<p>Hello, I am a Japanese high school student going to an international school in Japan. I plan to attend a liberal arts college in the US, and some other non-LACs</p>
<p>Class size =Small, 25
Rank:tied for 1st
GPA-4.0 (98% percentage-wise) I believe this is including the non-core ones. I don't know how they calculate GPA
but since my Avg. score for 10th-12 is A+ in almost everything I imagine it'd be close or above 4.something</p>
<p>Courses:
APs:
AP Psychology-5
AP English Lang-5
AP Calculus AB-taking this year
AP English Lit-taking this year, expecting 4 or 5
AP Comparative Govt-taking this year, expecting 4 or 5
AP Computer Science-taking this year. </p>
<p>SAT:Results coming in 2 days (Nov.2) will update/bump post as needed
SAT II: Taking World History, Biology, and Math Level 2 in December.
TOEFL: Will take within the next month, I shouldn't have any problems with it. </p>
<p>Awards- my school, since it is a international school within Japan, is not recognized in the country for many awards. All I know is that I have the "AP scholar" or something qualification </p>
<p>EC's: Again my school is very small (200 students) and does not offer much EC stuff </p>
<p>Yearbook-Grade 9,12
Computer Association-12
Varsity Soccer-10,11,12
JV Volleyball-9
NHS -10,11,12
Badminton- 9,10 </p>
<p>Work Experience:</p>
<p>Post office 1 year..
Logistics company 3 months
Computer tech help 1 month</p>
<p>Music Experience: </p>
<p>Piano 12 years
Synthesizer 1 year
Digital Audio 1 year
Composition about 2-3 (improvizations), only starting (writing down)
Chorus 2 years (only middle school) </p>
<p>I've got some more, but I'll post them later.</p>
<p>Recommendations:
AP Government teacher
AP Psychology teacher
AP Calculus teacher
Former Music teacher (will explain later)</p>
<p>Schools (highest pref--lowest)</p>
<p>Oberlin <a href="reason%20stated%20below"> LAC </a>
Dartmouth [ UG LA? ]
Stanford
Amherst [ LAC ]
NYU
Boston Univ. </p>
<p>About the locations--I have chosen West Coast (CA) and East Coast respectively, and Oberlin is a special due to its music program. </p>
<p>Personally I think I have a decent shot at Oberlin or maybe even Amherst, but Dartmouth/Stanford/NYU I am not sure. </p>
<p>I will be stressing financial need badly. My family's maximum capacity for paying for college is about 5,000 dollars. </p>
<p>The reason why Oberlin is ranked so high is because I wish to pursue its double-degree program. In fact it is my first choice. It allows students to get a Music as well as an Arts degree. The "music teacher" thing is required for admission into their Conservatory. Also, they do not require SAT IIs, which means that I can apply for their early decision (ie before the SAT STs). Dartmouth and Stanford are my top schools, then come Amherst, NYU and BU. What I need to know are three things.. </p>
<p>1) Which of these do I have a good shot at/why </p>
<p>2) What is the international financial aid situation for each:
I know that Oberlin gives need-based financial aid (I actually met their international development guy and had a talk with him, which is another reason I am interested in Oberlin) so do Amherst, Dartmouth, and Stanford. I don't know about NYU and Boston Univ. </p>
<p>3) I need some 'safety' schools which offer need-based financial aid for international undergraduates, preferably on the West or East coast. I would love LACs, but I'll be happy with any non-LACs as well. I don't know any schools which meet my characteristics
("safe"//"need-based international undergraduate aid"). Please help! </p>
<p>Sorry for such a long post, and thanks!</p>