Hi!
I’m currently in my last year at an Australian high school and will graduate in Nov (school terms are different so in the us I believe I would be a junior??), but I’m a US citizen and was born in Boston!
Applying to: Ivies, UChicago, Johns Hopkins, UMichigan, UVA, NYU (basically all are reach schools and definitely not easy to get into. No safety schools as they would be ones in Australia eg. University of Sydney)
Female, Asian
Stats
SAT: 1510 (710CR, 800Math), essay 7/6/7
Subject: planning on doing Math 2, Literature and Bio M
GPA and AP tests: haha they don’t exist in Australia. But just some info on roughly where I sit in my cohort and how well my school performs
- school is selective, public, ranked 10th in the state (no national ranking as education system is different in each state)
- graduating class size is 136 (it’s tiny compared to public US schools)
- marks do not matter but ranks do. Ranked against students who do the same subjects as us. Grade 11 ranks- 1/136 in English Advanced, 1/8 in Music, 2/44 in Bio, 2/40 in Legal Studies, 3/59 in Maths Ext 1. Completed Maths Advanced a year early, and also did chemistry but I’m not doing the subject for Grade 12 (senior). Don’t know our ranks for this year yet but I believe I’m sitting roughly in the same ranks. In grades 9 and 10, did different subjects but got mainly As, few Bs probably
- will be including my ATAR (basically aus version of SAT not really), which is a rank highlighting your position within students in your state. Won’t receive it until like a wk before application deadlines
ECs + very few awards (from 9-12)
- state level swimmer (school and club) (9-11) (I quit competitive swimming last yr
but still swim twice a wk with a chill squad just for fun)
- school jazz orchestra (9-12), school wind orchestra (9-12) (lead saxophonist)
- volunteer beach lifeguard (9-12)
- NSW State Emergency Service volunteer (9)
- work at KFC (11-12)
- International Mathematics Modelling Challenge (12) (waiting on results but we won’t do well haha)
- touring school choir (9-10)
- mentor for Yr 7 students (10)
- Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award (10)
- NSW Premier’s Volunteering Challenge Diamond Award (150+hrs of volunteering)
- planning on doing first aid volunteering with local ambulance service instead of work maybe
Overall, lacking leadership roles. Also our school doesn’t have many ECs and clubs (I think we only have two clubs haha)
Essays will hopefully be good but will be at least decent. Recommendations will hopefully be good as well
What are my chances? Sorry if this is confusing, unfamiliar and super long but thanks for taking the time to read this!! Feel free to ask any questions about the weird Aus stuff
Your finances will matter a lot. You would be spending a ton of extra money to attend university in the US when compared to schools in Australia. You have quite a few really impressive universities down there.
If I were in your situation, I would do undergrad in Australia and consider North America for graduate school.
“Decent” or “good” doesn’t get top schools (if that is decorous modesty, this is not the place for it! if you want useful input, you need to give blunt info).
Essays are one of the biggest differentiators, b/c there are so many applicants with perfect/near perfect stats. LoRs need to make it clear that you are an exceptional student, not just a strong or clever one.
Remember that you are telling the story of you, so your ECs should be presented in a way that showcases important parts of who you are. When I look at your ECs (as presented) I can’t even start to guess what your real interests are, and what are things that you do b/c one does them in your school. You look as though you might be a bit mathy? does your EMT volunteer work indicate an interest in medicine? why does a state-level competitive swimmer quit at the end of grade 11? I’m not looking to know the answers! my point is that ECs should give an idea as to what is important to you, and your essays will be part of that narrative arc.
In general, for ECs, evidence of commitment over time and increasing responsibility / leadership are seen as positives, as is depth > breadth. Your ECs do not have to correlate to a career objective: they really don’t care very much exactly what you are doing or what you want to be- what matters more is that you have energy and drive, that you can manage a heavy academic load plus a heavy EC load, and that you are learning and growing from the experience(s). Note that ECs do not have to be formal or through school: it’s what you do with all the time you have outside of school hours. Working to earn money is perfectly valid!
As for chances: there are several variables at play:
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the Ivies/UChic/JHU all accept less than 12% of their applicants (most of whom are entirely qualified), so your chances are 88-95% of being rejected. UMi and UVa have acceptance rates for out of state students of about 22-24%, and NYU has an acceptance rate of about 33%, so chances of rejection range from 64% to 78%.
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less than 15% of the 5-12% / 22-33% of applicants who are accepted are international students, so your chances of rejection are now well into the 95%+ range for the first lot and 80+% for the second
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finances: if you need financial aid to cover the USD$70+K/pa cost of attendance (COA), only HYPC are need-blind for internationals in deciding acceptance. For all the other schools you can lower your odds of acceptance further. Of course, if you are lucky enough not to need financial aid, you can disregard this variable!
random bit: 136 is a tiny class compared to US public schools, but is entirely normal for US private schools; rank of school in state won’t really matter.
(also, Sydney over Melbourne?!)