Chances for EDI Vassar Please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Im from an indigenous tribe in Borneo, and a minority group in Malaysia. Didn't grow up in a city, and had a different growing up experience from some of you guys here. i received a government scholarship to study abroad in a foreign country four years ago, and fortunately was exposed to the idea of US education. do help me out over here.</p>

<p>Im currently on a gap year and will be applying for the class of 2015. </p>

<p>Test Scores:
SAT 1
1470 (CR+M) 2080 (Total) 690-780-610 (CR/M/W)
SAT 2
Maths 2- 800 Chinese- 800 Physics - 760</p>

<p>Academics:
Cambridge GCE A Levels Grade: Maths A Geography A Physics A Economics B
Final year grade: Maths A Geography A Physics B Economics D (No GPA or school rank)
11th Grade: Maths B Geography B Physics D Economics E
10th Grade GPA 3.57 out of 4.00 (distracted by year-round business research projects)
9th Grade GPA 3.78 out of 4.00
*the most rigorous course load at a top high school in the nation</p>

<p>Archery (11th-12th Grade) School Captain
-Represented school in various National level competitions
-Best: National 1st Position in Team Standard Recurve for National Inter-school Championship
Judo (8th-10th Grade)
-Represented school at Inter-school competition
-Bronze for individual event at inter-school competition
Badminton (till 9th Grade)
- Second place for Men's Under 14 doubles in State competition
- Borneo Badminton Cup (top 8 Men's Under 14 Doubles)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
- English translator of Malay Guidebook: Indigenous Community Building (10k words), and several articles on Borneon native communities from Malay to English, vice versa.
- Research assistant on Indigenous Land Rights and GPS Mapping
- 3 months outfield assignment in collaboration with Raleigh to build gravity water feed system equipped with pioneering filtration in a remote village, Borneo. Facilitated the Project Managers from cambridge university and france with a team of 16 global participants aged 17 to 24 from US, UK, Holland, Ireland and Scotland.
- Service auditor at a consulting firm, doing clandestine inspection of service standards in high-end retail stores. Conducted interviews and phone surveys with employees to assess corporate service qualities. Data analysis of gathered project materials together with graduates and professional adults.
- Other odd jobs such as doing sales at Singapore formula 1 grand prix, private tutoring and waitering.</p>

<p>Awards:
- top12 for a national business competition by a university with teams from India, LA, Singapore. and another recognized national business competition. (a year-long project)
- Research project on human geography was nominated finalist at another national competition.</p>

<p>Community work:
- also a big part of my ECs. Volunteered overseas at Maldives, Indonesia and Singapore at various occasions (on sponsored trips with recognized NGOs)
- initiated a few community work as well during high school</p>

<p>Essays: Matured writing, would say they are rather good. My counselor says it speaks a lot about who i am. I also wrote an extra letter detailing my experiences during my gap year.
Recs: Pretty good i hope. And my counselor is pretty experienced and well know among the deans for some colleges.</p>

<p>Weakness:
- probably my SAT1. my reading and writing are terrible. takin again in october, last chance!
- dont really have much awards in the academic field, like the many science olympiad winners i've seen on CC.</p>

<p>Im applying for FULL FINANCIAL AID to vassar (EDI) - can contribute about 4-5k per year.
and if you have suggestions on how i can improve my application, do let me know too!</p>

2

<p>any advice will be greatly appreciated!!!</p>

3

<p>please???</p>

4

<p>I don’t go to Vassar, but I did apply there and I think your credentials are outstanding. You have accomplished a lot of unique things, all of which are going to help you a great deal. And your background is definitely going to help you. Applying EDI should help you as well. The SAT scores are a bit lower than I think they’d like, but that’s something you can easily work on. </p>

<p>Your FA need might put you at a disadvantage, though. This is what Vassar’s website says about international students and aid: </p>

<p>“Yes, Vassar does offer need-based financial aid to international students applying as freshmen and is one of the leading providers of financial assistance to international students among American colleges and universities. Vassar is not need-blind in the evaluation of international students at this time. However, if admitted, Vassar meets 100% of the candidate’s demonstrated financial need for all four years.”</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>With that much aid needed, my guess is they will defer and wait to look at RD applicants from India before deciding where to put the money.</p>

6

<p>Redroses - Is that truly the case all the time? The very main reason why I decide to ED (aside from vassar being my top choice) is that showing commitment and interest to the college might be a better reason for the college to give me FA? </p>

<p>Do you have recommendations of other LACs which I might also have a chance with?</p>

7

<p>Unfortunately there is so little aid for internationals these days, it’s not about commitment. Vassar will want maybe a couple of students from India. They can have their pick of many. Some applicants will be full pay and some will need less aid. They need to get all of the intnls they want within a budget. They will want to see how it all lines up unless a candidate is very compelling and they’ll risk losing him RD.</p>

8

<p>Redroses - alright! i get what you’re saying. Anyway, I am not from India. Im an applicant from Borneo, its an island at Eastern Malaysia. :slight_smile: Don’t think there is a lot of applicants from my part of the world.</p>

9

<p>Sorry, I read India somewhere in the post, maybe Borneo will interest them.</p>

10

<p>its alright. :)</p>

11

<p>Any more remarks or advice?</p>