<p>Okay I am an international student who will apply for the class of 2011/2015.
These are my list of colleges, I hope to do something like English Literature and then head to law school.</p>
<p>Here is my list...
High reach:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford</p>
<p>Reach:
Brown, Columbia, U Penn, U Chicago, Northwestern, Duke</p>
<p>Match:
UC Berkeley, UCLA, NYU</p>
<p>What do you think I need more of?
My safety will be Auckland University, where I will probably be attending as the school in my country (New Zealand) finishes half a year earlier, in December.</p>
<p>Brieftly about me:
Ranked number one, will possibly graduate as valedictorian (what we call dux) as have currently been selected to be in the running for it.
Is a peer group leader, leader of flute section in orchestra, 3rd in NZ for cross country and cross country captain at school, Yearbook editor, leader and founder of school creative writing club, published in various literary magazines, won a few national poetry competitions, part of the NZ Math Olympiad Training Camp.
I speak three languages and have also gone on Argentinan exchange which included a week helping out in the neighborhood of orphans. Volunteered to teach disabled children and mentoring work with kids from disfunctional families.
SAT I (2320) SAT II (English Lit 800, Spanish with Listening 800, Math L2 790)
I don't have AP at my school but I take English and math courses at the local uni.</p>
<p>If you start attending Auckland University, you will not be eligible to apply as a freshman to come in during the fall. If you want to go to college in the United States, do NOT enroll at Auckland. Take half a year off.</p>
<p>I went through your stats. They are really impressive. But, as I told before, how much can you pay? It does matters a lot! The current situation of financial crisis demands a lot of contribution from your side. If you apply to IVY league then its far more better for your stats. And I am really happy to see that you do have IVYs in your list. If you really are interested in English Literature, then there is no such university like Princeton. They are the best in English Language & Literature. If you are really interested so much in English Language and Literature you might think of applying to the UK too(only if your financial conditions are very well). You might think of applying to Oxford and Cambridge with these stats! But for them good grades are really important. You have told that you are ranked Number 1 so that obviously means you have great grades! Try out! Don’t leave Oxford and Cambridge if you are really interested so much in English!
For the law thing, you might like to try to Boston University. They have around 15 full rides to international students every year. And those full rides are meant for students with stats like yours! Boston has a very good law program. Even Yale is the next great point for law. When your stats are so high you might try to Yale too. They are need blind and have a very very good law program. The law thing I am suggesting is if you try to go directly to law in Undergraduate level rather than for English Language and Literature. Even NYU has got a great program in Law. NYU is really strong when it comes Philosophical things. So, don’t leave it too. In case of the State Unis you have listed, I am completely unknown. Since I cannot afford the US without a full ride, I am not interested in Public Unis and don’t try to bother about them.
Seriously, why aren’t there any liberal arts colleges in your list? Rather than going to some place like Harvard where you may really get lost amongst those 25,000 people, why don’t you consider going to a small liberal arts college where you can be distinctive amongst the small group of 2000 to 4000 students and can really go wherever you want after graduation. Colleges like Reed have very good Literature program which can get you wherever you want in the future! In my opinion, you must consider some liberal arts colleges like Reed, Grinnell and some others! If you are a lady, Grinnell is really for you, though it is co-ed, ladies usually are considered for admission at grinnell!
pm me your email ID, we can talk about it later too!</p>
<p>^ i think because she is an international student, the international prestige is quite important, and most LACs are quite lacking in that respect.</p>
<p>However, OP if you plan to go on to grad/law school, then yes really do look into some liberal arts colleges, because they are a great experience and great preparation, while going to an internationally-known school for grad will make-up the name recognition factor.</p>
<p>I would say add schools like Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Michigan. </p>
<p>confidential2015, there are some things in your post I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Harvard doesn’t have 25,000 students, not even with undergraduate and postgraduate students combined. Berkeley and UCLA definitely do, however. And I don’t think Grinnell gives a particular advantage to females.</p>
<p>@schrizto
I was just talking about the average number of students at Harvard. It is usually around 25,000. You can check their official site too. This time they have around 22,000 students. We think that those New England colleges have a little enrollment and give away their money to those small group of students, but that is not true. They have a huge enrollment!
