gpa: uw through senior year 4.0
weighted: 4.25
senior year courses: IB L&L 2, IB ESS, IB Geo, IB Math, History HN
straight A’s through high school
Act: 32
I work a managerial position at my job, and I am corporately recognized and not to mention I am the top performer too — this takes up all of my time (basically have no free time)
Awards:
Grade 1-3 flute distinction trinity college London
Grade 3 drama distinction (near perfect score) trinity college London
UKMT silver award (international math competition)
School academic award every year
Arabic GCSE early achievement (A*) in accelerated program
ECs:
Created a school charity committee (10k dollars in one day — private school non uniform day had to pay to not wear)
Created a double language curriculum so students could take more than one foreign language
Member of DECA - financially unable to afford to compete
NHS
Art honor society
Math honor society
Social studies honor society
Women in STEM club
Interned for a major UAE entrepreneur
Volunteer for Ramadan (on my own time 10hrs/10weeks making food and donating to underprivileged communities)
Again one of the main ECs is my job, which leaves me no time to take a leadership role in these clubs - but I am a manager at my job @ 17 (also my school is basically about popularity which I don’t know if colleges understand that kids only get leadership positions if they’re cool not if they’re actually qualified) - decided to write the additional essay on these circumstances
Essays:
common app: 10/10, wrote about being a woman from the middle east and how i overcame a patriarchal society – it is honestly a great essay, and I want to show people if i get in (its also super personal)
curiosity: i wrote this about finance and decisions
roommate: super quirky
meaningful: about my job, i love it
income: <4000k per year
majors: for stanford basically i put that i want to do economics, but then i realized that maybe i want to study feminism, and with my essays i think that might be the major i get admitted into
i know its super selective, but does anyone think i actually have a chance
my essays and grades show im super duper motivated, and ive overcome extreme adversity (mentioned in my essays)
Wow. I have no major feedback for you to improve. One thing I can suggest is taking 2 SAT subject tests. Yes, they’re optional but they show you’re willing to put in the extra effort since a lot of the material is not taught in high school classes. If you’re proud of your internship maybe talk about that in-depth in your applications. Definitely get a rec letter from your employer. And of course, be sure to take the interviews. I’m sure you’ll nail those.
Your school choices are a rather odd mix of Top 20 schools with Santa Clara being the outlier. Have you done research on the schools and what appeals to you?
yeah so basically, UCs appeal to me because of their locations, stanford and Santa Clara because of academics and class sizes (have the exact classes and programs I want)
32 is low but it’s also their median soooo idk lol thank you ?
I’m assuming that you’re an international student. UCs are going to be expensive and if you need any financial aid, you will be out of luck.
Will you feel comfortable attending either one of Georgetown or Santa Clara since they are Jesuit schools and you are Muslim? Santa Clara has mandatory religion classes as a general education graduation requirement. Some of them involve the history of the Bible as well.
Georgetown also strongly recommends 3 SAT subject tests if I recall correctly.
Stanford with a sub 5% acceptance rate is a reach for anybody.
i am a Virginia student, but I am enrolled in an international program that sends students like me to college on a full scholarship (had to apply to this program, and I had to maintain certain criteria throughout high school, so basically financial aid is no big deal to me, I just have to be accepted)
Georgetown and Santa Clara both do not force the religion upon students, and I am someone who is extremely interested in learning about other cultures and religions and learning different perspectives so it doesn’t bother me that they are both jesuit schools. I have strong enough beliefs that teaching me about a different religion isn’t going to bother me — this actually is what drew me to Georgetown in particular, I mean I would love to know about different religions!! Studying the Bible doesn’t bother me(actually super interesting because of the similarities), almost as much as studying the Quran shouldn’t bother anyone else
I haven’t received my SAT II scores because of an abnormality at my test center but yes I’ve taken subject tests.
Reaches for everything except santa clara. No outstanding awards. In addition, given the fact that your are an international applicant, it just makes admissions much harder.
WOW yikes! 4k a year seems hard. I hope you and your family are doing fine. Still, even as a domestic applicant, I still think they are reaches. However, if you can talk about how you live on 4k, it may work out
@GoBears2023 my application as a whole kinda talks about it and how I overcame and whatnot. I’ll update here when I find out where I am going! (thank you for your concern! we are doing ok now)
Take the UC’s off of your list. If your family is living off of $4K per year, there is no way you can afford the UC’s.
The UC’s are public colleges funded by the State of California and its taxpayers. Since you are not a resident of California, and your parents don’t pay California taxes, you will not be funded by the state of California.
Expect to pay $65K per year.
Pell grants will only cover $6K per year (that’s $3K per semester).
Find some schools you can afford.
Santa Clara may not meet your need.
Stanford is out of reach for you. (The median includes athletic recruits and people they need).
Are you a US citizen and is your family here? What’s the London connection?
Being manager at you job, raising 10k for non uniform day (lots of rich kids?,) are not tips. Honor societies are not (partly because their standards vary so much.)
Are you a senior? What’s your GC say? They’re the best resource for prep schools. How did they guide you in picking ECs?
