<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am a senior from Kiev, Ukraine and I am currently preparing to apply to the very selective U.S. universities, such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Duke, Brown, Dartmouth, Chicago, and some other selective schools.</p>
<p>I have studied at Kiev Ivan Franko School for 11 years, and have excelled both academically and extracurricularly (although there are few extracurricular opportunities). I have become #1 in one of the oldest and best schools in Ukraine, in an especially demanding and challenging atmosphere. My curriculum was most rigorous, including 22 subjects each year taught on college-level. During these years, I have won numerous awars and olympiads in a wide variety of subjects.
My teachers recognize me as the most intellectualy gifted and motivated student they have ever taught.</p>
<p>During my junior year, I have won the Future Leaders Exchange Scholarship to study in a U.S. high school for my senior year. However, upon completing the program, I have to return back to my Kiev School, pass the examinations and graduate (in June).</p>
<p>Thus, I currently attend Lawrence High School in Kansas. The AP curse selection is very narrow and there are few opportunities for extensive academic participation (to which I was used in Kiev). However, I have taken AP US Government and Politics, AP Statistics, AP Li&Comp, independent study in AP calculus-based physics (the course that I needed was not offered in the school, so they had to design a special one for me), Newspaper (I have been chief editor of Kiev School newspaper for many years), Philosophy(extended learning lab for gifted students - second semester) and Aerobics. So far I got straight A's and A+'s on all of them. I have taken SAT I and got 770 Math and 670 Verbal score (I am concerned about the score being so low, but I also know that it is not the most important factor). I plan on taking SAT II in January. In addition, I am studiyng many subjects on my own, as I have to pass my Kiev examinations in spring. </p>
<p>My teachers also recognize me as exceptionally gifted in a vide variety of areas. One of them is writing/poetry and philosophy, for which I have earned numerous awards and recognition. </p>
<p>One of my primary goals for obtaining the best U.S. liberal arts education is to become a future leader of Ukraine. My aim is to learn as much as possible of the greatest U.S. ideas and principles that could be later used to build democracy. Today, Ukraine desperately needs people with the best world-class education, but, ironically, the brightest ukrainian people tend to emmigrate out of the country. But as millions of people are out on the streets protesting, ukrianians are finally starting to realize their identity. This is the new beginning for a new country that has yet to build democracy, and we desperately need the best of U.S. knowledge and experience (as the world's most democratic country) to guide us. I intend to become one of the leaders of this new beginning of our country, and work to build its future.</p>
<p>These are the primary reasons behind my applying to the vry best U.S. institutions, aside from personal motivation, such as the need to refine and challenge my intellect to become a prominent ukrainian mind.</p>
<p>In such circumstances, what would be your advice? Is my choice of institutions rational and do I stand any chance for admissions? What could be done to improve my chances? Is my low SAT Verbal score a problem? </p>
<p>Thank you very much for taking your time to read my message.
Nataliya.</p>