Harvard Undergraduate Admission - Chance me please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>Hi, I'm an international student studying in Bali, Indonesia. My nationality is Korean, and I am applying for the Dec 2012 application process. </p>

<p>SAT Reasoning: 2350 (R: 760, M: 800, W: 790)</p>

<p>SAT Subject: Math II 800, Physics 800, Korean with Listening 800</p>

<p>Major Awards:
- Top 10 in South East Asian Mathematics Competition Individual Round
- Top 10 Team in South East Asian Mathematics Competition
- International Academic Competition Divisional Award in Mathematics
- Regional Highest Scorer in Piano Grade 5, Associated Board of the Royal School of Music
- And whole bunch of school awards
- Awarded $20000 for Academic Scholarship in school for two years.
- Awarded $10000 for Academic Scholarship in school for one year.</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
- Organized regional math competition called Bali Math Competition for 3 years. Had 100+ participants from all over the island.
- Habitat for Humanity Indonesia - Bali International School Division Treasurer (1 year) President (1 year)
- Student Council Treasurer (1 year), Canteen Manager (1 year)
- Singapore International Model United Nations (Delegate for EcoSoc committee and Ambassador representing South Korea)
- Run Math Club for 5 years
- Train the school math team for annual South East Asian Mathematics Competition
- Created / Run the microfinance club
- Band Activity (Lead guitarist - won the best guitarist award in school battle of bands)
- Played Piano for 13 years</p>

<h2>- Organized a piano concert for fundraising for microfinancing project </h2>

<p>Work Experience / Internship:
- Intern at National Assemblyman's office in Korea (identical to congressman in US)
- Intern at TIDE Institute, assisting project with EU's Horizon 2020 (Paid)
- Played piano for local community choir (Paid)
- Math tutoring (Paid)</p>

<p>Letter of Recommendation:
- 1 from Math Teacher: Unwritten, but I'm pretty sure it will be fabulous. He's a great writer, and he has written me a letter of recommendation for my school scholarship, which I won. </p>

<ul>
<li><p>1 from Economics Teacher: Unwritten, but I'm pretty sure he'll write good letters. He's sent students to Ivies previously, and I'm his pet..</p></li>
<li><p>1 from ??? - I want to ask help for this. I have two people in mind to ask for an additional recommendation letter. I could ask the National Assemblyman whom I worked for. I'm sure he'll write me good letters. Another option is my boss for another internship. He's a Harvard alumni who worked at NASA previously. He's very critical person, but I've been helping him with his projects a lot.. Who would be better? </p></li>
<li><p>Any other special qualities:
Fluency in 3 languages? (Korean, English, Indonesian)
Geographical location of my school (Indonesia)
Parents both unattended college
Dramatic life..? (Reason I had to move to Indonesia, etc.)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Any insight would be extremely grateful. As you may or may not know, Bali is a pretty remote place, and I have no reliable source of information that I can rely on. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I’m not going to speculate about your admissions chances because I don’t really know much about international admissions, but as for…</p>

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<p>Neither of these sounds like horrible options, so my advice is to keep in mind that what they write is more important than who they are. So the Harvard alumn NASA thing has 0 importance. The things to look for are: How well do they know you on a personal level? Can they talk about your character rather than listing your accomplishments? Are they good writers/communicators? Do they bring something to your application that your other references can’t? </p>

<p>Whomever you pick, make sure they know what makes a good recommendation. I’m not familiar with admissions practices in other countries but I imagine it can be quite different. </p>

<p>Also, the fact that one of your potential references is a “critical person” is not bad, as long you are sure he would write an only positive application. In fact, critical can be good, because it shows he has taken time to actually judge your work. But this criticism should be left out of your recommendation, unless it’s a very compelling narrative of your improvement.</p>