Chances for a Brit.

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>Please could you tell me what my chances are for admission to Dartmouth. I'm British - been living stateside for four years, but am a permanent resident of VA, so I'll be an out of state student.</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>Attend a recently built public high school; I am in the first class to graduate after attending for all four years (ninth - twelth grade).
GPA - 4.0 weighted, 3.96 unweighted (one B in Algebra!) will be above a 4.0 by graduation.
SAT- 620 Maths/ 700 Verbal / 760 Writing = 2080 composite. The highest in one sitting was 2070. Took the new test twice, and the old one twice.
ACT- 31 composite. May retake.
Rank - 1/243.</p>

<p>Courses: always taken honours for every class it's been available.
- Took AP US History last year (5 on the exam), and am taking AP English Lit, and AP French this year (amongst other courses, naturally).
- Taking Dual (college credit) US Government and plan to take the AP exam.</p>

<p>(our school offered very few AP classes to our graduating class)</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
US History - 720
Am taking Literature in Dec, and will probably take World History and/or French in January.</p>

<p>Awards/Honours/Extracuricculars:</p>

<ul>
<li>National Latin Exam - perfect score. Will be taking it again for Level 2 this year. Also taking the Medusa mythology exam.</li>
<li>Outstanding US History student award (ironic!).
-First place in Chem science fair locally, regionally, and specially asked to attend state competition.</li>
<li>Academic letter for honour roll every year</li>
<li>Active French Club member for years.</li>
<li>One of the two officers ("co-president") for our school French Honours Society. </li>
<li>Also Latin Club Member, and Beta Club member (community service/ academic honours club).
-Contributed to creation of high school literary magazine</li>
<li>Founded and continue to co-edit another small-press literary magazine, which takes up a lot of my time.</li>
<li>Should receive a VA Governor's Seal / VA Early College Scholar.</li>
<li>Spend a lot of time travelling; I spend all the major class breaks, Christmas, Easter, & all summer in Britain, and have taken trips with the school. Took a Bio trip to Costa Rica this past June.</li>
</ul>

<p>I would like to major in English, and minor in Foreign Language/ History.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>Brits are awesome, i just saw Harry Potter 4, your accents just blow me away :)
good luck :)</p>

<p>
[quote]
I'm British - been living stateside for four years, but am a permanent resident of VA, so I'll be an out of state student.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I am a little confused by this statement. While you are a resident of the state of virginia by virtue of the fact that you live there, are you a US permanent resident? If you are not a U.S. permanent resident (holder of a green card) then you will be evaluated against the international pool of applicants. </p>

<p>This will be very competitive pool of many applicants vying for a few spots. While how colleges look at the SAT writing portion this year is up in the air, your CR+ Math score of 1320 is a little low (especially for an unhooked applicant).</p>

<p>I am in the process of changing my status - my green card should arrive soon, but probably not before the application deadline. However, my parents are green card holders and I am a minor, thus I should be considered an out of state applicant, not an international applicant, correct?</p>

<p>What are considered good hooks?</p>

<p>Thanks for your honest reply! :)</p>

<p>When you fill out the application you are going to have to fillout your status (citizen, permanent resident, etc) If you have not recieved permanent residency or atleast your registration # you will be considered an international student.</p>

<p>Props to ellemenope for the following posting:</p>

<p>
[quote]
I copied this from a college admissions handbook given to 9-10 graders at a private school. It has some items on there that you wouldn't necessarily think are hooks (like being full-pay), but can tip the scales come admissions time.</p>

<p>• Male applicants. Male applicants in general are
favored over females in many selective
coeducational admission pools, simply because
they are now a demographic minority in the
United States.</p>

<p>• Females interested in engineering, computer
science, and technical fields. Some coed
institutions have made it an “institutional priority”
to recruit young women interested in these
areas, in the interest of improving gender equity
in technical professions.</p>

<p>• Student- athletes of real talent, who are strongly supported
by coaches, and who truly desire to
compete at the college or university level</p>

<p>• African- American students.</p>

<p>• Hispanic- American students.</p>

<p>• Native- American students, especially those who
can prove tribal roll status, and who are
conversant with a tribal culture.</p>

<p>• “Full- pay” students. At many institutions,
students who can “pay full freight,” and who do
not apply for financial aid, have an edge.</p>

<p>• “Legacies”—children of financially generous
parents. More distant relations have less of an
advantage.</p>

<p>• Applicants who are well- known to powerful
alumni in the personal and academic sense.
Alumni assistance of this kind weakens
considerably if the “alum” is acquainted with the
applicant’s parents, but not the applicant.</p>

