<p>In the first semester of my 10th grade year, I spent the fall living with a Spanish family in Valencia, Spain as a part of a foreign exchange thing. Does anyone know if this is will boost my chances of getting into Brown early decision? And if so, how much? </p>
<p>I think I’m a decently strong candidate outside of this.</p>
<p>-2320 SAT (800 CR, 800 W, 720 M)
-3.975/4.0 GPA
-7 AP Classes/Tests so far, and 2 more this year
-IB Program diploma Candidate
-Varsity tennis team all 4 years, number 1 singles and doubles for junior and senior year. Team captain senior year.
-Play violin in an orchestra, have taken private lessons for 13 years.
-I have a bunch of volunteer/community stuff too, but nothing very impressive. The only thing is an environmental club at my school that I started. We’ve raised the money (about 3000 dollars) for waterless urinals and installed them, among a few other things. We’ve been mentioned in the monthly newsletter for the United States Green Building Coalition.</p>
<p>I guess I have good stats and whatnot, but of course I still have a pretty tiny shot of getting into Brown, along with most everyone else. I’m just wondering how much of an advantage the foreign exchange thing will give me. Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>what the hell hahaha… you took APs and also do the IB??
The IB is a 2 year course of study… how could you do both?
and more importantly why would you do both :o?
they are both advanced level courses that go over similar material… isn’t that overkill?</p>
<p>Sorry for going of on a tangent but I have NEVER seen anyone do both hahaha… really weird for me :p</p>
<p>To answer your actual question. How good is your Spanish? Did you significantly improve your linguistic skills during this trip? If so great!! that will definitely add up. If it was more of a ‘holiday’ where you just ate too much paella :p! then not so much…</p>
<p>haha well, it’s not my choice so much. The school gets extra money for each student that passes IB and AP exams, so in a lot of ways we’re little cash-cows for the county…In any IB class we also take the AP test to make the extra money (the IB is a magnet program at a veryyyy poor school in our town). Also, I had 3 AP exams before 11th grade (when IB starts).</p>
<p>And my Spanish did improve, although not a huge amount. The people I met and was close friends with, although Spanish, mostly spoke fluent English and found it easier to talk to me in English. However, I did write a very (I think…) good essay about the cultural experiences and revelations that I had in Spain and how the changed me as a person and my perspective on people and cultural diversity. </p>