International Student aiming for higher up.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, CC I am a senior international student in South Korea. I know it is like right before the college admission process, but I am kinda worried about rumours saying that international student does not have any chance against top notch US college. I want to see peoples opinion regarding to my stat. Please be harsh as possible. </p>

<p>GPA: 4.0/4.62
Class Rank: none
School: Private School
AP Courses: 9 (Calculus, Biology, US History, Government, Literature, Statistic, Physics, Chemistry and Psychology).
Honors: Psychology, English 11, Physics
(I've moved from IB school during my junior year so I could not take any AP before that). </p>

<p>SAT: 2310
ACT (Took it just in case due to my countries SAT cheating problem): 34
TOEFL: 120 full score
SAT Subject test: (I'm not sure whether to report all the score or not)
- Math: 800
- Biology: 800
- Chemistry: 800
- Physics: 780
- USH: 770
- Lit: 800
- WH: 740</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activity:
1. Taekwondo/Martial Arts: 9~12
- 2nd Degree black belt
- Participated in Annual demonstration
- Helped multicultural kids
- Trained in psychology
- Self trained other 9 martial arts
- Award for local demonstration award</p>

<ol>
<li>Model United Nation: 11~12</li>
<li>Assistant Secretary in General</li>
<li>Chair</li>
<li><p>Published book on climate change (UN)</p></li>
<li><p>Varsity Debate: 11~12</p></li>
<li><p>Member and co-captain, manager</p></li>
<li><p>Comics: 11~12</p></li>
<li><p>Director and founder</p></li>
<li><p>Science and Math Club+ Research: 9~12</p></li>
<li><p>Leader and founder of science and math club</p></li>
<li><p>Researched HGH for 4 years with experiment: got college level recognition</p></li>
<li><p>Hope to Future: 11~12</p></li>
<li><p>Fundraised for people who are in need </p></li>
<li><p>Raise awareness for domestic violence</p></li>
<li><p>leader and founder</p></li>
<li><p>NK Human Rights: 11~12</p></li>
<li><p>Secretary</p></li>
<li><p>Promoter</p></li>
<li><p>Fundraiser</p></li>
<li><p>Mission trip: 10~12</p></li>
<li><p>Planner and contributor</p></li>
<li><p>Drama Club: 9~10</p></li>
<li><p>Actor and Assistant Director</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Summer:
- Duke Summer Science Program (9)
- WFUNA: UN Summer Program (12)
- Brown University Summer Program: Physiology (12)</p>

<p>Recommendation:
- From my AP Lit teacher and one from my biology teacher
- Also one of the UN agent will write me a recommendation for the summer program achievement</p>

<p>Award:
- Honors Roll
- Taekwondo Award
- WFUNA Award</p>

<p>Personal Upbringing:
- I know that other things are ok, but I cannot bypass this story of hardship I had. I am going to mention the domestic violence and depression problem I had and how I worked my a** off to overcome it. </p>

<p>College List: </p>

<p>Reach: Harvard, Stanford, Brown, college of william and mary, Duke</p>

<p>Possible Match: University of Wisconsin, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, UCLA, UC berkley, New york University, University of Illinois</p>

<p>Safety: Purdue, Texas A&M, Penn State University</p>

<p>srry for long post, and thank you for those whoever comment. </p>

2

<p>Also I forgot to mention, but my intended major is kinesiology or psychology. </p>

3

<p>The key question for an international student always is: what’s your budget? Will you need financial aid?
Chancing will depend on your answer.</p>

4

<p>Hello fellow South Korean. You are in South Korea right now, right?
as @MYOS1634‌ said, whether you need FA or not will drastically affect your admission.
If you are applying for FA, forget about state schools like UMich and UC schools. Not only they are extremely
competitive, they give little to no FA. Unless your family can afford 61k per year, it will be futile to apply there.</p>

<p>You are a solid candidate for the schools you listed as matches, but again, they won’t give much FA. There are merit scholarships but they will be competitive. NYU gives FA ONLY for freshmen year. </p>

<p>For score-wise, you are in Ivy league range. You are competing with other candidates who apply from South Korea, so expect that they will also have similar scores. I like your EC, by the way. </p>

<p>So basically your essays and school grade(nice) will be major factors that will determine the result. I recommend writing about how you overcame domestic violence and worked hard. That will be a good topic to talk about. Lastly, make sure to put some schools that give automatic scholarship based on GPA and test scores.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Also, don’t let other people’s skepticism discourage you. It’s very challenging, but not impossible. </p>

5

Unfortunately it looks like South Korea has widespread cheating on the SATS and probably on all test. That isn’t to say you were involved. But it does not look like scores from S. Korea can be taken at face value. This is unfortunate for those that don’t cheat. It does explain a preponderance of 800s in students coming from such places but who lack basic conversational English speaking skills. How’d they nab a 800 when they can’t write a sentence in standard English?

It looks like you have strong English skills; I’m not implying that your scores aren’t legit. Just that the widespread cheating among your peers may impact on how your scores are interpreted unless you took the tests in the US or Europe.

6

I see you took the ACTs and site your county’s cheating problem. Why would that not happen with the ACT’s?

7

There hasnt been ACT cheating problem. Theoretically, if the OP decides to use ACT, the colleges shouldnt give het disadvantage