<p>Hi College Confidential,</p>
<p>I am an international student who just graduated from high school. I have been admitted to a non-US university but am currently looking at alternatives since I unfortunately only applied to two universities for matriculation this year. </p>
<p>When looking at my prospects of being admitted to a top school in the US, Ivy League or otherwise, I can't help but feel at disadvantage compared to domestic applicants. In stark contrast to my own country, seemingly all the way through high school US students have plenty of opportunities to participate and lead organizations and clubs, engage in a variety of activities and enter contests for various awards. Where I come from high schools barely have anything remotely resembling clubs, not even for sports, and present extremely few opportunities to distinguish yourself apart from just getting a set of decent grades. The only ECs I could even consider myself having done in HS would be teaching a foreign language to a few people regularly, taking evening courses in the same language, painting and outdoor running - in other words nothing particularly impressive.</p>
<p>On the other hand I spent all my HS summers and winters abroad living in another country and in a different culture. I did this by myself, not with any parents or relatives, studied language and volunteered and worked with teaching children English in various ways. How much would this compensate for having very few ECs? </p>
<p>As for my other credentials, I did the IB program and got a total score in the upper 30s (36 - 38 out of 45). I have not done SATs yet but almost got the highest score on the TOEFL iBT (110 - 115 out of 120) English test. This summer I also studied for a bit at a summer program at a US university.</p>
<p>Would top schools be in the range for me? It feels much difficult for me coming from a country with a school culture so uncompetitive in nature. Presume I could get pretty good SAT scores. </p>
<p>Thank you for your time,
stillforyou</p>