<p>First of all I want to say Hello to everyone on this site and forum. I have gathered a lot of very usefull and very important information from reading about different subjects regarding Colleges,Financial Aids,Admissions and SATs.
I have yet to find some answers to some very important questions and I'm hoping that someone could help me with them.</p>
<p>I am a high school senior and I will graduate this summer. I am not studying in the US, but I hope to go to college there.
I am thinking about NYU, UCLA, USC or even Yale or Harvard (hey,a girl can dream!)
I have lived in Lebanon all my life and I want to move to the US and prepare myself for college, but I just don't know what exactly it is that I have to do.
We don't have SATs here, nor do we have a clue to how American Ivy league colleges work.</p>
<p>I just want to know..
How do I prep for the SATs? where do I even take them?
how do I find the right college?
How high do I have to score to get accepted into a good college?
and can I major in anything I want (like Med or Law, for example) even if I chose not to study Maths, Physics and Chemistry in high school.
What are some important things that I need to know about college in general?</p>
<p>I am so lost and confused, I don't know what to do.. can anybody help me with this problem ?</p>
<p>Your message is a bit confusing...are you planning to take a year off and live in the US before applying to college? If so, taking the SATs, etc will be a lot easier.
Anyway, I can answer most of your questions:
SATs:The cheapest (and, in my opinion, most effective) way to prepare for the SATs is to get a review book - 10 Real SATs is written by the people who administer the tests. I don't know if it's sold in lebanon, but if not, buy it on collegeboard.com or amazon.com. You can register for the SATs on collegeboard.com - the test is administered in Lebanon, I'm not sure exactly where, though.
There is no cutoff score, but in general, above a 1450 is good for the top colleges.</p>
<p>Finding the Right College: Depends on what you are looking for. Criteria to consider: big or small? city or suburban environment? do they offer the majors you like? do they give good financial aid to international students? is the student body diverse? There are many more. collegeboard.com will give you lots of information on colleges and links to their websites. I used it for a lot of my research. If you'd like to buy a book, I recommend Fiske's Guide to Colleges (you can also get this at amazon.com)</p>
<p>Taking math/science courses in high school. Colleges require you to take certain classes in high school. Usually, you need three years of math and three years of science (including biology, chemistry, and physics.) So it would be bad not to study those if they were offered. I don't know what your circumstances are, though, so you should contact the colleges you're interested in to ask them if the classes you took fulfill their requirements.</p>
<p>Your message is a bit confusing...are you planning to take a year off and live in the US before applying to college? If so, taking the SATs, etc will be a lot easier.
Anyway, I can answer most of your questions:
SATs:The cheapest (and, in my opinion, most effective) way to prepare for the SATs is to get a review book - 10 Real SATs is written by the people who administer the tests. I don't know if it's sold in lebanon, but if not, buy it on collegeboard.com or amazon.com. You can register for the SATs on collegeboard.com - the test is administered in Lebanon, I'm not sure exactly where, though.
There is no cutoff score, but in general, above a 1450 is good for the top colleges.</p>
<p>Finding the Right College: Depends on what you are looking for. Criteria to consider: big or small? city or suburban environment? do they offer the majors you like? do they give good financial aid to international students? is the student body diverse? There are many more. collegeboard.com will give you lots of information on colleges and links to their websites. I used it for a lot of my research. If you'd like to buy a book, I recommend Fiske's Guide to Colleges (you can also get this at amazon.com)</p>
<p>Taking math/science courses in high school. Colleges require you to take certain classes in high school. Usually, you need three years of math and three years of science (including biology, chemistry, and physics.) So it would be bad not to study those if they were offered. I don't know what your circumstances are, though, so you should contact the colleges you're interested in to ask them if the classes you took fulfill their requirements.
Post any more questions you have. I'm not an expert on international college admissions, but I'm happy to help. One more important bit of advice: I often find information on this website that is completely wrong. Don't rely completely on it - make sure to check everything on more reliable sources, such as collegeboard.com (which I've mentioned way too often in this post...but only because it is so useful)</p>
<p>Thank you Esmeralda for your reply, it was very helpful.
I have always wanted to experience the city life and I'm seriously thinking about NYU these days. I still want to know where to take the SATs (do I take them here in my country? or when I go to NYC?)</p>
<p>I am thinkin about majoring in Psychology or English literature, do you know any colleges with the best programmes?</p>
<p>I still have lots of things to do and work really hard to graduate, we'll see what happens then.
My father is against the whole "studying abroad" idea, I still have'nt told him that I want to go away for college, I am not sure if he'll even agree to letting me go, wish me luck.</p>
<p>How do you apply to a certain college? does it work online?</p>
<p>(I don't have older siblings, so this is a new department for me that I know absolutely nothing about and I need all the help I can get. No one in family wants to help me so I'm on my own)</p>
<p>If you can tell me anything that could help me, that would be great.
Thank you for your time.
Elise Gabrielle.</p>
<p>Good luck dealing with your father + finishing high school...here's some more info.
-You can apply to a lot of colleges online. NYU is definitely one of them. You can apply at their website - nyu.edu
-You can take the SATs either here or in your country - it won't matter to colleges. They're definitely administered in Lebanon and in NYC, so it's your choice - it depends on when you want to take them, etc.
-Another school you might like is Barnard - it's a women's college in NYC.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what colleges have the best english and psychology departments, since that's not what I want to major in, but I will try to find out for you.</p>