Awards
*Certificate of Academic Excellence
*Best Delegate in Subang Utama Model United Nations Conference (National Level)
*PAD-KMK Program’s Reserve Team (International Level, cooperation with German Embassy)
Extracurriculars
*Internship at a local non-profit (Data analysis, camp facilitator, political engagement)
*Social Media Influencer (512k views, 20k Engagements)
*President of the Monitorial Board
*President of Computer Club
*President of 02 Kinta Scouts Troop - Rovers division
Cost Constraints / Budget
*I need financial aid to afford for US colleges
Of the schools on your list, only Harvard will meet the full financial need of international students.
Other such schools are:
Amherst
Bowdoin
Dartmouth
MIT
Princeton
Yale
Of course, all these schools are extremely difficult to get into so I hope you have a solid, affordable back up in your home country or another country that you’d be happy to go to.
Other users on this forum (like @MYOS1634) may understand your schooling system and be able to provide additional feedback.
That’s not correct. Penn and Cornell will meet full demonstrated need as well. NYU will offer aid, but I don’t know if they claim to meet full need. But Penn, Cornell, and NYU are need aware for admissions, while Harvard is need blind. All are very difficult to be admitted to.
But I need to add the caveat for all schools that claim to meet demonstrated need - it’s their calculation of your need, not your desire of what you want.
Berkeley will give zero money, which will be the case for most public universities
That’s not true. The seven schools you listed (Amherst, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale) are the only schools that are BOTH need blind for admissions, AND meet full need for all international students.
The student needs to strike Berkeley from their list if they need financial aid as the CA publics dong give need based aid to folks who aren’t CA residents and they give precious little merit aid. So unless they can pay the full $72,000 a year costs, scratch this one.
NYU, Penn, and Cornell are need aware for international students, and this means your level of need will be considered when your application for admission is considered. All three have acceptance rates well below 20%. So getting accepted will be the challenge. It’s sort of unclear from the NYU website whether they meet full need for international students they accept. Penn, and Cornell, I believe, might do so.
Your need for financial aid will need to be considered significantly when applying to colleges here. The reality is…most international students don’t get full rides…they just don’t.
By “semester” are you meaning first YEAR? Did you just complete your first year of high school?
Thanks for the correction @skieurope and @thumper1. I should have said need blind and meet full need for internationals.
Agreed that need aware can be included too, but far harder for students like OP.
Are you on a British IGCSE-A-Level type curriculum?
If so, what were your iGCSE/GCSE results?
I think you’re recalculating your GPA - rather, can you indicate if your GPA places you in the top 10% at your school? in your region? nationally?
Do you know your parents’ income?
What is your budget?
That’s often the primary element for most international applicants: because almost all US colleges are need aware for international applicants, between one exceptional student they give $60,000 in scholarships to, and 2 exceptional applicants to whom they give $30,000 each, they prefer having 2 exceptional students (the world is not short on exceptional students).
Being a social media influencer is good, especially if you can use it to publicize your college search and which college you attend or if you can be useful to them in some way.
What is PAD KMK Program? It’s okay if we don’t know, but you’ll need a good description to explain it, especially since it’s an international level program.