<p>I'm a Chinese student currently studying in arguably the best high school in Melbourne, Australia. Today's my 18th birthday (totally irrelevant) but I'm just surprised how fast time flies. I didn't know anything about SAT untill the start of the senior year (which was in Feb.) and when I started to prepare for it, IB course became really intense. I took SAT I in May and June with very little preparations and scored only 1920. I was very willing to prepare well but I was busy with all the school work and debating tournaments at that time. (I'm doing 4 subjects at higher level and extended essay in chemistry that is pretty demanding because English is my second language)</p>
<p>My predicted IB score is 45 and I'm doing English B HL, chemistry HL, biology HL and mathematics HL with Chinese A SL and geography SL. I've registered SAT II in Oct. and Nov, taking Maths C, Chemistry, biology, physics, and possibly Maths I. I'm considering to retake SAT in December but I still have little time to prepare for it since I'll be busy with the final exams in Nov. </p>
<p>I'm curious whether I can still take another shot in Jan. I know it's possible for lots of universities but they state, for instance in Princeton that "it's recommended for international students to take SATs before Jan (which means Jan is excluded..)</p>
<p>And I'm wondering whether I'll have a chance to get into top universities if I have a very high IB score and a low SAT. My top schools are:</p>
<p>Princeton/ MIT(i really need some efforts to get into both unis because the admittance rate is exceptionally low for international students) </p>
<h2>Cornell (it seems that they do not have biochemistry major, which is exactly what I want to study)</h2>
<p>UC Berkeley (impossible for international students, particularly Chinese??)</p>
<h2>Johns Hopkins</h2>
<p>Several safties like University of Wisconsin, University of Texas, etc</p>
<p>But I don't think I'll go there because Australian National Universities and Melbourne Universties are still very strong.</p>
<p>Besides IB scores, I'm a pretty all-around candidate. I don't know whether the projects/activitiesI'll do after graduation in Nov. will count but I'll still do them even though they may not count. (I don't live just for the admission to colleges..)</p>
<p>Furthermore, I sort of skipped a year when I transferred from China to Australia. I only studied 2 months of my sophomore year and passed all the assessments/exams, including A in maths and science. However, in this way, I wouldn't have any record for my sophomore year,which will be another trouble. But I'll leave the problem until I sort out my SAT problems.</p>
<p>Can someone give me some suggestions/ideas, please?</p>