If chancing me counted as community service, would you be more encouraged?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>As you may figure, I need some chance =) </p>

<p>I've done this before, but I just got a unique perspective on what the holistic approach for admissions is like for students who have studied abroad. Having said that, I will include what my contextualized transcript looks like.</p>

<p>Semester 2 of Freshman Year (Studied at Miami Beach Senior High)
February 2005-June 2005</p>

<p>Health I/Life Management Skills: B
Personal Fitness: A
Language Arts (English I) : C (argh, I'll explain)
Individual and Dual Sports: B
Team Sports I: A
Business Systems and Technology: A</p>

<p>Brazilian Transcript for Year 1 and 2 of high school there:
September 2005-November 2006</p>

<p>Year 1</p>

<p>Biology: 96
Physical Education: 82
Physics: 85
Geography: 96
History: 90
English: 100
Brazilian Literature: 92
Mathematics: 98
Portuguese: 85
Chemistry: 91
Art: 100</p>

<p>Year 2</p>

<p>Biology: 92
Physical Education: 98
Physics: 94
Geography: 98
History: 90
Spanish: 85
Brazilian Literature: 88
Mathematics: 96
Portuguese: 86</p>

<p>Oficial HS Transcript with transferred credits for my current HS for all classes up until January 2007:</p>

<p>Algebra I Honors: A
Health I/Life Management Skills: B
Language Arts Transfer: C
Personal Fitness: A
Individual and Dual Sports: B
Team Sports I: A
Business Systems and Technology: A
Art Transfer: A
Spanish Speaker I: A
English I: A
Algebra II Honors: A
Phys. Ed. Transfer: B
Biology I: A
Physical Sciences: B
World Culture Geography: A
Spanish Speaker II: B
English II: A
Geometry Honors: A
Biology II: A
Chemistry I: A
Physics I: A
World History: A</p>

<p>My report card for Semester 2 of Junior Year (Jan 2007-June 2007):</p>

<p>AP US History: B
American Gov't Honors: A
AP Chemistry: B
Pre-Calculus: A
AP Eng. Language: A
Economics Honors: A
Driver's Ed Class/Lab: A</p>

<p>GPA U: 3.7381
GPA W: 3.9643
Top 10% of Class (0020/0368)</p>

<p>School type: Slightly competitive, can't get my rank up more because all the IB students had Honors/AP classes shoved into them throughout freshman-senior years, I was in Brazil and couldn't do that.</p>

<p>Awards/EC:
- Outstanding Economics Honors Student (I took econ as a junior, usually awarded to seniors as it's a senior class - teacher made an exception as I was the best econ student she ever had)</p>

<ul>
<li>Founder and administrator of popular tech website, <a href="http://www.aeroxp.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aeroxp.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li>
</ul>

<p>Current SAT I 1790
CR: 630
M: 570
W: 590 , Essay 7</p>

<p>Projected SAT I ~= 2200-2300
CR: 800
M: 750
W: 730</p>

<p>Projected SAT II
Math IIC: 750
Literature: 800
US History: 750</p>

<p>Recs: Amazing, My econ teacher says she'll be honored to write me a recommendation to the colleges I want to apply to, same goes for my English and most other teachers. </p>

<p>Now, there are a few factors to this. I did poorly on the SATs, and am still going to take the subjects as I didn't feel ready for them. I was abroad in Brazil for 4 years, so I had some transfer credits that ended up messed up but this was the best my counselor could do for me. So I have spoken to lots of adcoms, and they told me that I should include a copy of my official transcript for my school in Brazil within my application that there are people specialized in reading international transcripts. Hence, I will do so - include both my official HS transcript with how they "transferred" my credits, and also my Brazilian school transcript as I noted above. Also, the transfer language arts credit with a C is because of the fact that at Miami Beach Sr. High, I got in mid-March and the 9-week period was about to be over. I was none the wiser and got an F for that 9-week period in English, and an A in the concurrent 9-week period which ended up as a C. Guess it doesn't matter now, but big screwup to just overlook it at the time :( (I had no idea how these things worked back then, and how my grades would later haunt me).</p>

<p>Semester 1:
AP US History
AP Eng Language
AP Eng Literature
AP Environmental Sciences
IB Theory of Knowledge
AP Calculus AB
AP Psychology
Online: AP Microeconomics
Online: AP Art History Segment 1</p>

<p>Semester 2:
(Dual Enrollment) Statistics I
(Dual Enrollment) Microeconomics
AP Eng Literature
AP Environmental Sciences
AP Calculus AB
Honors Research (filler class for those who take TOK 1st semester)
AP Psychology
Online: AP Macroeconomics
Online: AP Art History Segement 2</p>

<p>Now, my first semester has English and US History again because I only did one semester of Junior year since I was in Brazil until January this year, hence I need the full credit.</p>

<p>I am going to re-take the SATs. I hope to take my scores up to at least 750-ish on each section, and I'm hoping to take the Math II/Lit/US Hist subject tests and get at least a 750-ish in each of those, too. I've been doing lots of prep over the summer and my practice test are all coming out around those scores.</p>

