My parents are from Eastern Europe but I am an American citizen. Although I was born here, me and my mom had to move back to Europe where I spent the first ten years of my life. I moved back to the US when I was in sixth grade. It was kind of hard adjusting into the new system since English wasn’t my first language. Does this increase my chances of getting into college? Or will they judge me on the same basis as the kids who have been here their whole lives?
Maybe, did you do anything interesting in Eastern Europe? and what type of colleges are you interested in?
I’m not even sure how they would know. It is mildly interesting, but not likely to give you a tip if they did know. Also, it should be “my mom and I” — only pointing it out to say that you should make sure you very carefully proofread your essays.
It won’t help your chances. You have been in this country from well before you started high school so it seems you would have had plenty of time to adjust. From you other post you have done very well in HS.
I just went to school there and lived an ordinary life like everyone else… My grades were pretty high but I don’t think they’re going to be very interested in that since it was only elementary. I was just wondering if the fact that I attended elementary in another country where English is not the first language, makes up for the fact I got a 710 on the English section of the SAT? I’m interested in NYU, Northwestern, UCLA, Boston University, John Hopkins, UChicago, and Stanford (the list is longer but these are my top picks so far)
@intparent LOL! Will work on that! thanks for the advice!
I don’t think it will help your chances of getting in, but wherever you go, you may be able to test out of the foreign language requirement, seeing as you are already bilingual.
Nope. Not at all.
However, it may make an interesting essay topic,which could improve your chances.
The operative word being may. As I know from experience from my mother tongue, colleges often only give exemptions for languages they offer. So if the OP’s first language is Russian, s/he may be OK; if it’s Latvian or Azerbaijani, s/he may be out of luck.
Right. Not at all. Lots of kids move here from other countries, even during high school. You’ve had plenty chance to acclimate since 6th grade. You can’t be thinking 5+ years isn’t enough time and adcoms will sympathize.
You’ve set some high targets and even if you came as a soph or junior, will be expected to compete for an admit on the same basis as others.
I dont think this is automatically an interesting essay unless you understand what your target adcoms want to see. What happened up to 6th isn’t germane. They want to see who you are today, what openness, challenges you choose to take on, impact, etc. Not who you were, way back when.