<p>Hey. Let me introduce myself.
I've been reading this forum for some time, decided to join today.
I'm a eleventh grader to-be, hailing from Taipei, Taiwan. I plan to either attend medical school here in Taiwan (medicine is a seven-year undergrad option here) or take the SATs and apply to foreign universities. My dream schools are MIT, Caltech, HKU, or UCLA but to get there, I still have a lot of work to do.
Right now I'm climbing the Biology Olympiad ladder trying to win a place on the Chinese Taipei IBO team. Lots of studying for sure! I'm also part of a biology gifted enrichment program hosted by the Academia Sinica, the largest research facility in Taiwan. As part of this program, I attend Saturday school every two weeks and go to labs and lectures. I'll be holding a minor research position in one of those labs starting next semester, hopefully.
I like Sherlock Holmes and medicine. I'm the co-captain/scout skills instructor of my senior/venturer Scout troop. I play the guitar and violin and used to be on the school soccer and triathlon team. I also have some sort of ADHD (inattentive type) and Asperger's which will be checked out this summer.</p>
<p>Where do you want to practice medicine? America or Asia?</p>
<p>If I had a choice, it’d be America for sure. But since I’m not an American citizen, I’ll probably have to stay here.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m from Taiwan too 
I moved to New York when I was in 7th grade, and I know some friends who goes to universities in the states who were also from Taiwan. My suggestion to you would be to do lots of extracurricular activities. You sound like you are very intelligent and have good grades, but the schools you are hoping to enroll in usually also looks for a student to be well rounded. If you have some sports or community service or clubs you participate in that should help you get into the colleges you want :)</p>
<p>Extracurriculars, imo, are much more emphasized in the US than in Taiwan, where, at least according to my Taiwanese dad, test scores are the big determinant.</p>
<p>You sound pretty well-rounded though, from bio to sports to music, definitely you have a great shot.</p>
<p>Do you go to an international school in Taiwan?</p>
<p>Nah, I don’t. I go to an all-girls high school called Taipei First Girls’ High School…it’s public.
A bit hard to get in-one has to score in the first or second percentile to gain admission…but my grades aren’t good at all right now…</p>