<p>OBJECTIVE:
SAT I: I'm awaiting October scores, but was scoring between 2100 and 2200 in practice tests.
SAT II: I'm taking French and Literature in December and aiming for 700+. I might also take Math 2 and Physics at some point.
GCSE: 2 A<em>s, 2 As, 6 Bs, 2Cs
A Level: I'm studying four subjects under the AQA Baccalaureate route (including the Extended Project which is a research/dissertation type thing). I'm predicted 2 A</em>s and 2 As for my complete A2 levels, as well an A for Critical Thinking AS.</p>
<p>SUBJECTIVE:
Former presenter for a children's radio station in my hometown (finished before high school, but possibly worth mentioning because it began my love of politics and current events).
30 hours work experience at a local primary school, working with 4/5 year olds.
70 hours in a summer job as a sales assistant.
250+ hours volunteering at a local charity shop.
Receiver of the National Citizen Service award.
My essays and recs should be pretty good.</p>
<p>OTHER:
Country: UK/England.
School type: State comprehensive.
Ethnicity: White.
Gender: Female.
Income: About $55000. With our savings, my family should be able to pay about $8000 a year so I'll definitely be needing financial aid. I am aware that this means that admission will be even more difficult.
Hooks: Unless half first generation student counts, none.
I don't have many extracurriculars because my school doesn't offer a great deal of things. Also, I suffer from depression, anxiety and Asperger syndrome, which makes it quite difficult to find and participate in activities. I'm currently on the hunt for one or maybe two ECs that I'm really interested in to join for the rest of this year and beyond. I'm currently retaking year 12 (junior year) due to difficulties at the end of the last school year which prevented me from taking my AS exams. </p>
<p>COLLEGES:
These are the schools I've been researching. I know it's long, but I'll be narrowing down this list over the next year in time to apply. I'd like to apply to around 12 in the end. The universities I'm applying to in the UK are the ones that I'm treating as my safeties.</p>
<p>I'm intending to major in History.</p>
<p>Amherst College
Barnard College - intending to apply ED.
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
Colby College
Colorado College
Columbia University
Connecticut College
Dickinson College
Georgetown University
Ithaca College
Macalester College
Mount Holyoke College
Occidental College
Pitzer College
Pomona College
Princeton University
Reed College
Scripps College
Skidmore College
Smith College
Stanford University
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Yale University</p>
<p>ED to Smith College instead. Better chances because they have more money for international students. All “universities” and some schools like Amherst and Bowdoin on your list are EXTREME reaches, especially because your GCSE’s were… not very good. lol</p>
<p>In fact, I do not recommend you apply to many universities like Yale and Penn. 1-3 is okay, but more than that will be useless.</p>
<p>Someone with predicted A and A*'s doesn’t have a 3.17. You made a mistake in the translation (remember that British marks aren’t the same as American grades, a British B is an American A, a British C is an American B, etc.)</p>
<p>4 A-Levels is great, and 2 A/2A* is great too. Your EC’s are impressive, especially for an overseas applicant. BTW don’t include depression as an excuse as it may make the college wary to take you on, however if you’re an Aspie kid this would be counted as positively since you found ways to overcome or accomodate it.
You have a definite shot at Barnard ED. (That’s still about 1:3 at best).
This said, as International95 said, I wouldn’t apply to more than 3 universities from the Ivy League and similar, and no more than 3 TOP10 LACs. You’ll do your selection next Fall though. Set that aside.
Now that you have your dream schools, work from the bottom up: find 3-5 “safeties” and several “matches”.</p>
<p>^Depends on what your school says is an A. Because you come from a different education system, they will go with whatever your school says is an A, B… Etc. And for Ivies (or equivalent) apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT, as they are all NEED-BLIND for international students.</p>
<p>CollegeboardJaJa: Here we follow the Cambridge IGCSE curriculum and grade boundaries, for freshman and sophomore year. In junior and senior we do the IB diploma.</p>
<p>@Catria & @MYOS1634 I had a look online and I thought a rough estimate (combining both GCSE and A Level grades) would be about 3.7ish? I might be wrong but my grades will be evaluated in context anyway so I don’t really need a GPA figure, right?</p>
<p>@CollegeBoardJaJa & @samMIT It’s possible, I guess, for the IGCSE, but my school doesn’t offer that so I think they’ll just be treated as standard grades.</p>
<p>Yes I’m sure. If you go to the IGCSE website, you’ll see that
A* - 4.0
A - 4.0<br>
B - 3.7 = American A- (converted to an A in admission office with holistic practices)
C - 3.0 = American B
D - 2.3 = C+
E - 2.0 = American C
F - 1.3 = D+ (or would be counted as a C-)
G - 1.0 = American D
U - 0 = American F</p>
<p>Furthermore, one point is added for A level grades (considering that A level courses are equivalent to AP). So when you calculate your GPA, if you have B, B, A, A for A Levels, your GPA would be 4.0 unweighted and 4.8 weighted. You see why 3.1 would be considered low, it’s the equivalent of 1B, 2C, 1D at A Level…</p>
<p>Again, apply ED to Smith. You are very likely to get in ED there. There or Bryn Mawr. Barnard is not recommended because its financial aid budget for internationals is small (and it doesn’t even have a campus! one building! lol). Smith and Bryn Mawr are better endowed (lol).</p>
<p>Yep, I’m definitely going to apply to Smith and Bryn Mawr. Barnard is my first choice, however, so if I’m not applying early there, I don’t think I will anywhere unless it’s non-restrictive.</p>
<p>You understand that if you’re admitted to Barnard and their financial aid package is sufficient, you’d be stuck? If that happens, come back to CC/financial aid forum, and ask for help. Because with your family’s income, you can’t take on more than $5,500 in loans your first year. Apply to a few other schools EA - if it all works out for Barnard, you’ll withdraw the applications.
But International95 is right, you’re playing russian roulette with financial aid.</p>
<p>Will re-do at 3.7 (again I will do the entire thing with GCSEs worth half of the way and A-levels the other half) Once again I will only list the ones that are not reaches.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr: Match
Colby: High match
CO College: High match
CT College: Match/High match
Dickinson: High match
Ithaca: Low match
Macalester: High match
Mt. Holyoke: Low match
Occidental: High match
Reed: High match
Skidmore: Match
Smith: Match</p>