Help out an international kid

<p>I have paid no attention to the American system...until now. I have had my eyes set on applying to Australia but it would mean a 6 month gap before i start college. I would like to go to a school in the states for 6 months and transfer to an Australian college.</p>

<p>I am an Australian living in London and i go to an American international school. My GPA is ordinary-3.4UW (no transcripts for Australian acceptance) My SAT score is a 2110. I was on Varsity swimming for 9th,10th, and 12th and golf for 9th. (I didnt swim junior year as i was concentrating on SAT's for Australia). I will have done 5 AP's by the end of Senior year..I recieved two 4's on the econ AP's this year. My school is VERY competitive, top international school in England, we have a great rep in the states... </p>

<p>I repaired computers for a couple years, had a little business going in importing, im going to be on the Bank of England interest rates competition team this year, i did an internship at Deutsche bank for a month last summer... I'm an Honor Roll student...</p>

<p>I have played the clarinet for around 10 years now, tour with the school band...Im on the wind ensemble, jazz band, symphonic band and play in the orchestra from time to time. </p>

<p>I would like to go to a school on the West Coast (any tuition), which one would you recommend i go to?</p>

<p>thanks
Justin</p>

<p>You tell us a lot about yourself, but you don't really tell us what you want? What is your intended major? Why are you limiting yourself purely to the West Coast? At any rate, right off the bat, I recommend you look into USC. Your states probably won't get you into the top UCs (Berkeley and Los Angeles) and Stanford.</p>

<p>Look at USC, Occidental, Pitzer, Pomona, Redlands, Lewis and Clark (Portland, Oregon). Occidental might be good, because it's in Los Angeles. Not sure if all of these places would take temporary or special students. You may have to apply as a regular student, and then just leave if you want to.</p>

<p>cool thanks, i may look at schools on the East Coast-any suggestions? I want to do a Business course (i will be studying commerce/law in Australia)</p>

<p>Well, for B-schoo,, you have lots of options, but your top options, realistically speaking, are Michigan-Ann Arbor and UVa. The risk with those two schools is that you must get into their general Arts and Science colleges and then, apply to their B schools once in, although you could get a pre-admit status into Michigan's B school because of your work experience at Deutsche Bank. UVa does not pre-admit. </p>

<p>Other good schools worth looking into include Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon and NYU-Stern. </p>

<p>MIT and Wharton are a bit out of reach, but worth a shot just the same.</p>

<p>Thanks, my college advisor told me to have a look at Wharton (she thinks i have a shot) I think Wharton and Georgetown both have transfer options to my school in Australia. It is also possible to do a year program at either Wharton or Georgetown for credit at my school in Australia, so if i spend the 6 months at Deutsche i can experience the states after. Do you think University would be more beneficial than 6 months at a Bank?</p>

<p>to the top (just one question)</p>

<p>Do you think 6 months of university would be more beneficial than 6 months in an internship?</p>

<p>I think a 6 months internship at Deutsche Bank, assuming you do challenging work, is worth more than 6 months of university. However, I am not sure how easy (relatively speaking) it is to transfer into top US universities from an Australian university.</p>

<p>you don't do a full transfer, you do 6-12 months at the school...ill show you <a href="http://www.international.unsw.edu.au/exchange/exchangepartners.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.international.unsw.edu.au/exchange/exchangepartners.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>