International ED 1 to Vassar

<p>CHANCES</p>

<p>International student, female, applying ED 1 to Vassar, need almost 93% aid</p>

<p>Stats
Freshman year GPA: 3.1
Sophomore year GPA: 3.0 … and then HUGE leap…</p>

<p>British O-level results: 8 A’s in all 8 subjects… (4.0, if converted to GPA)
Junior year GPA: 3.9
British AS-level results: Eco = A… Bio = A… Chem = B (3.67 if converted to GPA)
Senior year GPA (first semester): 4.0</p>

<p>Got lots of B’s and C’s in first two years of high school (class of 50 students). Old school offered only till O levels. </p>

<p>Changed schools to do A levels. New school has 290 students in my batch. Very competitive. Have mostly A’s in new school, except for a B in chemistry. Have toughest course load in class – 5 A level subjects</p>

<p>Class rank = 4/290 (top 1.4%)</p>

<p>ECAs:</p>

<p>MUSIC
* over 10 years of training in Indian classical music + Rabindrasangeet
* performed in school events
* sang on television twice
* won numerous awards outside school
* consecutively won the Certificate of Achievement in Music for 3 years in high school</p>

<p>DEBATE/ HOSTING:
* best speaker in semi finals in school debate in 9th grade
* runners up in finals in school debate – 9th grade
* participated in many interschool debates
* parliamentarian in winning team in EFA finals – 9th grade
* participated in 1st International Debate Workshop in Bangladesh 2004 – 11th grade
* parliamentarian in National Bangladesh Television English Debate championships in 2005
* nationally ranked as one of the top 5 debaters in Pre-worlds School Debate 2005
* general secretary of my school’s debating society
* was the emcee at numerous events held on national days outside school
* hosted the Edexcel International Conference in 2005</p>

<p>COMMUNITY SERVICE:
* raised funds for flood victims in 9th grade
* organized a fund raiser in neighborhood to collect money for the treatment of a child suffering from polio
* treasurer of school’s community service club – 11th and 12th grades
* raised funds in school wide food sale for a children’s ward in a local hospital – 12th grade </p>

<p>WRITING/OTHER CLUBS:
* contributed in school yearbooks – 9th and 10th grades
* executive feature writer of Rising Stars, the most popular weekly supplement of a national English newspaper (average circulation figure of 50 000)
* essay got commended by the royal commonwealth society in 10th grade
* Associate Editor of school newsletter – 11th grade
* Editor-in-Chief of school newsletter – 12th grade
* member of Brine Pickles, a creative writer’s group
* recently was the youngest playwright to have a play staged at the British Council, Dhaka
* founded the first ever A level yearbook in my school (we have over 650 A level students in all the batches). Editor-in-chief of the yearbook.
* chief coordinator of the school’s reading club, which I founded
* completed a course in photography from the South Asian Institute of Photography in 12th grade</p>

<p>ACADEMIC/ NON ACADEMIC HONOURS
* won the Certificate of Achievement in Economics in 9th grade
* won the Certificate of Achievement in English in 10th grade
* won the Daily Star Nation Builders of Tomorrow Award (given to candidates getting 6 A’s or above in their O levels) for 8 A’s.
* chosen by the school to be the Closing Assembly Speaker for the Class of 2004
* chosen by the class to give the speech at graduation</p>

<p>APPLICATION
* expecting good recommendations
* want to major in English and International Studies
* essay should be ok/good (suffering from writer’s block, so not sure)
* will mention that I want to be a writer
* SAT II: awaiting results… Lit should be above 700… Math I above 650… Math II – no idea, pretty bad. Was sick on my SAT II day. Luckily Vassar requires 2 SAT IIs.
* SAT I: will give on Nov 5th: possible score: Critical Reading ~ 730… Writing ~ 690… Math ~ 650-ish? (pessimistically speaking)</p>

<p>(pls keep in mind that Vassar is not need blind for international students and i'll need a LOT of aid)</p>

<p>you look pretty good in terms of experiences, but it's hard to know w/out scores, and it's harder to predict scores than you might think
i also don't know how much the need thing matters in vassar's decision process
good luck!</p>

<p>well... do you think the low GPA in my freshman and sophomore years will hurt a lot?... they might think, "u shouldve studied harder back then if you knew you'd want to apply to a competitive not need blind (for internationals) LAC like ours"</p>

<p>to which my answer would be sth like, "BUT I DIDNT KNOW..."</p>

<p>im worried... </p>

<p>and yeah, SAT scores are hard to predict, i agree...</p>

<p>college like it if your gpa has improved, so I wouldnt worry about that</p>

<p>you'll be fine if you work on the essay.. and i think vassar has some sort of "my space" thing to fill with what you want... so work hard on doing something creative and unique, plus do well on the sat (that's so easy to say....)</p>