<p>SAT I: Verbal: 750 Math: 740 Writing: 700 TOTAL: 2190 OR 1490/1600
SAT II: Math IIC 790 Chinese w/ Listening 800 English Literature 730 </p>
<p>Academic Strength: Unweighted GPA: 4.22 out of 4.33
Full IB diploma with predicted grades over 40
Class Rank: 3 out of 25 students
*the second student in my school to take the SATs
going to a local school in china, this is my 7th school in 4th country
Fluent in: English, Manadarin, Cantonese, Shanghaiese, French</p>
<p>Ecs:
MUN national best delegate award(China national Conference)
Hip-hop (4 years), put on dances for school,taught hip-hop to kids.
Flower arrangement
Swimming(competitive for 2 years, 9 years in total, passed all levels of swimming tests offered,won gold for backstroke[city-wide] and [school swim meet]
School magazine and newspaper( 3 years)
volunteering (part of IB CAS program)</p>
<p><em>is seeking fin.aid , family income 60,000 USD</em>hence, the long list of schools
nationality: Canadian, Hong Kong</p>
<p>Schools:</p>
<p>Carleton
McGill
UToronto
Queens
Bowdoin
Wellesley
Smith
Barnard
Columbia
Williams
Duke
Dartmouth
Brown
Columbia
Amherst
Swarthmore
Colgate
Grinnell
Hamilton
Yale
Harvard[here for summer school, fell in love with the campus]</p>
<p>1) absolutely no. do not apply to twenty schools. the absolute max is 15. you couldn't have done comprehensive research or visited all these schools, so I have no idea how the heck did you figure out the list reasonably (prestige isn't a great reason)</p>
<p>2) if your first language is chinese, you should take a third subject test that's not chinese. same thing applies if your first language is french, you should not take french as a subject test. this rule is specified on several schools' websites, including harvard. </p>
<p>3) low SAT for HYPS. low rank for HYPS (you are below 10%). bad ECs except swimming (is the MUN award for NATIONALS? how prestigious is it?), which will not help THAT much unless you are recruited. </p>
<p>4) no chance for HYPS unless recruited for swimming, which would increase your chances at HYPS to about 30% each.</p>
<p>5) very very slim chance at these:
Columbia
Williams
Duke
Dartmouth
Brown
Columbia
Amherst
Swarthmore
why? they are all super reaches, and also, they are NOT need-blind to international applicants needing financial aid.</p>
<p>HYP basically are the schools offering internationals fin aid. but, unless you are recruited for swimming, you have no chance for these three. you also have no chance at amherst, williams and wellesley. which are the top three best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. for these elite colleges numbers qualify you, ECs get you in. without hooks, your numbers hardly place you as competitive at HYP & AWW (remember chinese, your first language, doesn't count as a subject test). and without getting recruited, your ECs does not let you stand out among 20000 applicants.</p>
<p>*by "no chance" i tend to mean <5% chance.</p>
<p>if you are here for for compliments, you've come to the wrong place. right now you can only study for the SATs, improve them, and write a strong essay. you should keep in mind that you most likely will not be accepted into any of the HYP and AWW league.</p>
<p>your nationality is hong kong and one of the official languages in hong kong is chinese(mandarin), how can you say your first language is not chinese? you may have spoken cantonese when in hong kong or english when you've moved to canada but the fact is you are chinese and hong kong is a part of china. i agree with previous posts, take a third subject that's not chinese. you're biggest mistake is not that your list is too long but it doesn't include safeties. even the least selective schools on the list like grinnell, smith and hamilton are still considered matches and high matches for someone with your stats. unless you try to increase your total sat by 50 points i'd suggest you find some solid safeties.</p>
<p>don't listen to the haters you have a good chance at all of them. Apply to where you want to. Apply to hundred if you see the need. Do what you want and don't let them lead you astray</p>
<p>happy, Your grades and scores are in the range for all of the schools on your list. Some as noted are more generous than others with aid to internationals. Whether they are needblind or need aware is really not of essence; what is important is whether they meet all demonstrated need for internationals. My advice is to narrow your list to about 12 then really research their policies with the financial aid departments.</p>
<p>After you've established the likelihood of getting enough money then you can work on the likelihood of getting accepted.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you really think about what it is that would make you appealing to these colleges. Some -- especially the rural schools -- have difficulty attracting Asians. Some -- especially the BIG names and urban campuses -- have an excess of Asians. You need to focus on schools where Asians are considered URMs. </p>
<p>In my opinion the most interesting aspect of your profile is that you are attending a small school in China. Why are you there? What life experiences have you had that would contribute to the campus communities. You need to find a way to communicate your "specialness" to the adcoms. Essays, recommendations, resumes are good vehicles.</p>
<p>Lastly, be clear on your nationality. It sounds to me that you are Canadian passport holder who considers Hong Kong home but you actually live in China. This is a complex combination and needs to be explained on your application. Being an Asian from China has a lot more cachet (purely from a diversity point of view) than being an Asian from Hong Kong or Canada. I'm not saying that kids from Hong Kong or Canada don't get accepted to top schools (they do) but I'd stress your China experience as it is more culturally diverse.</p>