<p>UCI has a good IT program; your chances of admission are a bit higher there.</p>
<p>Check out Harvey Mudd: It has a great reputation among the technology institutes. It's part of a five school consortium, so it has the social and academic resources of a much larger school. The small size makes it especially easy for kids to get to know each other and there's lots of faculty contact.</p>
<p>Thanks for that one, have already researched something about it and will definitely apply to it.
Are there any good Unis IN L.A.? Around Santa Monica.
Would be cool if the Uni wouldnt be more than around 30-60 minutes driving away from it.</p>
<p>is USC near enough?</p>
<p>Yea, USC is good.
Ive currently got the following Universities in my list:
UCLA, CalTech, Cal Poly, USC, UCI, Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>What are your extracurricular activities?</p>
<p>USC would be more than happy to take you as a full-pay international. I think you're good there :).</p>
<p>tbh I dont have a lot of ECs, my school doesn't offer any special activities and I am not really into joining clubs which I barely attend.
So far I can think of the following:</p>
<p>Chess (Tournaments, weekly activity, club leader)
Tibet Support Group Germany (Acting for Human Rights in Tibet, Website Administrator and organising member)
Member of the Tibetan Youth in Europe
Member of Students for a free Tibet
Piano lessons for some years and some concerts (hobby level :) )
Tibetan guitar and reading/writing (specially went to India to learn this)
Speaker for my class for two years
Soccer team (until I hurt my left knee)
Member of a math club
One hour tuition per week for left behind students (voluntary)
Computer Administrator of my school - full access to the computers and keys</p>
<p>Unluckily, ECs are not important in Germany, which is why I don't have a lot to present. :(
I'll try to improve on this though.</p>
<p>I really appretiate your help.
These forums rock =)</p>
<p>According to the first practice test I've done, I would get 600 in CR and 750 in math.
I am learning a lot and doing the first real test in may, but supposed my scores stay this bad, how are my chances?
Will they take into account that my main language isn't english and I therefore face harder questions?</p>
<p>At private schools your hook is being international, so you're in competition with other internationals, against whom your scores will be compared. Perhaps someone can comment on how the public schools handle this.</p>
<p>Oh your EC's are fine. Welcome to USC :)</p>
<p>Thanks to you two :)
So will my SAT be compared to the other Internationals SATs only or will they check the country too? Is it an advantage or disadvantage to be from Germany, on the one hand I believe not that many Germans want to study abroad, on the other hand Germany does have good Universities...</p>
<p>Oh and tetrisfan, does that mean my chances at USC are good? =)</p>
<p>For an international, you have great ECs. You have good marks too, from what I've seen. As for SAT scores, they'd expect your reading and writing scores to be slightly lower. You could see if you can do TOEFL, but besides that, try to get your reading and writing above 650 for a real edge.</p>
<p>I am doing TOEFL next month, that one shouldnt be a prob :)</p>
<p>I don't think we can generalize about how much various schools might want Germans, but there are certainly fewer than applicants from China and India!</p>
<p>Another post after quite some time :)</p>
<p>I've heared 2k9 is a bad year for applicants... :-(</p>
<p>What SAT scores should I be aiming for? Considering Im an international from Germany. (For UCLA / USC)</p>
<p>I don't know about UCLA (public), but for USC anything above >2100 should be OK. For Harvey Mudd, you need VERY high math scores, though.
And being from Germany is definitely an advantage since there aren't a lot of applicants from Western Europe.</p>
<p>Don't worry too much about the SATs (no point in aksing "what should I be aiming for" - get as high scores as you can!) because usually Abiturienten do very well in those.</p>
<p>What makes you think that Abiturienten do well in the SAT?
The main problem I am having is that a huge amount of vocabulary I havent even seen before is asked. And even though I am learning vocabulary lists, I doubt that I can catch up :(</p>
<p>
[quote]
What makes you think that Abiturienten do well in the SAT?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Experience. I did the Swiss Matura which is similar to the Abitur and I think we are very well prepared. I also know a bunch of German students who all said that the SATs were pretty easy for them. </p>
<p>Here on CC, you'll read a lot of time that it's not worth memorizing vocab.
Maybe this is true for native speakers but I've done intense vocab cramming for about 1 month and it really helped me a lot.
It requires determination though, to study for a test that none of your friend has ever heard of - on top of the normal school work and Abi-Vorbereitung.
In addition to that, reading English articles (International Herald Tribune, National Science, whatever interests you) helps too. And whenever you come across a word that you don't know: Write it down!</p>
<p>Good luck and PM me if you need any help. I know the process can be very trying and I was always glad when I got help from people who were more experienced. I'd be happy to "give back a little bit".</p>
<p>I don't believe you should worry too much about your SAT Verbal score for admission as an international, especially if you are intenting to pursue education in science or engineering. Admissions officers don't expect you to have the same mastery of english as native speakers. That's why they have the TOEFL. I am familiar with a number of french students applying to top engineering schools. Their transcript and French Baccalaureat or IB results and letters of recommendation were the only things that really mattered. It was understood that pursuing many ECs was just not common in high school in Europe. Some were even admitted as sophomores, which saved them a year in tuition. </p>
<p>For some schools like UCLA, being non-resident is a bigger issue. They just don't take many out-of-state students, let alone internationals. I don't know what the admission rate for internationals is at Caltech but is probably very low with many highly qualified students from China and India applying. I know at MIT it is only around 4% but that is partly because MIT offers full financial aid to internationals. Caltech does not, so it may not be as hard. You should really check each school's policy in regards to interrnationals. Some are very friendly, especially if you don't expect any financial aid.</p>
<p>Could you please give me some details on what to look out for?
As Im really unfamiliar with college stuff I cannot guess my chances, specially because the data sheets Ive seen do not show the percentage admitted with financial aid and without...
I highly appretiate your help! =)</p>
<p>And Ive already taken the Toefl, received 112/120 points.</p>