And when talking about Grinnell, it is not a fact, but their statistics have been showing that they are little bit more interested in teaching girls! But, statistics, sometimes may be really misleading. You can not say about the class of 2015 of Grinnell. Still, I was just telling about the trend!If it was not so, then please do correct me.</p>
<p>@000ace000
I don’t think that LACs are lagging behind. There are so many good colleges like Williams, Middlebury, Amherst, Grinnell and the list really is so long. There are at least around 50 LACs with the brightest students in every field, with “full need met” and of course a very good reputation in front of the world. So, saying that LACs are lagging behind, would be really a big mistake. We can not overlook Swarthmore, we can not overlook Vassar, neither can we overlook others, can we?</p>
<p>Since you are from New Zealand, I assume you must have taken something similar to British A-Level exams to get into your local uni. Generally speaking, a British-like A-level course counts as an American AP course for admission purposes.</p>
<p>We’re talking about Harvard undergrad here, which has around 7000 students. It would be unfair to Harvard to include all the graduate students when comparing them to LACs, which don’t have any. Harvard is considered a medium sized college and does not have a huge enrollment when compared to Berkeley or UCLA. I think many of your statements are unfounded.</p>
<p>confidential2015, I will apply for FA but I’m not sure if I’ll get it. I heard that Stanford doesn’t accept many international students needing FA and that Brown gives little FA. My family’s income is approximately $150 000 (US dollars of course).</p>
<p>bruno123, my school is too crappy for A level exams or any of those British ones :(</p>
<p>You need to read everything, and I do indeed mean everything, at [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.educationusa.state.gov/]EducationUSA”>http://www.educationusa.state.gov/) Then you need to schedule an appointment with the counselors at the advising center closest to you. If you can’t visit in person, contact them by phone or email. They are expert at helping students like you find good places to study in the US.</p>
<p>Law school in the US is a postgraduate program, and it is fiendishly expensive. It would prepare you to practice US law, but you would not necessarily be able to find a job here as an international candidate. If your long-term goal is to become a lawyer, you are much better off to study law in your home country, and come here for a postgraduate specialization in an aspect of law that interests you.</p>
<p>Money is the largest barrier for international students. If you were a US student with a family income of USD 150,000 you would qualify for financial aid at very few institutions. You need to find out to the penny what your family is willing to pay for your education. Without that figure, you are not going to be able to focus your applications appropriately. You may find some useful ideas about financial aid in the Financial Aid Forum, and the International Student Forum. Click on “Discussion Home” in the upper-left of this screen, and scroll down to find them.</p>
<p>Some colleges and universities will allow you to apply as a first year student if you will have less than one full year of post-secondary study when you will begin classes at their institution. Some will require you to apply as a transfer student if you have even one course after HS graduation! You need to contact each admissions office and ask what the precise policy is.</p>
<p>confidential2015:
Please read my post again. I am not saying that LACs are lagging behind, i’m actually prompting the OP to consider them
What I did suggest is that they lack in INTERNATIONAL PRESTIGE. The OP is applying from New Zealand. Coming from outside the US myself, many many more people are likely to have heard of UCLA or UMichigan, than schools like Williams or Swarthmore, even though the latter two are usually considered academic superiors. If the OP wants to work back in NZ, this attitude will be reflected in his potential employers.</p>
<p>@schrizto
Sometimes you cant write what you want to say and same thing happened in there! The huge enrollment actually was as a whole(which means everyone, undergraduates, graduates, everyone) in case of a private university. I was talking about PRIVATE university only! Sorry if I could not make it clear.</p>
<p>@000ace000
I know that LACs are not that famous internationally. Still, their products are world class and get good places. I never thought that you were international! I can understand how people think about LACs internationally. But thats not a huge problem every time. Its not the name of college that makes you perfect, its the quality of education that does so!</p>
<p>@happymomof1 thank you for your post it was very informative :)</p>
<p>Well the only reason I’m thinking of going to college before going to the US for half a year is because everyone that I know from my country who has gone to college in the US did that. Particularly so that they didn’t get lazy or had a back up plan if things went dreadfully.
If I get accepted to early action then I’ll probably not be going to college here and do half a gap year but if I am deferred or rejected to my early action college then I’ll start university here.</p>
<p>confidential2015:
Certainly. But the name recognition factor may well have an impact on his starting salary, if he does not go for grad school. Obviously people will pay higher for an HYPS grad than some school “they’ve never heard of.”
However, i did suggest the OP to consider the LACs. I just wanted him to be aware of the above factor. I think we can agree here.</p>