Hi! I am an international student(Korean), and I need some help about colleges.
These are my states:
-rising sophomore
-varsity cheer manager(I created the position)
-art portfolio
-4.0 GPA UW, 4.15 W
-will take 7 APs( our school offers 13 APs, but I can only take until 7 AP)
-1st violin in local orchestra
-NHS
-NAHS (Art honor society), officer( Historian, will be president in junior or senior year)
-volunteering as an art tutor (made by myself, private tutoring volunteer)
-art commissioner in student government
-published in a book, (kind of magazine), placed top ten
-volunteering at my church Korean School (as an art assistant)
-SAT: 1220 (highest I got so far)
-Fine art major
What do you guys think? I know that as a rising sophomore, searching colleges are really early, but I want to select a dream college.
For my extracurriculars, do you guys think this is enough? I am currently burning all of my energy to SAT and ECs, but I am not sure if these are enough.
do you guys think these EC with 1500 SAT will make a shot to Harvard or Yale?
Aside from what @skieurope wrote, you are a rising sophomore. There is absolutely no way that you know what you GPA and SAT score will be in the spring of you junior year. So stop wasting your time on trying to predict your future with nothing more than a crystal ball, and instead put your time and effort into doing the best that you can in high school.
BTW, there was no way that anybody looking at where my kid was as a rising sophomore could have predicted where she would end up at the end of high school and for college. Even at the end of sophomore year, we barely had an inkling of where she would be by the end of high school, or what colleges would be on her radar. Hell, even when she was a rising senior, we would have been entirely wrong had you asked us where we thought that she would end up.
That seems a bit unlikely tbh… I’ve seen international students with stellar grades, test scores, decent awards, no need for financial aid get rejected from top schools. Life is statistically just harder for international students.
Harvard and Yale are reach schools for everyone. You are, what we call here on CC, “average excellent”. You’re doing very well, maybe near the top of your class, you have a lot of great extra curricular activities. However, I don’t see evidence you stand out on a national or international level. When you are competing to be the one or two out of a hundred, it really helps to be a stand-out. I would encourage you to take your chances at one or two of those dream schools; pick carefully as you must make an argument you match to what they look for. Don’t set all your hopes and dreams on such colleges, though. Apply to schools in your own country. If you can afford it, look down the rankings of the US colleges.
There are better schools out there for fine arts majors than Harvard or Yale. If you can afford full pay, do some more research.
– IMO it is not productive to ask to be chanced after one year of HS as it is mainly off of projected accomplishments. Wait until junior year.
–Nonetheless, schools like Harvard and Yale will be major reaches for any unhooked applicant and as an international student from an over-represented country your chance of admission will be even slimmer.
–IMO you do not want to find one or two dream colleges – especially colleges where your chance of admission will be very low. The people I see most hurt by the college application process are students who fixate on a couple of dream schools and don’t get in. When the time comes to think about creating an application list (junior year) you would be better off keeping your options open and casting a wide net.