chances / safeties?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>yup.</p>

<p>I'll be applying to colleges in a few months and would like some help in finalising my list of colleges.</p>

<p>gpa: well I'm international (indian, from the uae) so my school's transcript is basically gcses (7a*s 2a's) AS results (haven't gotten them yet but it's likely to be 3/4 a's and 1/2 b's)</p>

<p>SATs CR 800 W770 M630
this adds up to 2200 but will the low math score hurt me? Due to the nature of the British curriculum/A levels I gave it up after GCSE (where i got an a*), along with sciences. With my subjects I'll have to take it as a SAT II (most schools have dropped their SAT II requirement to 2 but some still want 3). but I'm hoping I can work at it before I take my sat IIs in october. (other ones I'm doing are english lit and french, both of which I should get 750+ on).</p>

<p>Course load: I'm currently doing english lit, economics and art and did music tech (AS only) and french (full A2, did it early). Which with GCSES amounts to 4 years each of english and social sciences, 3 of a foreign language (but technically 4, the french was accelerated) and just 2 of maths / sciences - will this go against me? </p>

<p>EC's
I guess I'm pretty lopsided musicways - 9 years of flute (planning to take the abrsm diploma in nov or june), 4/ 41/2 years each of sax and bass guitar (which I play in bands / am pretty active in the local music community/scene) and I play piano/guitar decently.
In school I've done orchestra/flute choir/jazz band/choral group since y7(!), only jazz band in my junior year though. and out of school with community orchestras/ a wind band + numerous concerts. I've also been to the Bahrain Young Musician of the Gulf Competition for 2 years (and probably 3 next year) - which is at an international level but probably equates to a state/national level in the US.
Otherwise I've done debating (in school - I tihnk it's a lot more informal than forensics etc there?)for 3(4) years and various other one-off clubs that have only run for a term or two.
No sports as such but I did horseride for 8 years up until the end of my sophomore year).
I'm also very involved with alternative media/zines - I write my own and run a distro(read, small zine business) out of my house that serves the local/middle east area (being the first/ only one to do so). I also write for a local music scene magazine and will hopefully be interning at a local paper from september. </p>

<p>work/volunteer experience
the way things work in Dubai (where I live) you can't get a job till 18 at the majority of places (though by law its 13/15 with vv limited hours-which no employer wants ). So no paid jobs as such though I've interned for a couple of weeks at a local law firm and will hopfully be doing so at a local paper from september onwards.
volunteer work - nothing concrete up until this summer (apart from fundraising throughout middle/high school). I'm currently spending a month working with an NGO in Delhi that works with disabled children from low income (read, slum) areas alondwith the community based rehab / women's empowerment (something I feel v strongly about) that goes along with it. Incidently, I was accepted into the harvard summer school this summer, but couldn't go in the end (a good sign? I don't know how competitive it is)</p>

<p>recs: should be excellent</p>

<p>with colleges, I'm looking to apply to liberal arts ones, size not an issue but preferably very near or in a big city/urban area. some places I've looked have have an option where in 5 years I can do a ba and get a master of music from the grad school/a nearby conservatory. ie: columbia/julliard; harverd/new england conservatory, oberlin/oberlin conservatory.
I'll be international (Indian, from the UAE), am a girl and not applying for aid, if that makes any difference with quotas and such. oh and languages apart from english (1st language / with my scores I don't think I need the toefl), i speak french and hindi pretty well and basic kashmiri/malayalam/arabic )I've been told speaking arabic will help me - is it worth trying to brush up on it/get it decent)?</p>

<p>list so far:
columbia (probably my first choice)
harvard (close 2nd)
yale
stanford
georgetown
wesleyan
wellesley
brown
amherst
oberlin > safety?
bard > safety?
reed > safety? too much of a safety? I'm not superkeen on it.</p>

<p>as you can see my list is a lot of reaches with not much middle ground. I'm thinking of oberlin and bard as safeties, but are these safe enough? (or even too safe, if there is such a thing).
so yes, an idea of my chances please? and perhaps some suggestions for a better balanced list too, cheers</p>

2

<p>I am sorry but you are a little OVERconfident. Oberlin, Bard, and Reed are not safeties, they are matches. Also, with a 630 on the math SAT and just an o.k. GPA, most of the colleges on your list are HIGH reaches IMO. You might have a pretty good shot at Wellesley and maybe Wesleyan (not as focused on math and numbers). The rest are as of now a long shot. I suggest you add more safeties, with 50+ acceptance rate, perhaps a state u. good luck</p>

3

<p>Your list seriously needs a reality check. Have you looked at the number of international students these schools take? Trust me, there are kids who could get into the top Indian tech schools that are competing with you for a very small number of places. </p>

<p>I would really suggest you look at schools where a 1470 old SAT would have put you in the top 25%. If you need any financial aid, top 5%. </p>

