Hello! I’m Paolo and I’m an international student from Italy, but both of my parents are Spanish, so I’m a proud Latino in Italy 
. This year is my senior year and all I am thinking about concerns my college chances. I’ll get into my scores in about a second, but first let me tell you that my town is a tiny one in the Marche region (yes, I know you do not know where it is, but it is okay), and as you can all imagine there are not many clubs here… I know that is not possitive, but there is not anything I can possibly do. (BTW I do not need financial aid, luckily my father has enough money to afford my tuition).
I do not consider my grades to be bad. I got to a public Italian school and here my GPA has been:
83% for 9th grade
89% for 10th grade
98% for 11th grade
Average 90%
(in Italy 9th and 10th grade GPA scores are not relevant as long as you pass. They are not taken into consideration for college. This is why my GPA is so high for 11th grade, which does count.)
SAT scores (new 2016 SAT):
700 in Math
680 in Reading + Writing (33 for Reading. 35 for Writing).
1380 total
6/6/6 for the essay (18/24)
SAT Subject Tests: (only one)
800 in Math II
My extracurriculars do not excel the average:
- I help my mother in her shop about two hours per day, and I also stay with her one hour to stay with my grandmother who has Alzheimer. (do not know if that is an extracurricular) -I played the violin for 4 years (only one after 8th grade) -I have been learning Russian for all my life as autodidact. -I also speak Spanish at a very decent level (B2) (None of them show my interest to biology, I know, I get it haha),
If it is not asking for a lot, I would love to know from a more realistic point of view how do my chances look (which of these colleges are reach, midreach or kind of safety). Please, feel free to tell me what you really think. I do not consider myself anything, please take that into account.
The colleges I’m considering are: University of Minnesota, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, University of Texas at Austin, BU, Purdue, JHU, UCLA, NYU, UMich, University of Washington at Seattle, and Columbia (I’m trying this last one just to try my chances).
( I DO know my chances are not exceptional for most of these, but I would really appreciate another point of view as I said before).
My intented major is Biology, but for the only Engineering colleges where I’ll be aiming for the Biomedical Engineering major.
Also, is being Italian an advantage at the moment of the admissions process? I have always had this doubt.
I’ll tell you guys how will I do afterwards 