<p>Hi, I'm a Chinese male going to a super small (60 in my graduating class), very good international school in Hong Kong. Yeah, I know the odds are stacked against my favour....</p>
<p>BUT</p>
<p>I was born in Australia, and I've gone to school In Oslo (Norway), Australia, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and I fit in well at all of those schools. Along with my 35 ACT, (but lack of ECs except for varsity badminton and ball hockey [lol], starting a charity, debate, and MUN), is that enough to make me competitive for Georgetown, JHU, Amherst...possibly Brown? </p>
<p>Oh and I also do orchestra (but which Asian kid doesn't) and I was a class rep in like Grade 9 LOL
oh yeah and also Engineering team ahahhaha</p>
<p>How do I emphasise my 'international-ness' and un-Asian-ness (I got a lot higher in Reading and Writing than I did in my Math for ACT and SAT)? How much would that help?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>(I haven't done my SAT subject tests, but I'm predicting low to mid 700s. Nor have I received my A-Level results, but I'm getting AT LEAST AABB)</p>
<p>Edit: Probably gonna do International Relations or Poli Sci...no engineering or premed for me!</p>
<p>A 35 ACT score is very commendable, and I think you have a reasonable chance at the schools you’ve listed. Have you considered applying to USC? They’ve accepted a lot of international students last year, so I’ve heard. Does Amherst accept a lot of int. students? You should check up on that. Research the schools you have listed thoroughly, so you can ace any supplemental essays. </p>
<p>In addition, you seem to have really good writing prowess, so I think if you just stick to mastering your personal statement with your usual writing style, you should be fine.
I would also recommend you to apply to at least one safety school.</p>
<p>Dude my parents would kill me if I went to USC </p>
<p>jokes</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be happy with just USC though…in Hong Kong, USC has a bad reputation.</p>
<p>At my school, only ‘bad’ students go to any colleges in the US like UCLA, Virginia, or USC. Asian pride yo.</p>
<p>Heck, even UCLA doesn’t have a stellar reputation in Hong Kong. My counselor told me that my backup is UCLA…heh.</p>
<p>And barely anyone in Hong Kong knows about LACs…sucks, since I really want to go to either Amherst, Williams, or Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Thanks for the compliment on my writing style. Although…would colleges be okay with my informal, sarcastic style? Should I let even more of my natural cockiness shine through?</p>
<p>higuyslol - I would recommend doing some research and trying to find schools where 1) the proportion of international students are low and 2) schools that are NOT needs-blind for international students as you become much more desirable if you can pay full tuition. In the former category are William & Mary and Boston College which have great IR departments and have much lower int’l student %'s than Georgetown (9% int’l). W&M has way too many female applicants so this might be a good safety school for you. In the latter category, Amherst is needs blind for int’ls, but (based on what I have read on CC) Middebury, which is also a top LAC, is not needs blind for int’ls.</p>
<p>Lastly, if your parents are into “Asian pride” and bragging rights, why don’t you apply to top UK schools, such as Oxbridge and LSE. These schools love foreign students! Good luck, Londondad</p>
<p>This is quite surprising. USC is a great school, albeit its location may be a bit unappealing. “Bad” students? I don’t understand this at all. Is this because the rigor at your school expects student to attend even more academically challenging schools?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go with the sarcastic, informal essay. Only if you’ve given it to tons of qualified readers who all said the essay was wonderful and achieved its purpose.</p>
<p>Londondad: yep, I’m applying to the UK as well. Imperial, UCL, and LSE. Commercial law! No one in Hong Kong knows about the others so hahahahahah yeah…I’m not sexy enough for Oxbridge so nope. Just these three.
Thanks for the need-blind tip though, I’ll certainly look into that. In terms of LACs, I’m only also looking at Swarthmore and Williams.</p>
<p>asinine16: This is Hong Kong bro. Everyone’s got a private tutor. NYU is considered a ‘meh’ school. Year before last, 5 out of 60 got into LSE. Last year, 5 got into UCL. Columbia and Brown are COMMON. Georgetown and JHU are ‘not bad’ schools.
And this is in graduating classes of 60 kids each year haha
I’m sure USC is a great school, but think of Asian-American parents…now add a lot of resources. That’s my school haha.</p>
<p>^You realize the difference between Oxbridge and LSE, UCL, and Imperial is minimal. I know plenty of kids rejected at LSE, but accepted at Oxbridge and vice-versa.</p>
<p>Hmm that’s odd. UCLA and USC, especially UCLA, is considered by people from Asia one of the top schools. It holds up much better against Brown, JHU, and Gtown.</p>
<p>Silly ■■■■■ didn’t do his homework. >_<</p>
<p>Who the hell are you? Are you even from Asia?</p>
<p>Asian employers look mostly at rankings (although weirdly enough, no one knows about Rice…or LACs). UCLA and USC, though good, are relatively lower on the rankings.</p>
<p>Plus, the UCs are too big for me.</p>
<p>Plenty get accepted to Imperial, UCL, and LSE in my school. Only 1 or 2 get accepted to Oxbridge each year.</p>
<p>Wow, your parents must be expecting a lot from you. I do hope you succeed! My mom just wants me to go to a community college because it’s easy…***.</p>
<p>Haha thank you. You sound intelligent, I’m sure you’ll do fine. Some of my classmates are ridiculous - I think Berkeley is the safety for one of my friends.</p>
<p>By the way, I’m not saying USC and UCLA aren’t fantastic schools.<br>
UCLA isn’t even a safety - I would love to go there. Cali weather 
They’re great schools, and they’re highly regarded by people all around me.</p>
<p>And what I said about NYU, Georgetown, and JHU don’t reflect what I think personally. Studying International Relations at Georgetown or JHU or NYU would be awesome. What I said is the vibe I get from hearing parents talk about those schools - something I said to reinforce the highly competitive nature of my school.</p>
<p>Yea… I’m from HK as well, the reputation of the UCs and USC in my school isn’t as good as it is in the US. </p>
<p>btw higuyslol, which school do you go to? My school had only 65 graduates this year too.</p>