Chance me for Wellesley, Scripps, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello all, I am a junior studying at a private coeducational Catholic school in South East Asia (not Singapore~). Because I’m an international student, and of fairly low socioeconomic status, I don’t have a ~feel~ of these colleges aside from the local Google searches. As such, I would really appreciate it if one were to also give me a brief description of the student body and how I fare in them. Much regards :slight_smile:

Here are some of my stats:

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): Did not take
ACT: 34 composite (32 Math, 36 English, 34 Reading, 35 Science). Did not take writing
SAT II: did not take
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/~230
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: My school does not offer honors/AP courses, so I’m stuck with regular classes. My first-semester coursework includes Philosophy, Psychology, Calculus, Business Economics, History, World Religions, and Biology. I’m also taking up two vocational certificates in Caregiving and Health Care Services in case college doesn’t work out, if that counts.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): One national-level leadership award; district, interschool, and local writing awards; nominated as one of my city’s top 10 students; nothing too major.

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  • School Publication (EIC, 9-11, expected also as Head Layout Artist in 12)
  • Rotaract Club Publication (Editor, 11)
  • Math and Science League (Secretary, 10-)
  • Environmental Sciences Club
  • Community Engagement Services Club

Job/Work Experience:

  • Student mentor for research projects
  • Absolutely no hooks here. It’s difficult to find internships in my home country, though this would be changed in 12th grade (though I think that would be too late :/)

Volunteer/Community service:

  • Lector and Commentator for Church, every Sunday (9-11)
  • Youth Ministry (11-)
  • Various school-required community service (as a Catholic school, it’s part of the curriculum): hospital visits, feeding programs, medical missions, and the like are all part of my school life. Estimated 100+ hours of volunteering.

Summer Activities:
For the most part, I’ve been attending journalistic seminars. I’m due to attend a leadership congress on the summer leading to twelfth grade, as well as a course on screenwriting set on an island (particularly excited about this!). I would also like to attend classes through EdX should I find time.

Other:
State (if domestic applicant): International, from SEA
School Type: Private coeducational Catholic school (I’m under a scholarship, so we can afford it. Otherwise, I’m dead :-))
Ethnicity: Austronesian

Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~$13,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college, queer as heck, and underrepresented Asian, maybe (if that’s even a thing?).

Reflection:
Strengths: I’ve lived a rather colorful life wherein my learning disability (prefer not to say), mental illness (bipolar disorder), sexual orientation struggles, increasing hospital bills, and other more personal issues take center stage. I’ve wanted to go to college all my life, and ever since I realized it, I just thought Wellesley would be the right fit for me. I aim to make these struggles known through my essays and through the Wellesley supplement, respectively.
Weaknesses: My poor socioeconomic status guarantees me a scholarship in many of the schools in my home country, though the colleges I would be applying for overseas are (mostly) need-based. If our funds are depleted all the more, I’d only apply to Wellesley, as it’s the only college that waives application fees. I don’t think I’ll get in anyways, but I’ll miss all the chances I don’t take :confused:

Applying for:: Wellesley College (my main choice), Scripps College, University of Notre Dame, Amherst College, and Cornell University. Any other college recommendations would be appreciated :slight_smile:

2

Wellesley is a great school, but it is very small and can only take a handful of international students needing full rides. You need to have more options.

Amherst is a excellent option and would be very supportive of your issues, and it is the only small college that is need blind in admissions and guarantees full financial aid to international applicants. This does not mean that other schools will not give you great aid, but only Amherst guarantees that it won’t consider your need for aid in the application process and if you get in, will cover you fully.

If you like Wellesley and Scripps, you should look at Smith, Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr too. If you like Amherst you should look at Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Hamilton.

I do not recommend Notre Dame for a “queer as heck” person with a “colorful” life. It is a school and student body with more traditional values, and you might not fit in as well there.

To be honest, Notre Dame, Cornell, Scripps, Wellesley and Amherst are an odd collection of schools, different in size, social atmosphere, weather, academic strengths, everything. The only thing they all have in common is strong overall academics. How did you arrive at that list?

3

Hi @ThankYouforHelp,

Thank you for your insights (thank you for help, indeed!) :slight_smile: I was leaning towards Amherst as well considering it was a need-blind college, though I fear that my stats won’t be enough. I’ll check out the rest of the liberal colleges you’ve mentioned as well.

With regards to the schools, I do agree they are rather odd choices. I have no excuse but that I’m still undecided as to which college setting I’d prefer. As of now, I have interests just about in every field, and I believe liberal arts colleges are the way to go - hence my choices of Wellesley, Amherst, and Scripps (the latter, I chose because I have family in California). Since I’ve attended a parochial school for all but two years of my whole education, going to a Catholic university wouldn’t be so far off from what I’ve experienced and thus would be less culture-shocked in that manner (though I barely stomached Catholic school, so maybe I am, to a degree, afraid of change). Cornell, I must sheepishly admit, I chose for the sake of applying to an Ivy. Not the best reason, but I might not pursue it anyway.

4

Well, if it is worth anything, I can tell you that I have a daughter at Amherst and she loves it there. She considered virtually all of the top LACs before deciding Amherst was her favorite, but she would have been happy at many other places. Your “stats are enough” for Amherst, but unfortunately being good enough is no guarantee, since it gets many thousands of applicants with good stats and can only take a few. At this level of selectivity, you can’t get your heart set on any one school. The sheer number of good applicants makes individual predictions impossible.

Also remember - while Amherst may be the only need-blind, full-aid LAC for internationals, this does not mean that other well-off LACs won’t decide to give full aid to particular applicants that they like a lot. You are a good candidate, and you might get a good offer elsewhere.

Cornell is a fine school, but it is the opposite of an LAC. It has 15,000 undergrads and 7000 grad students, which makes it more like a state flagship in size and atmosphere.