<p>Hi, I'm an international student, and I just finished my freshman year at Queens College, a city university in New York.</p>
<p>I spent my childhood in New York and moved back to Korea when I was 12. I graduated middle school in Korea, and then dropped out of high school (my grades were average) to graduate early and come back to the States and start the fall semester with my friends ( because Korean schools start a semester later). I took the GED and got around 3650/4000. My SAT scores are 620 verbal, 710 math, 780 writing, 680 Literature, and 720 Math I. My first year in college was good; out of 9 courses I got 7 A+'s and 2 As. I was thinking of transferring after my sophomore year, but due to financial problems and such I have no choice but to move back to my home in Korea for a year.</p>
<p>I'm probably going to take a leave of absence/gap year, and then prepare for transfer admissions in Korea while working. I understand that more emphasis would be put on my high school/GED scores since I only completed one year, but I'm worried since my high school grades weren't great, considering I became pretty fluent in Korean. Also, most of my college courses are introductory and aren't 'rigorous' like a lot of good schools want. What do you think my specs are like so far? I'm interested in applying to Cornell, Penn, or Amherst (I want to major in linguistics). Would the gap year look really bad? I can look to do community service and extra curriculars in Korea I guess, but I can't afford to travel or do anything to make the gap year seem really worthwhile.</p>
<p>Any advice would be much appreciated.</p>