Do I stand a chance at Rhodes? (EA or EDII)

<p>Im from an indigenous tribe in Borneo, and a minority group in Malaysia. Didn't grow up in a city, and had a different growing up experience from some of you guys here. i received a government scholarship to study abroad in a foreign country four years ago, and fortunately was exposed to the idea of US education. do help me out over here.</p>

<p>Im currently on a gap year and will be applying for the class of 2015. Im also a first generation college student. (my family had some troubles at home, thus i couldn't attend college this year)</p>

<p>Test Scores:
SAT 1
1470 (CR+M) 2080 (Total) 690-780-610 (CR/M/W)
SAT 2
Maths 2- 800 Chinese- 800 Physics - 760</p>

<p>Academics:
Cambridge GCE A Levels Grade: Maths A Geography A Physics A Economics B
Final year grade: Maths A Geography A Physics B Economics D (No GPA or school rank)
11th Grade: Maths D Geography B Physics D Economics E
10th Grade GPA 3.57 out of 4.00 (distracted by year-round business research projects)
9th Grade GPA 3.78 out of 4.00
*the most rigorous course load at a top high school in the nation</p>

<p>Archery (11th-12th Grade) School Captain
-Represented school in various National level competitions
-Best: National 1st Position in Team Standard Recurve for National Inter-school Championship
Judo (8th-10th Grade)
-Represented school at Inter-school competition
-Bronze for individual event at inter-school competition
Badminton (till 9th Grade)
- Second place for Men's Under 14 doubles in State competition
- Borneo Badminton Cup (top 8 Men's Under 14 Doubles)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
- English translator of Malay Guidebook: Indigenous Community Building (10k words), and several articles on Borneon native communities from Malay to English, vice versa.
- Research assistant on Indigenous Land Rights and GPS Mapping
- 3 months outfield assignment in collaboration with Raleigh to build gravity water feed system equipped with pioneering filtration in a remote village, Borneo. Facilitated the Project Managers from cambridge university and france with a team of 16 global participants aged 17 to 24 from US, UK, Holland, Ireland and Scotland.
- Service auditor at a consulting firm, doing clandestine inspection of service standards in high-end retail stores. Conducted interviews and phone surveys with employees to assess corporate service qualities. Data analysis of gathered project materials together with graduates and professional adults.
- Other odd jobs such as doing sales at Singapore formula 1 grand prix, private tutoring and waitering.</p>

<p>Awards:
- top12 for a national business competition by a university with teams from India, LA, Singapore. and another recognized national business competition. (a year-long project)
- Research project on human geography was nominated finalist at another national competition.</p>

<p>Community work:
- also a big part of my ECs. Had volunteered overseas at Maldives, Indonesia and Singapore at various occasions (on sponsored trips with recognized NGOs)
- initiated a few community work as well during high school</p>

<p>Essays: Matured writing, would say they are rather good. My counselor says it speaks a lot about who i am. I also wrote an extra letter detailing my experiences during my gap year.
Recs: Pretty good i hope. And my counselor is pretty experienced and well known among the deans for some colleges.</p>

<p>Weakness:
- probably my SAT1. my reading and writing are terrible. takin again in october, last chance!
- dont really have much awards in the academic field, like the many science olympiad winners i've seen on CC.</p>

<p>Currently my plan is to apply for FULL FINANCIAL AID to Vassar via EDI - can contribute about 4-5k per year. But rhodes college is definitely lingering in my thoughts, and I would like to know my chances of getting in. Im considering between EA and ED II for rhodes college. (or should i try EDI?) </p>

<p>And does Rhodes give out financial aid to international students to such extent?</p>

<p>Go EA here. You are an interesting applicant and I really think you should aim higher for EDI. you are on the right track considering Vassar. Rhodes does not have EDII. but, it’s a great school and I think they will love your stats and background. In their EA round they make final decisions and won’t defer anyone to RD, so you’ll know about Rhodes by January 15 if you apply EA.</p>

<p>thanks a lot griffen! i remember u from the carleton thread as well. I hope you’ll do well for carleton too. </p>

<p>I am actually quite worried about my SAT I scores, especially the writing section. And I told myself not to count too much on my race/background in this application process. I actually heard a lot about Rhodes as well, and its definitely one of my favourite colleges in the south (Memphis :D) . Guess I will try to EA Rhodes. </p>

<p>How’s ur apps coming along? Feel free to PM me!</p>

<p>that’s one reason Rhodes is a good selection for you. Rhodes won’t pay attention to your SAT writing or the SAT essay. They will like your 1470/1600.</p>

<p>To give you an idea of how your scores look compared to other Rhodes students, the middle 50% of our freshman class had between a 1190 and a 1380. So 25% had lower than that had 25% had higher than that. As you can see that doesn’t include the writing section (as was mentioned) since Rhodes doesn’t take that section.</p>

<p>I agree with griffen and would say apply EA. And griffen is right, you have a very interesting and unique application. If you haven’t yet, I would touch base with the one of the admissions counselors for international students ([Rhodes</a> College | Lauren Sefton](<a href=“http://www.rhodes.edu/admissions/1618.asp]Rhodes”>http://www.rhodes.edu/admissions/1618.asp) or [Rhodes</a> College | Beverly Brooks](<a href=“http://www.rhodes.edu/admissions/13635.asp]Rhodes”>http://www.rhodes.edu/admissions/13635.asp)) to let them know you’re applying.</p>

<p>As for Financial Aid, you would be eligible for any of our merit-based financial aid, except the full-tuition room and board award. You don’t have to apply separately for any of our merit-based aid unless you’re interested in one of two fine arts fellowships, a physics scholarship, or a scholarship for low-income students who are very active in community service and plan to continue their service in college. PM me for details about any of those.</p>

<p>Good luck with your applications!</p>

<p>schnp - did admissions decide that this year they might defer some EA applicants? I saw a page on the school’s website today talking about what to do if you are deferred. Is that a possibility just for ED applicants or for EA, too?? When I visited campus Lauren Sefton said they will probably give all EA applicants an up or down decision rather than deferring and waiting for semester grades, so I’m wondering if that’s still true.</p>

<p>Sorry for the delay. While Admissions tries to give a definite yes or no on the first go-through of Early Action applicants, some students are sitting right on the line and get deferred to Regular Decision. The same goes for Early Decision applicants as well, who may be deferred to Early Action.</p>

<p>Thanks, that’s good news.</p>

<p>i’m applying to rhodes for early action…way below the stats
1030/1600 SAT 3.3 gpa
we find out on jan 15th right? im from NYC</p>

<p>Yes, Jan 15 is when you’ll hear back, with financial aid packages going out within about ten days.</p>

<p>Did you want chanced for Rhodes? I can PM you if you like.</p>

<p>yes please…i have great EC’s and i’m a minority
however, my SAT’s might kill me :(</p>

<p>Check your PMs. I don’t want to hijack this thread any further.</p>