<p>It gets a little sad to keep reading posts from internationals who have a list full of ivies. So few get in and you need to get real!</p>

4

<p>would my gpa really be that bad? A levels are weighted the same as IB/AP (which seems to be +0.5 for every course?) - by this measure I'd have 3.86 or 3.92 unweighted and 4.2 or 4.3 weighted (depending on if I get one b or 2). using a=4, b=3 (which I've never recieved except for a possible 1 or 2 when my AS results come out).</p>

<p>edit: unless the weighting is +1 for AP/IB and +0.5 for honours? then my gpa would be 4.36 or 4.43, which seems high - what's the correct conversion?</p>

<p>SAT, I've been going over maths (which I should have done before the sat) all summer, I'm hoping to pull it up quite a bit when I retake it. what should I be aiming at? (for an overall score, it's at 2200 right now).</p>

<p>My bad sorry, I guess I should have calculated the gpa before. But fair enough, if my chances are still iffy with that, some suggestions please? I'd prefer a school that wasn't overly preppie/maths/sciencey</p>

5

<p>your GPA isn't bad, but all I;m saying is that the applicant pool for IVies are really competitive. And for international its even harder. And your safeties are not safeties, not even close. Check out the schools I listed as safeties. If you bring up your math SAT, you should be competitive in applicant pool, but you need to add more matches and safeties, perhaps.</p>

6

<p>columbia - Rejected
harvard - Rejected
yale- Rejected
stanford- Waitlisted
georgetown- Waitlisted
wesleyan- Accepted
wellesley- Accepted
brown- Wailtisted
amherst- Accepted
oberlin > Accetped
bard > Accepted
reed > Accepted w/ money</p>

7

<p>I never know what people are thinking. Accepted at Amherst but not Georgetown? Not much of a chance of that happening.</p>

<p>Whether or not you need financial aid is a huge consideration. That aside, if you like Wellesley you should look at Smith and Mt. Holyoke. Look for schools with low numbers of internationals where they really want more diversity in the South and MidWest.</p>

8

<p>IHATESAT - how do you reckon those would break up into reaches / matches / definite safeties? and being accepted 'with money means what? (i'll not be applying for aid anywhere)</p>

<p>suze - those schools are all girls' right? something I'm not overly keen on. wellesley's only really there because I had a really brilliant interview there (which I didn't even know I was scheduled for, go figure) and they seem pretty keen to have me now - I thought it might be more of a safer option with that (though not so sure now :S)
ditto with the south; I'll definitely look at the midwest though.</p>

<p>how would my chances be at barnard? It seems that it has the same julliard mm program as columbia / you can cross register at columbia for some classes, which is nice.
and at swarthmore, though it's also supercompetitive? (which I'm loving the more and more I research into it).</p>

<p>apart from columbia/harvard/oberlin (and even swarthmore, now), which I really like, I'm not at all set on the list I had up there. I guess it's back to the drawing board for more matches/safeties. I've noticed that the places I like tend to have a pretty artsy/ultraliberal bent; any suggestions for matches/safeties along these lines please?</p>

9

<p>


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<p>It's quite possible. I was accepted Williams RD but deferred Georgetown EA. Both have comparable applicant pools.</p>

10

<p>I'd look at Middlebury. It's need-blind for international applicants, it's liberal, and it's a great school. Middlebury is pretty diverse, and they're trying to make it more so. </p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, where are you from in India? Have you moved around a lot? I was just curious because it seems kind of odd to speak Kashmiri AND Malayalam....(plus Arabic, French, English, and Hindi).....jeez!</p>

11

<p>suze, before you read this message, let me first say that this is in no way a slight against you. i think we are both intelligent, responsible people, and i would prefer not to start any conflict.</p>

<p>i just cant help but notice how negative you are to people on these chances threads. your posts seem to be very well-informed, but i worry you may be discouraging people from applying to places that you have perceived to be too selective for them. if you truly do have the authority and knowledge to be able to advise students on these things, then i would like to know what gives you that. this post is by no means sarcastic or bitter, i would simply like to know your credentials. if you really are as knowledgable and articulate as you seem to be, then i will trust in your judgment. if you believe i am insulting you in any way, then you may make fun of my constant "chances" thread-opening, or call me whatever you like, and i wont reply. but PLEASE do not think of this in any way as an insult, i am really just curious.</p>

12

<p>cheers, I'll take a look at Middlebury.</p>

<p>Where I'm from in India - half Kashmiri, 1/4 each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, hence the languages. I moved to Dubai when I was two however (I've never actually been to Kashmir due to parental paranoia) and have lived here since then (I'm 17), hence the Arabic - you're required to do it till the end of middle school (or actually, the end of high school now but i missed that). French I've done in school for about 9 years, and Hindi because I usually go back to India for a bit each summer, to Delhi/Bombay, where it's spoken, yup.</p>

13

<p>.......bump</p>

14

<p>Sweet. I lived in Tamil Nadu last year.</p>