<p>Applying to seven schools - Milton, Exeter, Choate, etc</p>
<p>Grades: Mediocre recently, mostly due to trying to adapt to a different school system. Currently in ninth grade, got an A in English and a B+ or B in everything else, currently doing math advanced and spanish advanced. Math adv is the top third of the grade. The only sort of hook I have is that I'm currently an American expat in Hong Kong - learning both Chinese and Spanish. This is my second year of Chinese and fifth year of Spanish. I also went to the Brearley School for years before coming to HK. I got B+s there, with an A- in Math. My SSAT scores were 800 in Verbal, 782 in Math, 782 in Reading - percentiles of 99%, 93%, 99% respectively with an overall score of 236, 99%.</p>
<p>I really want to get out of Hong Kong. Do I have a chance at getting into any of the schools? At this point, I don't even care which.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>What are your EC’s??</p>
<p>Nothing this year. I was in the school play and doing an activity where I was learning about programming - mostly just HTML - but due to the way the system works for creating report cards, neither of them made it onto my report card. Last year, math twice a week run by the school - additional, not b/c I was behind. And I have a tutor for Chinese twice a week, I’m almost caught up to the kids who’ve been learning for four years.
I don’t volunteer during the year - most opportunities around here require Cantonese, but last summer I volunteered at a school for kids with Autism for a week in the summer, and I was Community Service rep for my homeroom in seventh grade - not possible around here. </p>
<p>Oh, and we don’t need financial aid.</p>
<p>You need something that makes you special and stand out. Something you’re passionate about, an accomplishment, a talent, etc.</p>
<p>Why do you want to leave HK so much? I love HK! =D</p>
<p>Nothing against Hong Kong itself, I just really want to go home. I was supposed to be here for a year, and now it’s been two going on three, and I don’t know when I’m going to be back. If I don’t go to boarding school, I might have to leave in any year back to the US - and it would be a hassle to re-adjust for something like Junior or Senior year when everything counts.</p>
<p>you have an ok chance but no EC’s will hurt you a lot…</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m really annoyed at my school because even though I was involved in ECs, they somehow didn’t make it onto my report card. Took me a month to get my Spanish class changed from standard to advanced - that didn’t make it on either, but at least it got changed for future transcripts.</p>
<p>I don’t know if they’ll make it into consideration, but I’ve been doing at least one EC for all other semesters before this one.</p>
<p>CallMe Qui - but you actually DO have some EC’s. You were in the school play, completed an outside programming course and did what looks to be some meaningful volunteer work. Describe them all in DETAIL in your application. No one’s EC’s are on their transcripts that I am aware of. Also, what else do you do with your time?? What are your outside interests? I bet you might read a lot, ski, play an instrument or maybe ride or scuba dive. All these count as EC’s. It’s all in the way you present them - be proud of what you do and let that show in the approporiate part of your apps.</p>
<p>The way my school works is that we fill in a form before the report cards are sent out, and the ECs go onto the report card. I filled out the form, but the ECs were not placed on the report card. And I got a note from my head of year on the card saying I should involve myself in more ECs since this section was blank.</p>
<p>However, in my applications I mentioned:
I shelve books in the library for half an hour during lunchtime twice a week
I am in an afterschool activity for programming this year, math the year before, and lego robotics for two years in a row before that
I was a Community Service rep for my homeroom, and I volunteered at a school for seven hours a day for a week during one of my summers</p>
<p>Do you think any of these will count as ECs then?</p>
<p>CallMeQui- absolutely they will count - it is how you spent your time outside of academic endeavors and that is what EC’s are!</p>