Chance an international student :)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

Hi!
I’m a high school junior living in Morocco and I have been looking into going to college in the U.S and have been especially interested in going to Yale. I found little information about the types of international application that were accepted, and I have no idea if I would stand a chance or not.
Anyway, here I go :slight_smile: :

10th grade : top 5% of my class, with an average of 17/20 ( french scaling system if anyone is familiar with it)
Heavy option in theater (drama & comedy)
I speak French, Arabic, English and a little Spanish

11th (2015 - 2016 ) :
-I was given a full scholarship to spend a year in the United States as an exchange student. The scholarship is funded by the US Department of State for outstanding high school students from countries with a significant Muslim population to come study in a US High school for a year, live with a host family and share their culture. It is an extremely selective scholarship (3%)

                        -While living in the US, I completed more than 100 hours of volunteering and received the certificate for outstanding volunteer service

                         -I was selected to participate in the Civic Education Week sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)/ Washington, D.C. I had the chance to meet and discuss with Senators and representatives of my host state of Illinois, and with Foreign Policy specialist about the diplomatic relations between the United States and Morocco
                          - I participated in the International Education Week where I completed more than 40 presentations on my home country of Morocco in schools, places of worship, and community centers in my host community of Chicago. 


                         Because credits from American HS do not transfer to the French schooling system (I go to a French school), I had to "repeat" my junior year

11th (2016 - 2017) :
-Still top 5% of my class, 17/20.
-I am in the French Model United Nations club and the Debate club.
-Heavy option theater
- I am the Founder and President of an association that works with the UNHCR to help Syrian refugees in Morocco

I can play the drums, the guitar and the bass and I was in a band for 4 years. We have an E.P but I don’t know if it means anything to college recruiters ( probably not).

I’m taking the SAT in January, I scored a 1310/1600 on my first practice test, and I’m trying to get at least a 1500.
I will take SAT Subject Test World History.

Please let me know what you guys think, I’m also considering applying for UPenn and Northwerstern University :slight_smile:
Thanks !!!

2

Oh, I forgot, I took AP Macro in the US and got a 4.

3

You seem like a wonderful applicant, as are most students who will ultimately be rejected. As Yale receives more qualified applications than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), Essays and Interview Report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of “good character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. And none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours.

FWIW: International applicants do NOT have the same odds as US applicants. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT (among other colleges) limit the number of international students to about 10% to 11% of an incoming freshman class – and most of those international students are from 6 countries: Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Korean and Japan. Yale is not as forthcoming as Harvard, but if you got to http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics. From the pull-down menus, select STUDENTS, HARVARD COLLEGE (the undergraduate school) and MOROCCO, you’ll see that there are 2 students from Morocco enrolled at Harvard who are freshman, sophomores, juniors or seniors. That means, on average, Harvard admits one (1) student from Morocco every other year. I imagine that Yale, UPenn and Northwestern (as well as Princeton, Stanford and the rest of the ivies) admit about the same. One student every other year – those are terrible odds, no matter what your stats. Best of luck to you!

4

Thanks a lot for your insight! I thought doing an exchange would set me apart from the pool of application, that’s why I am reaching for those top schools. I hope it pays.