<p>A little about me</p>
<p>-International
-African
-About to finish with IGCSE's
-Should have ~4.0GPA unweighted (there is no weighted gpa)
-My school offers VERY few ec's if any at all. There really is almost no opportunity for ec's
-All i have is soccer, basketball and i am a prefect</p>
<p>If i get a ~2100 on my sat's, do i have a shot? Will my lack of ec's hurt me? Its not my fault. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>If you get a 2100, then yes, you definitely have a shot at top 25 schools. You can make it clear on your application that there are very limited opportunities for extra-curricular activities, and they will take it into account.</p>
<p>I hope that is true 
Does me being an international/African increase my chances of admission??
The more replies the merrier guys :)</p>
<p>Adcoms will definitely be nicer to you than they would with other applicants. Because Africans and Middle Easterners are in the same situation (zero opportunities for extracurricular activities), I suppose you’ll be held to similar standards : get 2100ish on the SAT and write decent essays, and you’re in. Do you need financial aid? It completely changes the situation, fyi.</p>
<p>Awesome. So if i graduate with a 4.0 unweighted and a 2100 i’m pretty much golden?
What specific universities do you think i will be able to get into?
I don’t think i need financial aid.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say pretty much golden, you, like every other applicant, is not guaranteed at any school. But you do have good chances at a lot of them. No fin aid is probably a plus as well. Just keep up the good work.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Now, don’t get too confident! I can’t say who’ll take you, but I can give you a lot of anecdotal evidence. Here you go (these guys/gals are all Middle Easterners):</p>
<p>1)
Gender: Male
SAT: 1700 (750 math, 510 reading and 440 writing)
SAT II: 750ish math 1, 500ish physics
EC: A lot of programming training and contests (participated in the International Olympiad in Informatics)
Currently attending/ graduated from: UPenn (Wharton)
2)
Gender: Female
SAT: 1200/1600
SAT II: Two in the 600’s.
EC: Nothing worth mentioning.
Currently attending/ graduated from: Cornell (Engineering)
3)
Gender: Male
SAT: 1900ish (800 math, 550ish reading and 500ish writing).
SATII: 2 or 3 mid 700’s.
EC: A few science related contests and activities.
Currently attending/ graduated from: UPenn (Engineering)
4)
Gender: Female
SAT: 2000ish (almost perfect math score with 600’s in English)
SAT II: 3 high 700’s (math 2, physics and chemistry)
EC: Science and Math Olympiads at national level (participated in the IMO).
Currently attending/ graduated from: MIT.</p>
<p>I remember one African who had a 2100 who got accepted to Harvard. I’m very much looking forward to seeing CC’s reaction to such a shocker-applicants with sub 2000 SAT scores getting accepted to ivies? IMPOSSIBLE!! By the way, there are more of them. People on this site need to realize that not all applicants are compared to each other- they are compared to similar applicants in the same region. In other words, if you are better than all other African applicants (you probably are if you can get 2100 on the SAT), you’re pretty much golden.</p>
<p>Are you sure you don’t have ANY ECs? What do you do all day, study? You don’t do anything interesting outside of the house?</p>
<p>Cool thanks cardgames :)</p>
<p>I have a few EC’s.
-Soccer team
-Co-captain of the basketball team
-School prefect ( i don’t know if that’s really an ec)</p>
<p>Im looking at USC, Berkeley, Stanford, Carnegie and a few others
Which would be best if i want to study software engineering?</p>
<p>“Adcoms will definitely be nicer to you than they would with other applicants. Because Africans and Middle Easterners are in the same situation (zero opportunities for extracurricular activities)”</p>
<p>what the fu** is this supposed to mean</p>
<p>@physicsboy32</p>
<p>Well I don’t know about you, but at my old high school (just like all other public schools in my country), there were no student organizations or clubs. We didn’t even have a single sports team! The only thing we did was go to class and then immediately return home. I added the Africa part because I had two African friends (one Egyptian and one Sudanese) who went to schools that also had zero activities. I didn’t mean anything offensive, and I was only making a comparison on the extracurricular-activity side. Please don’t misunderstand. Moreover, I know that education in Africa varies greatly, so if I said something that offended you, I apologize. Finally, it’s 100% true that applicants from certain underrepresented (like Africa) regions are treated more nicely. By the way, there’s no need to use profanity- it just makes you look silly.</p>
<p>I thought you meant domestic applicants ;D</p>
<p>Any other thoughts/opinions? Do you think i can get into the colleges i posted previously??</p>
<p>It’s too early to tell. Take your SAT and subject tests; then people will be able to give you objective recommendations. All of the universities you listed are fantastic, but I believe the Carnegie has the edge in computer related subjects. Did you have to take a TOEFL? That also counts, albeit not a lot. Consider Georgia Tech and a few state schools such as Michigan (not a safety), Texas-Austin, Urbana Champaign and Purdue- they’re very good and can act as backups if something goes wrong.</p>
<p>So you think i have a good shot getting into State schools like Berkeley?
I haven’t taken toefl but i did my English as a second language IGCSE exam and got an A*
I heard its really hard to get in as an international</p>
<p>Take a practice SAT and tell us what you get</p>
<p>I already took one and didn’t do so well
i got a 570 in reading
580 in writing with a 10/12 essay
and a poor 510 for math. I think i entered some grid in questions incorrectly </p>
<p>how much could i improve in 3-5 months?</p>
<p>bear in mind i’m only 16</p>
<p>anyone? would really help</p>
<p>Hmn, if you get an interview … Make sure you’re interesting. My brother, though he wasn’t a minority, applied to Harvard with a 4.0 and a 2350 SAT score and was rejected due to a bad interview and few EC’s.</p>
<p>@cheeky brah, I started at around your practice sat score (1650ish) and improved up to 1950ish in about 6 months… just learn the basic info for each section and you will improve with practice. Do a lot of practice tests and review your answers thoroughly.</p>