International student here - Chance me please? :)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vassar College
1

Hello everyone,

First post here - nice to meet you all! I’m an international applicant that applied RD for the Class of 2019, and Vassar is one of my top choices. So without further ado…

SAT I: 2250 (750 R, 740 M, 760 W)
SAT II: 790 Bio-M, 800 Math 2c
Demography: Korean male
Financial aid: Not requested
Intended Major: Media studies

GPA: 3.755 cumulative (I attend a somewhat prestigious private school with a strange GPA system; on one hand, we have a pretty draconian grading scale, no honors courses, and a limit of 3 AP courses per year, but in return, we don’t seem to calculate unweighted GPA)
Class rank: Our school doesn’t rank because it’s quite small.

To give a better idea of my grades, my numeric averages are as follows:
Freshman (Sem 1/Sem 2): 94.25/91.63
Sophomore: 92.75/93.75
Junior: 95.43/96.43
Senior: Unreleased – I don’t know my specific grades, but I got a 4.33 with 3 AP’s so the average is probably 96~97.

On paper, the upward curve is pretty noticeable (3.3 --> 3.6 --> 4.0 --> 4.15 --> 4.3, etc.), but my guidance counselor repeatedly tells me my freshman/sophomore grades will still bring me down at a lot of schools.

Extracurriculars:
School newspaper (4 years, Editor in Chief in senior year)
Student govt. (2 years, Vice President of entire school in senior year)
Microfinance organization that raised a couple thousand dollars (3 years, vice president in junior/senior year)
Lead electric guitarist at a church band (3 years)
Teen counseling organization (4 years, Officer in senior year)
6 week internship at the largest English newspaper in my country; around 30 articles I wrote on Asian political issues were actually published
360~ish hours of community service from going to mission trips around Asia

Essays: My Common App essay was very personal; I showed it to my guidance counselor, an English teacher, and a close friend, and they all told me it’s “very good” or “amazing”. I fleshed out my two supplements and felt pretty good about those too.
Recs: Pretty confident about teacher recs, not sure about my counselor rec because I wasn’t very comfortable around him.

2

bump
Any input would be appreciated! :smile:

3

  1. As you would know, your standardized scores exceed the minimum requirement for virtually any U.S. college.

  2. Your ECs are great, particularly your position as Editor-in-Chief combined with your internship.

  3. If your earlier grades “bring [you] down,” it still doesn’t mean that they will keep you out. And, in fairness, if they were lower than they should have been, then in theory you are less prepared than you could have been. So that’s why colleges weigh them.

Overall, I think your chances are great. Good luck.

4

I think you have a really good shot! Writing for a major newspaper and being interested in media studies will help a lot.

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You’re male and with an SAT above the Vassar enrolled mean, you’ll be accepted.

6

@merc81, @KGB1337, @Englishman, Thank you all for the input! It’ll definitely be a nerve-racking wait for the next couple months for me, especially with all the ED2’s pouring out.