Confused about the admission process and my chances...please help me

<p>I'm going to apply for some Journalism-Schools/Communication programs (Graduate) and because I'm not from the US, I'm a bit confused by the whole admission process. It'll be great if somebody could help me..</p>

<p>I'm a little insecure on how my chances are. I'm currently doing my bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies at one of the top universities in my country (Germany), I studied Japanese in Tokyo for 1 1/2 years, did several internships (one of them in China), I am working as a freelance journalist for a newspaper for over 3 years now, got several articles published in other newspapers, worked for my school's paper, got mentioned in an article about my work as a freelance journalist, currently working on a thesis about media in Japan,...
Do you think I have chances? Of course, I'll need a good TOEFL result and outstanding essays. I already got two awesome letters of recommendation (editor-in-chief, prof)
I did an internship at the marketing department of a huge company in China, but I'm not sure if I should send this letter of recommendation since it doesn't have a journalistic focus. What do you think?</p>

<p>I heard so much about volunteer work and awards, but in Germany it is a little bit different, we hardly get any awards (except if you're into sports...), the only one I got was for a writing contest.</p>

<p>I'm really insecure if I should try it at all.. What do you guys think?? </p>

<p>And is it really important to apply very early?</p>

<p>Thanks SO MUCH for your help in advance!!!!</p>