 9.5 dollars to apply (unlike most top schools they waive TOEFL requirement because of my SAT score)) or provide a lot of money to international students.</p>

<p>What colleges do you think I have a chance to get to? I know that the colleges I listed are probably too good for me, but still I’d like to try it. There’s no use in going to an average school in US when I’m de facto accepted to every school in Czech Rep. (they use some “Learning potential test” which are pretty easy - I tried one of the last year’s versions and I scored 5 points better than anyone else… (I had 58/70 - not much but percentil 90 is 32 points…).</p>

<p>And thanks for help again, I really appreciate it!</p>

5

<p>Thanks, M “top” school now is Grinnell - they give a lot of money to internationals and it isnt so difficult to get there as to other schools at the same level (maybe because it’s practically in the middle of nowhere…). Connecticut in? I thought it’s a bit more selective… :-D</p>

6

<p>Someone else, please? Thanks</p>

7

<p>bumb,
please, I really need your help!</p>

8

<p>What chance would i have for University of Richmond, Trinity college, Washington and Lee, and Lafayette? Thanks</p>

9

<p>Is there really no one who would sacrifice two minutes to read it and chance me?!</p>

10

<p>Last bumb…no one can help?</p>

11

<p>I don’t know much about international admissions, but I’ll give you a bump and a few comments. Your profile is strong and I think you’ll have a good chance at Grinnell, Kenyon, Conn. College, etc. High-level chess is a good EC. Judging by your post, you’re skilled with English, and that helps. The money is the hard part. Good luck!</p>

12

<p>Thanks a lot! I hope you’re right.</p>

13

<p>get your finance somewhere (try not college connected funding or even loans) and you should get into trinity for sure - just emphasize the chess thing and try to mention it in you essay-. its about selling a story and yours could be one of a great chess junior talent ;)</p>

14

<p>Thanks, maybe I could write to FED if they could send me a pack of notes, when they are already printing so many of them… :-D</p>

<p>I hope I could get something but I cant rely on it, because its almost impossible to get a FA from Czech republic for an undergraduate study in States. When I’m sure about the colleges I’ll apply to, I will try to find some schols over the internet.</p>

<p>btw I’m good but I’m wouldnt consider myself to be a great chess talent. Great chess talent is someone who’s IM under 20 or something like that. But I’m pretty good - since I was 15 I’ve been playing in “adult” competition and almost always finished much better than I was supposed to according to my ELO rating.</p>

15

<p>Wash. and Lee/Lafayette-high match
Trinity-Match
Dart-High reach
Colby/Bates/Colgate-reach</p>

<p>DOn’t know about the rest</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/803256-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/803256-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>Thank you very much. I know Dart (and Williams or Amherst) are very high reach but I feel I should try at least one of them. You never know what may happen… (Maybe the guys reading my application will be chess players as well who lived some tim in Czech rep… :-D)</p>

17

<p>If you make your essays great and show them that you’re really unique, you have a chance at every US school there is. If I were you, I’d apply to a few very good schools that you’d be esctatic to get in. Many students with scores lower than yours, and not very interesting ECs have gotten into Ivy League simply because of their great personalities communicated through their essays. As you said, you never know what might happen.
And don’t be discouraged by other students here on CC who have extremely high test scores and tons of ECs. Those are in most cases the best applicants there are and do not represent the “real” applicant pool a good school receives.</p>

18

<p>Cermi,I am international too.You don’t have to worry…Your grades are very good and your EC’s too.You can improve them of course.Also each college is familiar with the educational system of an other country.With more hard work you can get in a good college or university!!:slight_smile:
I hope you the best!!!And good luck!!;)</p>