Chance me? Aiming high, like everyone else.

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>So I'm a junior-going-senior. The following information may be very depressing.</p>

<p>Race: Asian Male (<em>dies</em>)
Country: Canada (<em>dies again</em>)
Reaches:
-Harvard
-Princeton
-MIT
-Stanford
-Columbia
-Carnegie-Mellon (match? <em>hopeful</em>)
-maybe Caltech and UPenn</p>

<p>Safeties:
(Canadian schools like Waterloo)</p>

<p>So, now that I've got all that terrible stuff all said, here's some information about me:</p>

<p>SAT I:
-2380 (one sitting, the 780 is in writing)
SAT II:
-800 Math II
-waiting for Physics and French results, should be 800 and 750+ respectively</p>

<p>Courseload:
-IB (the "asian 6pack", most rigorous at our school)
-should have 7's in higher math, chem, and physics, 6's in standard eng, french, and econ</p>

<p>School:
-great private school in Canada
-class size around 150-200.
-top 5%, rank not reported
-we consistently get many students (10-20) into HYPS every year.</p>

<p>EC's:
-Programming (my passion, I have programmed games that are hosted on my own website, and placed 8th in a provincial programming competition)
-Co-head of Chess Team (another passion, spend 10+ hours a week XD some awards)
-Head of Math Society
-Tutor leader in a program for tutoring inner-city children (4 year commitment)
-Wind Ensemble (1st clarinet, probably principal next year)
-Rugby, gr 9-10
-Soccer, gr 9
-Cross-country, gr 11-12
-Piano, grade 9 RCM, many years (not likely gonna help, everyone does it -__-)
-Summer job (not finalized)
-Lifeguard</p>

<p>Awards (you may have never heard of them):
-countless Canadian math contest awards (school winner on most of them)
-AIME Qualifier 3 years in a row
-academic tie recipient and general proficiency award (top 5% of class)
-math award gr 9-12 (top math student in grade)
-french award gr 9
-computers award gr 10</p>

<p>Also, does being Canadian help, or are all internationals the same? How bad is being international really?</p>

2

<p>Why are you asking for chances when you have already categorized your colleges? :p</p>

3

<p>Typical, cynical ajay :)</p>

4

<p>lol, I want confirmation :p
like, in my post, I was curious whether Carnegie-Mellon could be considered a "match.</p>

<p>also had 2 questions at the end of my post:
"Also, does being Canadian help, or are all internationals the same? How bad is being international really?"</p>

5

<p>Hm, I don't think schools of CMU's calibre can be a "match" for anyone. They're high matches or low reaches at most. Anyway, that's not that important because you can even be rejected by your safety school, right?</p>

<p>About your other 2 questions, it can be seen that being a Canadian does help at some institutions. For example, some schools like UPenn considers Canadians the same as Americans when it comes to financial aid. Be sure to check out each school's policy. </p>

<p>And being international, i think it's neither good nor bad. Every school wishes to improve its reputation and diversity, and thus want intl students. However, some schools have some kind of quota for intl students because of their limited funds of finaid or some other reasons. Since you're not applying for aid (I guess so because you apply to CMU), perhaps you'll have a slightly better chance than those intls applying for aid at need-aware schools.</p>

6

<p>that helps a lot, thanks :)</p>

<p>yeah, no aid if it could hurt my chances at all, I'm glad I have that luxury.</p>

<p>my safeties are pretty solid, Canadian schools are extremely easy to get into for Canadians haha. </p>

<p>any other suggestions for where I should apply? is there anything that I can do to improve chances further? I'm starting to write essays now, just to be safe.</p>

7

<p>hey Zephy, I'm in the same boat as you. Except, I am Canadian + Asian + Financial Aid... I'm actually a rising junior, and I've been taking courses like I would have if I were in America (mostly APs). But yea, I'm currently resenting the fact that I'm Asian-Canadian. But you seem to have outstanding ECs and Recognitions...I need to work on that. I hope you post how your admissions go. To know whether you got in or not is going to be a lot of help for future internationals...I think.</p>

8

<p>hmm, thanks =D</p>

<p>Asian-International is a pretty brutal combo. But I have a friend that went to my school and is also Asian that was accepted at Princeton last year, and another Asian friend that went to Harvard a year earlier. Both live within walking distance of me, both go to my school, so I'm hoping it's a trend XDD So it's possible at least. But I guess everyone knows it's up to luck at a certain point.</p>

<p>Weird. I really didn't think my EC's were that great, and most of my awards are in school. I'm just glad my school encouraged us to get involved in quite a few things and stick with it, because now I like doing what I do, and it also helps university apps. I think perhaps one of my biggest strengths must be the school I go to =O
(and yeah, I take IB, which is on par with AP I hear anyways)</p>