I’m a sophomore and not a US citizen, English is my second language which I’ve learned for 10 years.
My schools doesn’t offer many clubs (actually they don’t even have proper clubs lol), but I joined Music for a semester (they only provide clubs for 1 semester out of 2 and they only have clubs this year).
-Currently working in my IGCSE (my practice scores: Maths B, Business A, English A, Chemistry B, ICT C :(, I didn’t focus much of ICT… i’ll try hard in the real upcoming test to make sure it’s B)
GPA: About 8.4 - 8.5/10 (top 10 in class)
Have been certificated for being a good student for 9 years.
ECs:
-MC for the School’s year end ceremony & some other events such as Halloween (my school is a system which has about 7 or 8 campuses)
-Published a newspaper myself in grade 5, sold to my friends
-First prize in the school system’s group drawing contest (it was in grade 5 and I don’t have a certificte back then…)
-Joined several activities in school (almost every activity, which includes singing, dancing)
-3rd prize in Business project presentation of my school, but became the group that has the highest profit (it’s a group project, in which we have to sell our products), I’m the captain
Have always been in the top 5 of my grade in English & Literature (in my language)
Started doing voluntary work recently (4+ hours cooking for patients at hospitals, I don’t have much time since I’m at school 12hrs/day)
-3rd prize in the school’s speaking contest last year
-1st prize in the school’s speaking contest for grade 9-12
-3rd prize in the school system’s speaking contest (the champions in grade 9,10,11,12 in different campuses competed with each other)
-Haven’t take SAT or TOELF yet, but my IELTS practice 2 years ago was 5.5 & 6.
Have learned Violin for 3 years (I’m not really good at this lol)
-Have learned Piano for 4 years (I’m not good at this either)
-Have played basketball for 5 years, i’m currently the vice-captain of my school’s team
-Was chosen for the Finale in Global Art Competition between South East Asia countries
I’m planning to get into the top 50, major Marketing, haven’t decided the others yet.
Chance me pls, thank you!
Just so you know, things you did in grade 5 (if that’s equivalent to American 5th grade) don’t count as extracurriculars unless you did them in high school as well.
No problem! And as for your chances, that depends a lot on your SAT score, since you’re an international applicant. If you can get that up and emphasize your class rank, I think you’ll definitely be able to find a top 50 that will want you.
@pontmercy I really want to do so lol but I’m not a study-wise person & my class is probably the top class with only 21 ppl and most of them are genius! Thus my school provides 2 curriculums (Eng & my language), that’s why I have about 16 subjects and I have to spend time equally with each of them to make sure my GPA is >8. Is there any way that I can overcome this? Like with ECs and other stuffs?
It completely depends on each university. Some will give need based only(top ones,mostly), some will give merit based only(some state school and some private schools), and some will do need+merit.
25k isn’t actually that bad if your school cost is around 45k or such.
You are still a sophomore. You have enough time to study and build your extracurricular activities. I URGE you to take SAT/ACT for merit scholarship application.
It’s great to see you start thinking about the college application process so early!
And wow, you do a lot, haha. Not all of these things are ECs, though:
Extracurriculars:
Event coordinating
Miscellaneous activities
Volunteering
Violin and piano
Basketball
Honors / Awards:
Business project prize
Speaking contest prizes
Global Art Competition
One thing U.S. colleges like to ask students is “What are you passionate about?” That is a very big part of students’ identity in the eyes of admissions’ committees. They’ll look for your interests in your extracurricular activities, essays, and interviews. It’s not bad that you have a lot of ECs–colleges like to see breadth and diversity in your interests too–but I’d recommend picking a few of the activities that you really like doing, and really devote time to them.
The other activities are nice. But you don’t have to do them if you don’t want to, and you don’t have to stress about making more time for them (like, it’s fine if you can’t do that much volunteering, or if you aren’t that good at your two (!) instruments).
Other than that, I think you’re good for now. I can see a lot of the things you do and the subjects you’re good at connecting with your interest in marketing. I would come back to this process after you take the SAT, so you can start narrowing down the list of schools to those that fit you.
@pontmercy