Chance an International Student please (ED II Stern) :S

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
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<p>Country: Saudi Arabia
School Type: Private (One of the top 5 schools in the Middle East)
Ethnicity: Middle Eastern+African+Southeast Asian
Gender: Male
Financial Aid: NO</p>

<p>Languages Spoken Fluently: Arabic, English, Bahasa Indonesia</p>

<p>UWGPA: 3.806</p>

<p>Teacher Recs: Excellent, but one of my 3 teachers I chose for reccomendations lacks extensive english skills, but you could tell it was straight from the heart and a bit wacky (he said I was handsome :D ! )</p>

<p>Exact Rank: 2
2/35
ACT: None</p>

<p>SAT I (best scores):
CR 580
M 570
W 570</p>

<p>TOEFL iBT: 103/120</p>

<p>SAT II: None</p>

<p>Potential College Major: Finance</p>

<p>AP's taken: None offered at my school</p>

<p>Senior Schedule:
1st Semester:
Math (Calculus)
Probability & Statistics
Islamic Studies
Arabic
English
Physical Education
Physics</p>

<p>2nd Semester:
Math (calculus)
Islamic Studies
Arabic
English
Physical Education
Chemistry
Biology</p>

<p>*Please note that students do not select schedules or courses...exactly like elementary school :/</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars:
-Founder,President, School's Honor Society (12)
-Finance Editor, School's English Magazine (11)
-Treasurer of Student Council
-Class President (12)
-Chairman, Academic Reform Committee (12)
-Founder, Instructor,Stock Trading Club (11,12)
-Division II Basketball (9) Runner-Up U16 City Championships, Starting wingman
-Legacy Corp., Financial Affairs Executive (9) {backpacks to mexico, school desks to kenya, opened a preschool in senegal}
-Saudi Student Club (9,10), Senior Member then Youth President (I had been a member for 6 years at the Hamilton branch, then Youth President)</p>

<p>-Family Responsibilities (10,11) : I had to look after my brother and sister as my mom took strong medication for her chronic stress problems. In addition to moving to a new school, my mom's conditions limited how much I could participate in extracurriculars.</p>

<p>Achievements:
Outstanding Achievement (9) x 3
Vincent Massey Service Award (awarded once a year, must benominated by atleast 3 teachers)
Financial Management 10/20 Achievement Award (top student)
Honor Student (9,10,11,12)</p>

<p>Volunteering:
-Tutoring
-Jeddah Flood Disaster Relief Campaign, Co-Founder, Director
-College Admissions Information Campaign (informed student body about process, selection, choices, testing, etc., also distributed brochures from institutions, including NYU Abu Dhabi).
-Disaster Relief Campaign for Pakistan Flood victims</p>

<p>Other:
-Worked for 7 weeks at a large Middle Eastern Investment Bank (summer 2010) (unpaid)</p>

<p>Please keep in mind that I moved to a new school in grade 9,10, and 11. This explains my more visible participation in 11th and 12th grade. My move in grade 9 and 10 was due to the academic structure in Alberta (Grade 9 is considered Junior High School), wherein I graduated to the first year of highschool (grade 10) in Alberta. I moved to Saudi Arabia in grade 11 due to the conclusion of my father's studies.</p>

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<p>bump!</p>

<p>I really need this</p>

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<p>Well the SAT is overall pretty low, but don’t be disheartened. The low math score may definitely reflect negatively. Unfortunately, the EC’s are also looking a little weak because they all seem very recent, implying that you jumped on the EC bandwagon just for it to decorate a college app.</p>

<p>I can’t really chance you. Stern is a pretty wildcard. I got in EDI, but other people that I’ve seen on CC that had much better statistics than me didn’t make it. My best advice would be to write a stunning essay that makes Stern really think “Wow, we need this person at our school regardless of anything else!”. Good luck :)</p>

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<p>konig,</p>

<p>I also picked up on the low SAT I scores. Too bad you have no time left to prepare and take them again in time for the 1/1/11 ED 2 deadline. :(</p>

<p>Your unweighted GPA looks good. Your rank of #2 in a small senior class is also very good. Definitely better than the SAT Is. So you show yourself normally to be an achiever in class work. Which is good.</p>

<p>Maybe you are a “poor” test taker for high stress one deal tests like the SATs. Or something interfered with your test-taking ability in the SAT Is. Were family conditions a factor in your ability to prepare and study for the SAT Is? How are you doing in Calculus? Probability and Statistics? That might help to offset the low (for Stern) SAT I Math score.</p>

<p>I got a different impression from AudreyH. Your ECs are very strong. You also had the longer term commitment with the Saudi Student Club (6 years), leading eventually to a solid leadership position. You adapted very quickly to a new school in a different country (Saudi Arabia) and assumed not just ordinary positions but leadership positions in significant student groups and activities. By the way, is your country of origin Saudi Arabia? If that is the case, your mother country seems to be where you really blossom. It looked like the stress of living in a “foreign”? place, Alberta, affected your family and you significantly. I am going out on a limb here. The Admissions people may look at your adjustment to a new country. Is it a personal factor and/or family-related that you might have adjustment issues? </p>

