I am a pathetic international student from Myanmar. Please comment and advise.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello everyone.</p>

<p>I am 18 years old now. I took one year off after my matriculation exam to prepare my SATs and Toefl and everything.
My test statistics are as follows:
SAT ll physics 800
chemistry 800
Math level ll 790</p>

<p>SAT l CR 700
Math 800
Writing 800</p>

<p>Toefl 640</p>

<p>My high school transcripts are all fine in my opinion. I ranked No.11 for matriculation exam in my country. My math, physics and chemistry in this exam are 97,99,96 respectively. </p>

<p>My extracurricular activities suck though. I have only one volunteer recommendation from a girls' school for my one year tutoring. I can't play any instruments, I do not participate in any clubs, sports, community services and anything like that. The only sport that I can do is swimming which I rarely do.</p>

<p>My family cannot support me for four years college education without getting any help from the schools. So, I applied for financial aid. I don't wanna go into details here but my financial need is really terrible. </p>

<p>So, I had to include universities and colleges which give FULL financial aid for INTERNATIONAL students and are very difficult and very selective to get in. I applied to five IVIES and MIT, Caltech, and some very great schools. Even the safety schools I applied have to be relatively good schools with plenty of financial aid offers. I know that I am not good enough to be accepted by the top schools I have applied but what options I had back then. </p>

<p>By the way, I forgot to mention that I applied to Stanford for my early decision. I got deferred. I was glad that I wasn't straight rejected. I thought I had hope.I hoped against hope. I thought it was a YES in my regular decision round. But it turned out a NO. < I juz found out yesterday.></p>

<p>My first decision letter came from a college. It said they couldn't offer financial aid to me right away but they would like to put my in a waitlist which I agreed. I thought "Uh..bad luck ...but I have chances, don't I?"</p>

<p>Then seven or eight consecutive rejection letters came to me. MIT, Caltech, Uchicago, STANFORD< my first choice school>,etc etc,......including ALL of my safety schools....sent me a reject letter. They said the same thing about how they were so sorry and so difficult to make such a decision and wished me luck in my future endeavors. Some schools even told me that my financial demand was a strong factor in forcing them make such decisions. I just fell flat on my face. One or two rejection letters is ok..but eight? That becomes a different matter. It sapped away all my confidence, my hope, my self esteem. I don't know what to expect of the remaining schools of mine which are only IVIES. April 1st is a doom day for me.I am sure.</p>

<p>My friends keep texting me sms and call me about my admission decisions. They have got into one school or another while I am still struggling with the rejection letters and fighting a lost battle. I have no answer so I had my phone turned off. I still haven't told my family either. I am sure they will be so upset so..I'd rather let them know later. </p>

<p>Please tell me. Please. Do you all think I can still be accepted somewhere? Where can I fit in? What is wrong with me? What should I do to fulfill my college potential? What is lacked in me that is necessary to be a college student? Please answer the questions for me. I don't have an answer. </p>

<p>I am sorry for posting all of my woes here. Thank you for your time.</p>

2

<p>The lack of ECs makes your stellar SAT scores fall kind of flat. I’m not sure what you can do at this point if every single letter you’ve received has been a rejection. April 1st may end up being a great day for you, who knows? If it turns out to be a disaster, I recommend looking into rolling admission programs that might accept you. Your test scores are far from “pathetic,” they are excellent. Don’t demean your own awesome accomplishments!</p>

3

<p>Yeah being from Myanmar with those great scores is a boost over many other internationals. I really hope you get in somewhere :)</p>

4

<p>You’re going to need to take a look at schools with rolling admissions. A list of rolling admissions schools with slots available is usually released in early May.</p>

5

<p>Unfortunately, for financial reasons, you’re having to apply to the most competitive schools in the U.S., and those schools are even more competitive for internationals. Your not having any ECs or apparently anything that would make you stand out (awards, hardship story like having had to escape the insurgents or the tsunami) also puts you at a disadvantage. Perhaps, though, being from Myanmar would help you since presumably not very many students from there apply to U.S. colleges.</p>

<p>Labeling yourself as “pathetic” will be a turnoff to many on CC because --unlike what’s the case in parts of Asia – Americans usually aren’t attracted to help people who are overly modest or who denigrate themselves. I hope you didn’t portray yourself in such a humble way on your application.</p>

6

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<p>Nothing is wrong with you. It’s just that you’ve applied to the most selective universities in the world, where over 90% of applicants are rejected. You’re just one among many disappointed applicants. Don’t take it personally.</p>

<p>If you do get admitted - then be grateful and thank your blessings. If you don’t, well understand that it is more or less to be expected, given how competitive admissions is at the colleges you’ve applied to.</p>

7

<p>It is hard not to feel myself pathetic right now…you just don’t get it…the way I’m feeling about my applications now…</p>

<p>Thank you everyone who advised me…thank you really! I appreciate that.</p>