<p>I'm an international applicant from Sweden. I need plenty of financial aid, so I'm only sure about applying to (a few of) the seven schools that are officially need-blind and full-need for internationals. Primarily:</p>
<ul>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
</ul>
<p>and also possibly:</p>
<ul>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Williams</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm quite open for suggestions of other schools where I stand a chance of getting in, and getting aid.</p>
<p>I'm very uncertain of the strength of my application. I think it may be rather strong in some areas, but there are a number of question marks which are potentially huge. I have no idea just how huge they will turn out to be.</p>
<p>The stuff:</p>
<ul>
<li>GPA: 19.47/20.0 in Swedish terms, but many of them are in music-related courses, which might not look favorable.</li>
<li>SAT: Not done yet, but I'm expecting something like 2350... basically, 2400 minus errors due to getting up early and being nervous.</li>
<li><p>TOEFL: Not done either, but presumably very good.</p></li>
<li><p>Teacher recs: Theoretically good--one math teacher who has said repeatedly that I'm the best mathematician he's ever taught, and a Swedish teacher who also liked me--but I'm not sure how well they know English, or how used they are to writing this kind of recommendations (I'm guessing "not very" to both).</p></li>
<li><p>Counselor rec: Currently don't know who to ask about it, so potentially not very good!</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Extracurriculars:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pianist. Played solo with local professional symphony orchestra, musically directed two musicals (one in school, one independently), performed a lot with singers.</li>
<li>Composer. Had work performed by local professional symphony.</li>
<li>I've sung in multiple choirs.</li>
<li>I write fiction and poetry. Nothing published or anything.
Besides this, I'm hard-pressed to come up with ECs, as we traditionally don't really care about them the way you do in Sweden, don't need them to get into universities, and don't have as much of a formalized system with clubs and so on... so (beside the fact that if I were American I'd probably have more club things under my belt) I don't really have any gut feeling as to where the threshold is.</li>
</ul>
<p>Work experience:</p>
<ul>
<li>Software tester, one summer</li>
<li>Musical director in a musical theater production for local youth (as mentioned briefly under ECs, but this one I was actually paid for)</li>
<li>Occasionally played for services in local churches (semi-volunteering, I guess)</li>
<li>Occasional work as accompanist.</li>
</ul>
<p>One potential issue (beside the italic "buts" above) is that I graduated from high school (gymnasium in Sweden) in 2007, and am now 21. I don't know how this is typically viewed by admissions people. After high school I began to study piano at a university, then dropped out, and spent the next year-and-a-half studying music at a pre-college level. Then this fall I started university again (studying piano again) until I finally realizing that I really don't want to do that and dropped out again. In other words, I don't have a lot to show from my two years since high school.</p>
<p>This turned out to be quite a huge post, but I hope someone finds it worthwhile to read. I'd be most grateful for ideas and advice here.</p>