<p>Hello! I’m an international student interested in applying to Yale (SCEA), Columbia, Brown, Stanford, Georgetown and Dartmouth. </p>
<p>I’d like to briefly explain my situation before I start.</p>
<p>*In my country all schools provide one universal curriculum, which means I don’t get to choose subjects/courses like you do in the US :( </p>
<p>*I’m attending a very competitive private school (top 5 in my country) that accepts about half of the applicants through admission process.
Because it doesn’t provide any SAT or AP courses, I had to self-study for ALL the exams I took. I’m wondering if this will work as a merit for me, whether it will help to prove my academic focus and such (though my scores are not that good)</p>
<p>And here are my stats!</p>
<p>SAT I: 2280 (cr730 m800 w750, first and only sitting)</p>
<p>SAT II: literature(740) planning to take mathII (and probably French) in October, hoping to get 800 in both.</p>
<p>TOEFL: 116</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.5): 4.4ish</p>
<p>Rank: school doesn’t rank, but I guess at least top 10%</p>
<p>AP : WH(3), Literature(4), Macro/Micro econ(4s), Psychology(5)</p>
<p>ECs: debate club, MUN(chair+SG of school mun/ student officer x2, best delegate x3 in national mun conferences/ best delegate in Yale MUN), International Relations club (founder/president), writing workshop(founder/president)
*My school’s so focused on studies that it doesn’t even have sports clubs. + It allows students to join only one club until the end of junior year. Weird, I know.</p>
<p>Awards: MUN awards, school awards (academic, debate, drama, book, essay, etc) few academic-related national awards. So nothing major.</p>
<p>Volunteer/Community service: taught elementary kids at a local library for 3 years, worked for an international organization that sponsors kids living in developing nations, etc. About 250 hours in total.</p>
<p>Essays: In progress. Written several draft essays but haven’t finalized which one I’m going to submit. I’ve shown them to some of my teachers and they said my essays are unique, really show who I am and will stand out. Need to work on them more though. In the Why Yale essay I wrote about how attending Yale Model United Nations and meeting the Yalies intensified my passion/love towards Yale, and more reasons explaining why I believe Yale is my perfect fit.</p>
<p>Teacher Recommendation: English and math teachers. Both know me well and love me. They actually offered me to write recs before I even asked them :) Both famous for writing great recs</p>
<p>Counselor Rec: He happens to be also my homeroom teacher, so he knows and understands me really well. Sure to write me a great rec</p>
<p>Interview: Don’t think I’d get one due to where I live but still hoping to be offered one, cause I think I’d be able to express myself better.</p>
<p>Applying for Financial Aid?: Probably</p>
<p>Intended Major: I’m torn between global affairs and literature</p>
<p>Country (if international applicant): in East Asia</p>
<p>School Type: Private</p>
<p>Ethnicity: Asian</p>
<p>Gender: Female</p>
<p>Income Bracket: around 130k</p>
<p>Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): no hooks, I guess</p>
<p>I know my stats aren’t that great compared to thousands of bright applicants and the colleges I listed are all far reaches… :((( Just want to hear some comments/advices. Thank you for the extremely long reading! Cheers ;)</p>