<p>My ECs and awards are not really up there because I had no chance of getting them - in the Brazilian school system there is no such thing as awards or EC opportunities, I've only been in the U.S. for high school this last junior semester and one semester of freshman year. My traveling kind of got in the way of my school curriculum, unfortunately I couldn't to much about it.</p>

<p>I'm looking at business schools. My number one choice is NYU Stern, I was there for the open house this last Sunday (9/16) and I am in LOVE. I am absolutely applying ED and would like to know my chances there first and foremost. Now, my other options:</p>

<p>Reach/Extreme Ultimate Mega Reach:
- UPenn Wharton
- U. South Carolina (apparently was rated the best int'l business program)
- Georgetown (don't know how their business program works)
- Columbia (for econ)
- UCLA
- U. of Miami
- Emory
- UVA McIntire</p>

<p>Safeties/Matches:</p>

<p>UM
FIU
Tulane
? what else ?</p>

<p>I'm not really sure where else to look for unis. Anyone have any suggestions of what kind of unis I should be looking at? Maybe some good safeties? I'm a first generation college student, and come from a pretty low income household (< 20k/year). I'm an American born citizen but my parents were naturally born Brazilian and are now naturalized Americans. I'd like my chance with the current scores and then the projected scores if you all would be so kind =).</p>

2

<p>come on, bump? :(</p>

3

<p>Do you believe that Stern is easier to get into than McIntire at UVA, UMiami or USouth Carolina?</p>

<p>The thing is, it’s probably not, which would put it on your list of reaches. It’s a pretty tough program to get into.</p>

<p>Furthermore, your class rank is good, but not outstanding (you are slightly out of the top 10%) and your current SATs are simply too poor. Your projected SATs are outstanding, but of course everyone projects good SATs. I understand your situation, but you have poor ECs, which hurts you further.</p>

<p>Stern is a reach, unfortunately.</p>

4

<p>I’d be inclined to agree that Stern (and the rest of your reaches for that matter) are big reaches with that SAT. Wharton? UCLA OOS? It’s not going to be easy. And I also think you’re setting yourself up for disappointment by forecasting a 400+ point improvement in your SAT I scores as well.</p>

<p>Honestly, everything else looks on par though not outstanding, so I’d recommend scaling back your options a little bit. You’re certainly not a bad student, you just might be shooting a bit out of your league.</p>

<p>Best of luck on those SATs though. We’re all trying!</p>

5

<p>website is pretty cool by the way!</p>

6

<p>Oh no no, by no means do I think that Stern is an easy shot. Or the others for that matter. Those are the universities I’d ideally want to attend, NYU is my first choice because well… I’m in love with the city and NYU, what can I say? :stuck_out_tongue: </p>

<p>As for the SATs, I really would like to know my chances with the projected scores. I have been studying like a crazy man to take them, I’ve taken about 8 practice tests in the last 2 weeks and scored around 730-800 on each section, so I think I can do it on the real thing, let’s hope so. =D</p>

<p>Now, what else can I add in as good safeties? I thank you guys for not being dear harsh on me, I just need some perspectives, I can’t do much about being abroad and not having had opportunities at school, but I don’t use it as an excuse and believe that perhaps my cultural diversity might be an advantage in some points.</p>

<p>So, projected SATs - at least a humble decent shot maybe at NYU and reaching chance for UPenn/Georgetown/Etc? And anything else I can put on my list, good schools?</p>

7

<p>Current SAT I 1790
CR: 630
M: 570
W: 590 , Essay 7</p>

<p>Projected SAT I ~= 2200-2300
CR: 800
M: 750
W: 730</p>

<p>^ i heard from a person who works at collegeboard that if your score between two tests improved by more than 300 points, they mail you and ask you to answer as to how you could have improved your scores by that much, any evidence to support that claim, and a few problems to solve to prove it.</p>

<p>I’m in love with the city and NYU
^ lol..living in NY and always near NYU, may i say that the school atmopshere and the city are so overrated</p>

8

<p>Well there’s no way I can improve by more than 300 points can I? :stuck_out_tongue: I’d be going over the scale at 930/870/890 lol.</p>

9

<p>Overall score increases by 300, not each section.</p>

10

<p>Oh, wow. Well, if they do that (do they do that?) I’ll have no problem explaining myself, I guess? I think it’d be ridiculous, honestly, if they do.</p>

11

<p>Bumpy :smiley: :D</p>

12

<p>bump of epic proportions =)</p>

13

<p>bumpybumpbump =)</p>

14

<p>last bump peoples, I really needed some suggestions for safeties/matches :/</p>

15

<p>Ive been looking a lot into USouth Carolina as well and heres the deal there. You apply for the Int. Business program during the Spring of your freshman year so if you can 4.0 in college and really step up in terms of EC’s during college, you might have a shot. I think you have a good shot at getting into the general college at SC and the international business department really values international experience from what I hear. So consider that option. Feel free to PM me with any questions. I’ve done quite a bit of research on SC. Of course I’m no expert, but this is the info that I have gathered.</p>

16

<p>Thanks for all the info on USC, seems like a really competitive program =) Anyone else? I’d really like to get matches/safeties just in case, I have too big of a list right now :/</p>