TOEFL:111 (will take it again–but is it necessary to have a higher score)
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.96 for G10-11; 4.0 for G9 (as I am in a different school in G9)
ACT/SAT Scores:1540(will take it again)
Coursework
IGCSE(A*-G):6A*(Math, Additional math, Physics, Chinese, English Literature, Economics)+4A(Chemistry, Business, English First Language, Japanese)
A level(Typically course in G12): Mathematics A*(Take it in Advance), Further math, Physics, Economics, EPQ, Psychology
AS Level(a-e): a in Physics, Econ, Psychology
Awards
G11–AMC12 Top1%
G11–Bpho Round 1 Top gold
G11–Australian Mathematics Competition High distinction
G10–Euclid Contest: Distinction
G10–Fermat Contest: Distinction
IMC(UK): Gold Certificate
ARML Round 1: Silver Award
Extracurriculars
Initiator and Founder of a town water preservation project; Funded by an institute of environmental science; led investigation on 1.8k+ households; Gained gov. approval
Safe Eel Comparative Research (Collaborating with a province eel association)Examined eco-policy concerns w/ 186 eel farms & restaurants in China & 6 importers in Japan
Cultural Heritage Continuity of the Traditional Chinese Mulberry Fish Pond; Promoted traditional fishery ecosystem practices in 3 languages to 5,000+ ppl on my personal website;
“Giving Back to our Homeland” Educational Support Program in a remote area of my province; Fundraised ¥20,000 for school supplies every year.
Researcher of an local agriculture group–investigated water quality impact on 20 seafood restaurants’ imports.
Published article on the correlation between C-suite turnover and M&A performance under guidance from a professor of a Top2 Chinese university
Student Mental Health Awareness Center–Founded with 30+ volunteers; Provided counseling for peers struggling with mental health issues
Organized LGBTQ community building and activism under policy constraints; scaled to chapters in 5 high schools in Shenzhen, gained 40+ members.
Academic guider of one of the biggest student-led business competition–Secured ¥100k funding, won 1st prize.
Wrote, performed, and filmed rap music videos on China music/video platforms ; received 60k+ views for songs addressing animal rights.
Just to be clear…you did not meet UVA, UMich, UVA, USC or U Chicago EA deadlines?
This is a reachy list, even with your strong profile and being full pay/not applying for financial aid (I assume that’s what ‘no budget issues’ means). If you are certain you want to study on the US, you should add a couple of school with higher acceptance rates.
With that said, UIUC is a match (what were the two majors you chose?). You might consider U Minnesota, Mich State and Colorado State for likelier admits. UIUC is hard to get to as well. UCD and UCI are probably targets too, but I defer to @gumbymom.
Would you be interested in liberal arts colleges?
ETA: please do not spend time on taking the SAT again. Get good grades and write good essays for your apps.
Once you’ve reached TOEFL 100 or SAT 1500, other/higher scores make no difference so don’t retake the tests.
You have every chance at Penn. NYU is basically a safety.
However your list is very reach-heavy so if you don’t get in, you need to change your RD list a bit. What criteria did you use?
I’d add Smith, Scripps, Bryn Mawr (since you have Barnard).
CMU is a very particular “fit” and it doesn’t seem reflected in the rest of your list.
BC and Notre Dame are other “odds ones out”: did you mean BU? Or, if you want Catholic universities, why not Holy Cross, Fordham, Georgetown? Btw Notre Dame is probably not the best place for a (Possibly atheist) LGBTQ activist.
Yes I would like to do RD for them(maybe ED2 for Uchicago); For UIUC, I apply for political science(public policy concentration–which is mentioned in my PS) and sociology. I am not really interested in LAC so I only put Barnard(which share some career resources with Columbia).
One of the reason why I mainly put Top 30 is because I already got an offer from University of Warwick in the UK (for econ major, it has a strong business school)
btw, actually I have considered BC and BU but it seems that BC has a better ranking and better job opportunities so may I know why you think BU is more suitable? Thanks! Also, actually I really like Georgetown but it rarely accepts students in China
Indiana has a really well-regarded School of Public and Environmental Affairs. I personally know about it more for its graduate programs, but I am sure it would also be a great place to go for college–they actually have three majors related to Environmental issues:
The other university I thought of–which is technically a public but actually very similar in feel to a lot of the privates on your current list–is William & Mary. They are generally a very well-regarded public policy college, and then they have an interdisciplinary Environment & Sustainability major (you will also have a primary major in something else, which could be Public Policy or indeed something different), within which you can choose the Policy track:
Edit: I didn’t know this until I looked it up, but the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse, another extremely well-regarded public policy school, offers a similar sort of secondary major in Environment, Sustainability, and Policy:
Class of 2027. Offers of admission to NYU’s New York campus were made to 8% of applicants—a record. Three of NYU’s undergraduate colleges offered admission to fewer than 5% of applicants.
I’d be careful considering NYU a safety at RD to anyone, even at full pay.
Yes, it’s an “academic match” with 1540 being the average reported score - but it’s probably also the score at which a large number of their 120,000 applications have to be rejected for lack of available space in the class?
@IrisLiaixi With the schools on your list, I think you’ll see a number of acceptances, and with your academics some of the acceptances will probably come from some of the highly selective schools.
Congratulations on a very impressive resume. If your school is a top school in your country that normally gets multiple students admitted to T10s per yr, I believe you have a great shot at Penn, better than the average ED applicant, and if it is a deferral instead, then I think you will have at least a few from the rest of your list to choose from. RD of course is harder but I think some on your list will come through . Spend a lot of time making your essays top-notch, and of course keep your grades high. Good luck!