<p>• In- state residential applicants to state
universities.</p>

<p>• Applicants with evidence of substantial creative,
artistic, or academic talent, particularly those
who plan to major or contribute in the area of
their special talents or accomplishments in their
college or university. Successful “special talent”
applicants should be able to supply evidence of
that talent in the form of honors, recognition, or
awards at the state or national level.</p>

<p>• Applicants with evidence of very substantial
contributions to school or community service. In
the latter case, the applicant’s commitment to
community service would have to go far beyond
the community service IB diploma
requirement.</p>

<p>• National Merit, National Achievement, or National
Hispanic Semifinalist or Finalist status.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>however one of the biggest hooks is the institutional mission What Dartmouth is looking for when crafting the class of 2010</p>

<p>From the Article: How Admission Decisions Are Made</p>

<p><a href="http://unionplus.educationplanner.com/education_planner/c_and_p_article.asp?articleName=How_Admission_Decisions_are_Made&sponsor=2866&PageType=Applying-Parents%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://unionplus.educationplanner.com/education_planner/c_and_p_article.asp?articleName=How_Admission_Decisions_are_Made&sponsor=2866&PageType=Applying-Parents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>A hook, in admission parlance, is any additional advantage that makes a candidate attractive to a particular college. This will vary from school to school and from year to year. Some candidates may try to hide their hooks, preferring to be admitted on only merit (parents tend to discourage this) while others will fight furiously to exploit even the most inconsequential connections. Such hooks may include athletic ability, minority status, veteran status, alumni connections, special talent (e.g., art, music, theater, writing, etc.), underrepresented socioeconomic background (e.g., first-generation college), geography, gender, VIP status, ability to pay full tuition, or miscellaneous institutional needs.</p>

<p>Having a hook can give a candidate a higher rating from the get-go or can pull an application from the deny pile and put it into the admit (or wait list) stack. Hooks come into play most often when judging equally qualified candidates. For example, if a college has to select one of two students who look the same on paper, and one is the daughter of an alumnus and the other is not, the daughter is probably going to get in over the non-connected student.</p>

<p>However, no matter how well connected or how gifted a student is outside of the classroom, if he doesn’t have the grades or the ability, he won’t—or shouldn’t—be admitted. And, if he does get admitted for special reasons, those connections won’t guarantee that he will succeed. One college even had to turn down its own president’s son!</p>

<p>The hooks below are the ones discussed most often—and most passionately —in admission committee meetings:</p>

<p>Alumni Connections
Athletes
Students of Color
Talent in the Arts</p>

<p>The Invisible Hook—Institutional Needs</p>

<p>One reason that an applicant is admitted to a particular college while a similar- seeming (or even less able) applicant is not can be due to a fuzzy factor known as "institutional needs." These needs, explains Amherst College’s Katharine Fretwell, are likely to vary from college to college, and—even within a single school—from year to year. One season, says Fretwell, an institution may be after more women, Midwesterners, or hockey goalies; the next time around it could be scientists or string musicians. "Applicants do not have control over these needs and are rarely aware of them," she notes. "And, according to outside observers (candidates, their counselors, parents, or classmates), the influence of these priorities may create some mysterious admission decisions."</p>

<p>Just thought I'd throw out that Dartmouth won't give you credit for an AP Government exam (not to say that they won't be impressed with a good score).</p>

<p>"When you fill out the application you are going to have to fillout your status (citizen, permanent resident, etc) If you have not recieved permanent residency or atleast your registration # you will be considered an international student."</p>

<p>Well, I have an Alien Registration Number, and according to the Virginia Status Office, I am considered a permanent resident anyway because my parents are permanent residents. I'll ring up some of the universities and check. Thanks for the info.</p>

<p>Dylan - Thanks for letting me know that Dartmouth doesn't take AP Gov for credit. I'm taking the tests anyway to fulfill offers for the British universities I applied to.</p>

<p>Silkweed, Dartmouth does not care if you are in-state or out of state, although if they consider you international, that makes a difference - more to the point will you be in-state for UVa and W&M - 2 other great possibilities for someone interested in Dartmouth.</p>

<p>I'll be instate - my parents are both VA permanent residents (green card holders) and I am a minor, not to mention the fact that I'm receiving a green card myself in the next few months, it just takes a while to process. I've lived here for four years.</p>

<p>I'm applying to both UVA and William and Mary. :) They're the only two I'm positive about.</p>

<p>You will still be an considered an international student because you have to state what your citizenship status is on the date that you apply. Because your parents are green card holders does not make you a U.S. permanent resident because you are a minor. You can be a state resident by the mere fact that you reside in the state.</p>