Chance me? I'll chance back

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Junior/Rising Senior here, wondering if my main college choices are reasonable. It's hard to decide because of my slightly unusual background.</p>

<p>I'm a white male. My first nationality is British and my second is Kiwi (New Zealand). I currently go to school at a good public high school in Maryland. I was born in England, then moved to China, then moved to Ghana, then moved back to England, then moved to Bangladesh, and now I'm here in the USA. I've moved country 5 times in the past 15 years. In addition to this I've travelled a lot in the regions I've lived in. Probably been to around 30 countries.</p>

<p>I attended my first two years of high school at an American International School in Dhaka, Bangladesh, my Junior year I've attended the previously mentioned public school in Maryland and I intend to attend my senior year there as well. I am an International Baccalaureate Diploma student. I am also a year ahead, I should be a sophomore instead of a junior.</p>

<p>Side note: My school in Bangladesh offered no weighted courses, or even any advance courses for Grade 9 and 10.</p>

<p>Overall UW GPA at the end of junior year: 3.52</p>

<p>SAT: M770 CR750 WR600 Total: 2120/2400 or 1520/1600
I intend to take the SAT again as the writing is uncharacteristically low.</p>

<p>My recommendations should be good as I have a good, friendly relationship with my counselor and my teachers.</p>

<p>SAISA is the equivalent of varsity</p>

<p>Grade 9
UW GPA: 3.36
EC:
SAISA Basketball
SAISA Swimming
SAISA Track and Field
Global Issues Network (GIN) (Those most motivated leaders in service groups are nominated for this organization.)
International School Theatre Association (ISTA)
Swim Club
Roots and Shoots (leader)</p>

<p>Grade 10:
UW GPA: 3.62
EC:
SAISA Swimming
SAISA Track and Field
School Play
Movie Club
Swim Club
Basketball Club
Global Issues Network
Hands and Paws (charity helping animals)</p>

<p>(Both years ISTA and Global Issues Network involved travelling to festivals and conferences, and SAISA was also a travelling sports team)</p>

<p><em>Moved to MD, USA</em></p>

<p>Grade 11:
UW GPA: 3.57
Higher Level Classes:
IB HL History
IB HL English
IB HL Film
IB SL Physics
Honors Precalculus
Honors American History
EC:
Varsity Swim Team
Judge for B-CC Idol
Volunteering at Thrift Store
Screenplay Writing</p>

<p>Grade 12:
My classes will virtually all be IB in order to complete the diploma. I intend to continue volunteering and swimming, in addition I will add some more EC's.</p>

<p>Here are the main schools I'm looking at:
(All my safeties will be in England so these are all pretty difficult to get into for me.)</p>

<p>-Cornell (Looks only at CR and Math out of 1600 so I have a good SAT for it)
-NYU
-UCLA
-UC, Berkeley (Definitely a substantial reach)
-Georgetown University (Looks only at CR and Math out of 1600 so I have a good SAT for it)
-Boston College</p>

<p>I know my GPA is pretty low for these institutions but I'm hoping that my background, the challenging level of my courses, and my SAT scores pull me up.</p>

2

<p>You may be fighting an uphill battle with Cornell as their average incoming freshman has GPA of 3.79 and those tend to be more important than test scores. A 1520 out of 1600 is pretty good for the SAT, but a lot of colleges have rounds of consideration based on SAT scores in 50 intervals, such as first at 1550 so you might try to get those up if you take the SAT again. You have a nice collection of ECs but they don’t seem very focused or very mindblowing so you have to explain how those are meaningful to your high school career when you apply. I’d say probably the same thing for Berkley however the other colleges’ test score averages are lower and you do very well compared to the norm for incoming freshman.</p>

<p>I didn’t consider your harder classes but most colleges seem to (disclaimer: speculation) consider raw GPA first so a difference of, say 0.18 is significant. But since you have challenging courses it will be more understandable.</p>

<p>You will probably have the best chance at NYU based on your grades (average GPA 3.61). I’d say mid-reach since at NYU (and almost all of the colleges) your SAT is way above the average despite your lower GPA.</p>

<p>tl;dr your SAT is above, so if you retake it you will be good. You are kind of fighting an uphill battle with your grades except for NYU so you should focus on how you present yourself through ECs. And the harder classes that you took.</p>

3

<p>chance me back please! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1515027-chance-me-ill-chance-you-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1515027-chance-me-ill-chance-you-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Edit: Sorry, evidently I don’t pay attention.</p>

4

<p>Done already</p>