My first post here it seems; hi everyone ^_^
I'm a 17 year old to be senior from and living in Kosovo and recently (recently as in the past few years) I've been thinking of applying to the US being that it's world-leading in the higher learning scene and that I know English well enough for it.
I took the sat this June with little to no preparation (stupidly) and I got a 1430 (720 R, 710 M) on it, but I'm preparing for it and I'm most probably gonna score higher. I'm also taking the math II and physics subject tests this October, which I'm probably gonna do well in considering they're two of my strongest subjects. I may also take world history in December. Toefl, I'm gonna take in October, and on the simulation I've had I've scored 111, so I'm probably gonna get close to that
As for academics, the system we have here in Kosovo is a bit different. You have ≈15 subjects every year with one or two cycling and the others staying constant. There's nothing like AP or A levels, everyone learns the same things, but I've been a straight A student from the first grade, so that's that. I'm part of the top two in my class, in the top 10% in my school. I'm also proficient in English, Albanian, German and French as for languages, in decreasing levels of ability, but still pretty good at the latter ones.
I'm an okay writer, I write in my free time and I've had recitals at my school, so that combined with a rather troublous childhood means my essays are probably gonna be fine. No shortage of things to talk about, is what I'm saying.
As for EC's, that's where the troubles start. I know American colleges and universities pay a lot of attention to them, from what I've heard. We don't really have anything to do in our schools, It's just a place of learning, so no clubs in it or anything at all like that. In addition, the city where I live is a rather dry place, so not many organizations make their home here, settling instead for the capital. I also basically live alone as my mom and dad work all the time, leaving me doing a lot of housework and cooking and things such as that.
I had a band for a while with which I used to play on weekends in some bars and cafes in the capital, so that took up a lot of my free time. I don't suppose this could be some example of leadership or passion, as I put a lot of work into it and am pretty proud of it, though it ended in an ill way. I'm generally involved in music a lot, actively composing on guitar and piano, for which I almost had to sell a kidney for, and it's a very big part of my life.
I also like to read and write a lot. I've had several recitals of my poetry in my school and neighboring ones, winning some prizes along the way, but nothing too serious.
I've also won some school-wide awards in math/chemistry. My high school has 2000 students in it which is in the rather top end here.
I'm involved with red cross, though it is rather inactive here in Kosovo (basically being known as the place where you complete the first aid requirement for your driver's license, not much else) so I seldom get to do much with it. But I still try to do whatever I can with it, and I've been involved in some activities and such, providing food and clothing for the objects of the rampant poverty here, also being involved environmentally. Planting trees, making people know the things they should, that sorta thing.
I've also been involved with a local film festival of some international fame called Dokufest. I've been a volunteer there since I've been old enough to and I have over 200 hours working there for the past three summers. A lot of the friends I have I've met from there and I'm really big into it.
I'm also involved with an organization labeled SfCK (Science for Change), environmentally focused, attempting to get more people active in citizen science and make them more environmentally cautious and things such as that. Unfortunately, not very active, but I've been trying to make what I can with it.
There's more but I don't have much time to write them at the moment as I have to catch a bus to the capital, but also one area of difficulty for me is the financing aspect. My family probably makes around ≈10000-11000 euros a year, and that's not considering the mortgage on the house which takes more than half of it. It's pretty average here but absolutely horrible to have to deal with US college expenses with. It's been very difficult even making sure I take all the tests I need to, but somehow I could probably round up 5000 or so dollars a year to pay anything in the US with, nothing more, so I need a lot of financial aid. This is gonna cripple my chances, especially seeing that most universities which would even want to deal with me are the harder to get into ones.
So what does this forum think? Do I have any chances of studying in the U.S, and how could I improve them? For starters, I've been looking at schools like Grinnell, Macalester, Colby, Davidson and such, and also some more of the more lenient Ivies. They're the only ones where the financing seems vaguely attainable.
TL;DR: Male student from Kosovo, 1430 sat (gonna take again), probably around 111 toefl, taking sat subject tests, straight A student, some EC's, limited financing ability, trying to study in the US in some pretty hard to get in schools
Being from Kosovo may be an advantage. Do you know how many students from your country apply to US top schools?
Do you have an interesting story to tell?
I think you definitely have a shot at those schools you mentioned. As for the Ivies it’s tough to say.
Potential academic interests?
Well, I have quite a few stories to tell from the post-war economic crisis and growing up extremely poor to the fact that I had a brain disease in a land ridden with superstition and no capable doctors growing up.
As for academic interests, I haven’t decided yet conclusively but the five fields that I’m most likely to study in are mathematics, physics, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy. What I’ll probably end up doing is taking one of the stems as a major and one of the latter as a minor or something. Whatever the case may be, I intend going into grad school and continuing my education further.
EDIT: I don’t think many Kosovars try to study in the US; most people don’t know English well enough and the others don’t really research and just try to go to Harvard or something, which I really don’t intend, nor am I capable of. I know some friends of my friends who intended to study in the US, but they messed up their SAT’s badly.
“try to go to Harvard . . . nor am I capable of” (#4)
Your current SAT score is above the 25th percentile for a recent class at Harvard, so your statement here would seem, at least in terms of demonstrated academic preparation, not to be the case (though the new test corresponds only approximately with the former).
That said, with respect to your interest in the study of math, these colleges appear in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors”:
St. Lawrence
St. Olaf
Holy Cross
URochester
Macalester
Reed
Grinnell
Hamilton
You can further research these schools in terms of your other areas of academic interest.