I am an international student from Tunisia.
My family income is low(>2000$ per year). So I will need a huge amount of money.
My application will like this:
SAT I (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): 1360(600E/760M, 6/5/6 essay) ‘‘a problem’’
SAT II (subject, score):710 Math2, 770 Physics
Unweighted GPA (out of 20): 17.6(National bac exam: top 99th percent of the country)
Rank (in school): top 10 (200 students)
School rank: top 5 nationally
Honors courses: Math, physics, and biology / no APs
Senior Year Course Load: Math, physics, biology, computer science, philosophy, English, French, Germany.
Awards :
-top 5 in math competitions for the last 2 years, invited to participate in international math olympiad
-National Baccalaureate
-2 national exams to get to pioneer schools( prep school and high school)
-Regional chess championship(9th and 10th grade)
-school spirit activities 10-11-12th grade
-honors on summer language courses (11th-12th grade)
-League of legends national tournament team: finals (do u think this would work as an award ???)
-soccer competition(10th grade): semifinals
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description):
*lab work (my lab is at home ^^): more than 1000 hours over the last 4 years: is this considered as an EC?
*math clubs(9-10-11-12th grade): leading member
*volunteer group(12th grade): co-founder: help the hospitals of our region, clean streets, raise awareness about the health…/ started 3 members–>16 members.
*internships: department of water, pharmacy in a local health center, physico-chemico lab
Job/Work Experience: supervisor in a small factory (needed the money to buy new equipment for my lab, fired after 2 months XD )
Summer Experience:
*Language summer school
*guide a group of Tourism
*volunteering(cleaning the city)
Essays:
*will talk about my passions for physics through experiment to build the time machine ( crazy but this the reason I am applying to us colleges)
Gender: male
School Type: pioneer high school
first generation student
any advice ??
(I had lived in a dorm for 4 years since I was 12 years old because of pioneer schools. Shall include that in my application?)
2000$<year is extremely low budget.
What really stands out is your rank, bac exam rank, and your international olympiad invitation. That is quite an achievement. MIT and Caltech comes to my mind for physics/math oriented students like you.
Also, except League of Legend(this is entirely irrelevant to your application but you can still put it in HOBBY section if provided) and anything you have done up until the high school, your EC is quite competitive because it shows you stay motivated, high achieving while also supporting yourself(and your family?)
The only obvious problem is your relatively low reading score. Some people think US college will cut slacks for non native speakers , but it’s the opposite; they want you to have equally good, or BETTER reading score than average US domestic students. What grade are you in? Can you retake SAT? or maybe ACT?
i can’t retake the sat because the deadline are so close
Where are you applying to? The problem is that your composite score is SO CLOSE but not high enough to be considered for many kinds of merit scholarship out there. A lot of them have strict deadlines.
However, it never hurts to ask. Try asking admission office if they are fine with January test score.
Congratulations on your achievements @akrem111! Have you looked at colleges that are not as well known, but excellent schools with well recognized programs? They would be looking for students such as you with your credentials. For example:
Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, - https://www.xavier.edu/undergraduate-admission/Academic-Scholarships.cfm
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh PA, - http://www.duq.edu/admissions-and-aid/international
John Carroll, Cleveland Ohio - http://sites.jcu.edu/aid/pages/continuing-students/types-of-aid/scholarships/international-students/
@luloobee
do they offer financial aid for international student?
Yes they do— the links should direct you to the international aid pages of their websites.
@paul2752 There is no January administration
Your best bet is to apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, MIT. Those are need blind meet need.
Then you have the need aware meet need colleges, such as Smith if you’re a girl, Williams…
Deadlines are in a couple days so if you’ve not started …do so.
PM me your essays.
I can also put you in touch with a former pioneer school student who went through the same ordeal as you did.
If you’ve not applied to Berea the deadline for internationals has passed.
You can try to compete for scholarships at UWaterloo Math/CS as well as McGill and UToronto.
will I have a chance in Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, MIT with a low SAT scores ?
I think with your stats, they may be more considerate.