Do I have a realistic shot?

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
1

<p>Hi All. I know that you are all sick of threads asking you to chance someone who is trying to either brag or look for sympathy, but I am simply looking for an honest opinion. I am going to list my achievements/accomplishments here exactly as I have done on the QB app.</p>

<p>Objective:
• ACT: 32
• SAT II: 690 French, 710 Math II
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A , Did the IB
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School does not rank, but around top 10%
• AP (place score in parenthesis): Not Offered
• IB (place score in parenthesis): Predicted 40/45. English (6), Maths HL (6), Economics HL (7), Business SL (7), French (7), Physics (6)
• Senior Year Course Load: Full IB Diploma
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Duke of Edinburgh, School French Award, Open Water Diving Certification, IGCSE Distinction Award, IB Distinction Award (None of these are truly major, I think)
Subjective:
• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Debate (Harvard MUN), Young Investor’s Award, Open Water Diving, Created own web design business (Innolounge), School Prefect (2005-2006 and again in 2010-2011), Guitar for 3 years, Duke of Edinburgh award programme, started own website for young south Africans looking to study abroad.
• Job/Work Experience: Working for my father’s company for two years, now working full-time as trainee accountant at an accounting firm.
• Volunteer/Community service: volunteered at local government school (painting & repair), cleaning beaches and rivers, teaching younger students with learning difficulties (peer-mentoring)
• Summer Activities: Working for my dad, managing my online business, diving course
• Essays: Biographical one talked about how my family struggled with crime for years and my father was almost never home. It also talked about adjusting to a new environment when my father was offered a job abroad, where my mother could not find work. Essay #1 talked about the difficulty I had finishing school (due to my father's residence permit not being renewed just before my final exams), and so it greatly affected my ability to study, and my final grades were affected as a result. Essay #2 talked about the effect of crime on my community, how people had lost all sense of togetherness and unity, and how this affected me once we moved abroad.
• Teacher Recommendation: Very good
• Counselor Rec: Didn’t read… probably generic
• Additional Rec: Not allowed (as far as I know)</p>

<p>Other
• State (if domestic applicant):
• Country (if international applicant): South Africa
• School Type: (Small private school of around 700 students)
• Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Gender: Male
• Income Bracket: < $60,000
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first-generation college, underrepresented location-wise (not sure)?
Reflection
• Strengths: Essays, ACT (relatively)
• Weaknesses: SAT II scores
• QB Rankings: Brown (super-reach but my dream), Tufts, Washington & Lee.</p>

<p>I appreciate any opinions you may have to share. Thanks in advance, and good luck to all of the other applicants!</p>

2

<p>If you were an applicant from the US, you would be a solid candidate for a finalist. The international aspect does complicate matters, however, and I don’t think there are too many knowledgable ex-QB applicants that post here on CC regularly.</p>

<p>What I’m trying to say is: do your best, submit your application and don’t get tense because you’re not getting a lot of responses here: most of us on CC QB just don’t know enough about international acceptances to give honest advice.</p>

3

<p>Hi LoremIpsum, and thank you for your honest reply. I will just have to take the chance and see what comes of it; keeping my thumbs crossed.</p>

4

<p>Good luck! that is all I have to say and for most people. QB is so competitive, that even the highly ranked in our school don’t really expect to be matched. (Hopeful, yes but absolutely not certain)</p>