Chance an international student please :)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hi guys
I'm from New Zealand and is studying the Cambridge International courses (CIE) which is an UK system. However I wish to enter American Universities and Upenn is my first choice. please evaluate my profile.</p>

<p>Grades
Our highschool starts from year 9 to year 13... haha. but the CIE courses only start from year 11 upwards. And the maximum subjects we are allowed to take per year is 5.</p>

<p>IGCSE level(year 11)
Maths (with stats & calculus) ~A*
English ~A
Physics ~A*
French ~A*
Graphics Design ~A*</p>

<p>AS Level (year 12)
Maths (with stats & calculus) ~ A
Physics~A
Chemistry ~B
English Literature ~C ....... pretty devastating i kno..</p>

<p>A level ( this year) <<< I read it somewhere that A-levels are the equivalent of APs
currently taking..
Maths(with stats & calculus)
Physics
Chemistry
English Literature
French (AS level)</p>

<p>Haven't sat the end of the year exams and I won't be able to get the results till january 2011.
But the thing with CIE is that the A level mark is made up of 50% of your AS level mark and 50% of your A level exam. So.. it would be close to impossible to bring my English A level mark to an A...T_T; i wish i could go back in time and studied harder..</p>

<p>SAT I
CR: 630
Writing:610
Maths:770</p>

<p>total:2010.. :/ i got 2010 in the year of 2010.. ...
I'm retaking in October, hopefully 2200+</p>

<p>SAT II
Maths 2: 780
Literature: 660....</p>

<p>Rank
School doesnt rank</p>

<p>Co-curricular & Awards</p>

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<p>Volunteering & service</p>

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<p>Can somebody shed some light to my situation? Will my C in English greatly affect my chances of getting into Upenn? And also I'll be applying as an international student, will it be tougher?</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

2

<p>International students aren’t need-blind for FA, so are you applying for FA?</p>

3

<p>Oceanic pool isn’t as tough as the Asian pool I believe, but International is always a bit tougher. But yes the question remains, do you need financial aid? if so how much do you need? Btw, CIE IGCSE Maths has no calc… did you do add maths? Try to get the Lit grade up to a B and the chem grade up to an A, as for the SAT, maths is good, but work harder on the reading and writing sections (esp. the essay).</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the feedbacks</p>

<p>what do you mean by “need-blind”? although i don’t particularly need financial aid. And also what do you mean by the different “pools”? If I have a New Zealand passport, it’s more likely to get in to a school because there are less people competing from Oceania? 0_0 omg,</p>

<p>and yea no calculus for IGCSE maths ^^; my bad my bad</p>

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<p>A “pool” is a group of applicants with a common characteristic that is addressed with a particular admission policy. “Internationals needing aid” is a bad one to be in when applying to a need-aware college.</p>

<p>You’ve never taken any social science/history? US colleges will not be thrilled about that.
Your C in literature combined with lower scores in English-related areas will hurt you.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the feedback. @ greennblue, I have EC that links to history. (guide at local historical village) does that help?</p>

<p>@ Chehk, On the Penn website, it says that they view all applicants regardless of ethnicity to be from the same pool. But then, they say that the freshman studybody is made up of people from 90 countries… So it kinda implies that there is a limit to the number of admission from each country…?</p>