<p>This means how you portray yourself and your family circumstances in the 10th and 11th grades in your essay can be significant in their assessment of your strength or weakness as an applicant.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, your SAT Is are really in the low end of SAT I scores for Stern applicants. And Stern Admission is “well known” to be statistics driven. But, like AudreyH pointed out, she found other applicants here in NYU CC with stronger profiles (statistics wise), but the Admissions people, nonetheless, found something special about her that overrode maybe slightly “lower” statistics. (Hehe, I am going to make the observation that I see her strength in how she has distinguished herself as a contributor in CC NYU’s forum in a relatively short time, asking good questions, trying to provide support to other applicants, being active/ responsible, taking initiative, etc.) </p>

<p>Good qualities like the ones I have mentioned can be powerful components of an application, if they can be expressed and seen strongly/ clearly through the essays and recommendations. Perhaps Stern is not always as statistics-driven as we think.</p>

<p>This would help your case with the lower SAT Is. If anything, much now hinges upon your own essay and those three recommendation letters.</p>

<p>GL. Yours is a tough call. Obvious problem with the SAT Is, strong achievement in classes, strong and active roles in ECS in the right setting (country), question about adjustment issues. Other more subjective factors that may support your strengths as an applicant most definitely have to be clearly communicated to the Admissions people.</p>

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<p>@AudreyH: Thanks
@evolving: I’m getting an A in both so far (midterm), but I’m trying really hard to get an A+ by the end. Yes, Saudi is my country of origin, but I lived in canada more than I’ve lived here. In addition, I never stayed more than a year at my previous 2 schools, so it limited my level of participation (kinda hard to make a noticeable impact your first year at a new school…). I personally don’t think I have adjustment issues, as I explained the lack of depth in participation in grade 9 and 10.</p>

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<p>What is stern’s SAT range? Will the january test be considered? A few days till the deadline :S</p>

<p>Will the way they look at my SAT differ seeing that I don’t need financial aid?</p>

<p>Would it be wise if my principal faxed a really excellent recommendation mid january to plead my case? …So far I have 3 recommendations (chem,physics, english).</p>

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<p>Thank you for those kind words evolving! </p>

<p>konig, in my opinion, I accredit my admission to Stern to my supplements, my commonapp essay and short answer. I also had a powerful recommendation from my Business Studies teacher which probably made all the difference.</p>

<p>NYU claims to be need blind so whether you need aid or not does not affect your admission chances. I don’t know what Stern’s SAT ranges are, however, I do know that the average CR+M is 1440. The January test will not be considered because the results of that only come in Feb, which is around the time your decision will be released. You can go ahead and fax the recommendation if you wish, I can’t say how much that would help. I sent in 6 recommendations to Stern which may have been a little overboard :-/</p>

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<p>Do they take best math+ best CR? Then that’s 570+580</p>

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<p>NYU IS need-blind… with the exception of internationals. Paying in full will help your app. However, your SAT scores are very very low. If they understand about any disadvantages you may have resulting in your SAT scores, they will probably be forgiving. And yes, they do take the best from each section.</p>

<p>Your best bet is to absolutely beast your commonapp essay and your supplements. Edit the crap out of those to make sure they are absolutely the best you can produce. When you are editing your supplements, ask yourself “can anyone else write what I’m writing?” If not, then you have probably put your best creative effort in it.</p>

<p>I think you’re fine with the 4 recs thing… the EDII pool will most likely not be as big as the EDI/RD pools are, so they will probably have more time to read applications. But who knows, maybe they read it along with RD apps.</p>

<p>However, as I am not an NYU admissions officer myself, take my advice with a grain of salt. Apply and have faith. You never know.</p>

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<p>I have letters of recommendation from 2 grade 10 teachers in Canada…is there a way to share them with the NYU admission office? Its from my social studies (really good recommendation) teacher and my financial management teacher…my common app recommendations are excellent, but the only weakness is that the evaluators themselves lack english skills that would make them killer recs…but overall decent…</p>

<p>Seeing that Financial Aid does matter for international admissions, does it mean there’s more leeway with the SAT I score?</p>

<p>For my common app essay, I chose to talk about women’s rights in saudi arabia. I think I did good for the supplements :S</p>

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<p>I also realised that nobody noted my work experience…does it help? I did because I enjoy finance (as you can tell from my activities), but I’m wondering if it aides my application in anyway</p>

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<p>Sorry to triple post, but I’m posting from my phone and it submits every time I press enter to start a new paragraph.</p>

<p>Seeing that my toefl score is above the competitive average , is that a good push away from gawking at my sat score (which is about 100 below middle 50 percent)?</p>

<p>Random questions…</p>

<p>Does geographical diversity affect admission chances? As in, if NYU has a lot of applicants from foreign country X, and little to no applicants from foreign country y, does an applicant from foreign country y have an edge?</p>

<p>Does NYU (and stern, specifically) practice affermative action? Does AA apply to internationals? Can someone explain AA to me, I just read it (and google’d it to try to understand it a bit…but alas, no avail) and it seems like an easy ticket for minorities…is this true?</p>

<p>Thank you very much!</p>

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<p>bump bump! sorry, Im just really anxious</p>

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<p>You can add those Canadian teachers to your commonapp online, its fine. Your work experience certainly helps, but it won’t completely offset any weaker parts of your application because NYU is aware that most kids don’t have the opportunity to engage in proper internships and jobs. But, it is a definitely plus point :)</p>

<p>I’m sure geographical diversity helps. And the minority status also helps. Obviously I can’t tell you to what degree it will help, but it definitely does help.</p>