You are a very competitive applicant for all the UC’s on your list. Your SAT score will not be considered for admissions or scholarship consideration but only for course placement since the UC’s are test blind.
Below are the Overall International admit rates for each UC campus:
UCB: 5.2%
UCD: 49.8%
UCI: 32.5%
UCLA: 6.1%
UCSD: 17.8%
UCSB: 21.9%
Environmental Science/Public Policy admit rates if available
Campus
Environmental Science/Public Policy
UC Berkeley
18% College of CNR
UC Davis
39.8% College of Agriculture Env Sci
UC Irvine
44.3% Environmental Science and Policy
UCLA
11% Env Science in College of L&S
UC Merced
90% Environmental Systems
UC Riverside
85.4% Env. Sci / 84.5% Pub Policy
UC San Diego
Projected 40% Environmental Systems
UC Santa Barbara
32% Env Studies College of L&S
UC Santa Cruz
70.8% Env Studies/ 71.4% Env Science
UCLA and UCB will Reach schools regardless of your qualifications. UCI, UCD, UCSB and UCSD are Target/High Target schools and definitely obtainable.
Better job opportunities where? You won’t get automatic right to work in the US after graduation. There is a pathway for STEM graduates via OPT but someone who knows more about that can explain.
The OP might benefit from pursuing colleges at which economics (which composes a large part of a public policy major) is classified as a STEM discipline.
OPT (optional practical training) allows graduates (not just STEM majors) to work for up to one year in a job related to their major. STEM graduates can get an additional 24 months - allowing them to work up to 36 months in total after graduation. After that, they will need to find a sponsoring employer if they want to continue working in the US.
It actually does not matter what a college thinks is STEM vs not. To be eligible for the STEM extension, the major must be designated as STEM by DHS. The list is here.
Stated more specifically, then, the OP may benefit from pursuing colleges at which the economics program is sufficiently mathematically oriented to qualify for the CIP code that corresponds to a STEM designation for Econometrics and Quantitative Economics. This designation creates certain automatic opportunities for international students.
Penn and NYU are extremely selective. I suspect that whoever told you otherwise, was confusing Penn (highly selective Ivy) with Penn State (a good flagship state U, but definitely much easier to get into, and confusing NYU (a highly selective private U) with the CUNY system, to which you’d get accepted in a heartbeat.
If your goal is to stay in the US, reconsider what you study, because most students are expected by law to go back home after they finish their educations, although many do figure out a way to stay. Perhaps a consultation with a good immigration attorney now, so that you can make changes in your major while there’s still time. By the way, if you’re gay, trying to stay might be a really good idea, since China seems to be heading towards increasing social and gender-related authoritarianism as it belatedly realizes that their low birth rate is leading them into a demographic crisis. I read that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to push women back into the role of housewives and mothers, and when they cannot accomplish that by persuasion, they will do it by force, just as they have done in the past. Honestly, I would not be surprised to see abortion banned there within the next five years, and even contraception after that, if that isn’t enough to increase the birth rate.
Anyways, your list is full of high reaches, even with your excellent credentials and full pay status. Your test scores are fine - no need to retake anything. You will probably get into Illinois, and the UCs other than UCLA or UCB. Everything else is a reach. Unfortunately, UIUC’s notification date for EA is in January, after most highly selective schools’ application deadlines have passed. So let’s hope you get in there, and won’t have to worry. You are running the risk of not getting in anywhere, since UCD is still quite selective, and even though you’re full pay, you’re still not guaranteed to get in there - the other UCs you have listed are more selective than UCD.
I suggest that you consider adding some applications to less-selective flagship state U’s that you might be happy to attend. Some of them will have the programs you want, and will take you because you are very highly qualified, plus you’re full pay.
To put it another way, I’d be very very very surprised if a full pay top student from a top Chinese school would not make it into NYU CAS (ie, outside of Wharton/Tisch, NYU really likes full pay internationals with top credentials and works closer to McGill predictability for them.)
UCB and UCLA are always hard to predict, but UCD should be okay and what a great school for Environmental science/policy/sustainability
If I were you, I would add a Nov15 priority deadline - something similar to Warwick but in the US. Since you’ve taken ALevel Maths and already have an A*, you can apply for Econometrics at a State Flagship where you can still apply to the Honors College.
(I would replace BC, ND, and CMU with Northwestern - they like Math-y kids- and that state Flagship.)
At UIUC definitely try to add a quantitative major to EVS or EVPolicy, or a minor (you’ll get in but will probably hear back well past Jan1.) Did you complete the supplement for CHP? If not, you have till dec1. Not sure whether one applies to James Scholars (LAS Honors), contact their director?
This is my take on it also. A TOEFL score of 111 suggests to me that you speak English essentially fluently. All the TOEFL does is verify that instruction in English will not be an issue, and with a score of 111 I think that you have verified this quite solidly. 1540 on the SAT is also a very good score.
I think that you are competitive for any university on your list. It is a reachy list. However…
Congratulations! There is probably nothing that is safer than an offer in hand from a very good university that you can afford to attend. Given this as a “safety”, I do not see any point in applying to any universities in the US that you would turn down to go to Warwick.
Be aware that getting a degree from a university in the US does not allow you to stay in the US. Instead, you will be expected / required to leave after graduation. The exceptions are either short term or rare and are also subject to politics, and politics can be subject to change in less than 4 years.
If you want to apply anywhere else I think that your chances would be very good at either Toronto or McGill. However, I do not know your major well enough nor the reputations that these schools have in China to guess whether either would be preferred to Warwick.
