<p>Hello everyone :)
I'm currently a junior in high school doing the IB diploma program.
My subject are:
Biology HL
Physics HL
Maths HL
ITGS HL
English A lang&lit SL
Spanish Ab Initio SL</p>
<p>STATS:
SAT I: I plan on taking the ACT
SAT II: Not taken yet, but I will probably take Biology M, Physics and French or Spanish
ACT:
Freshman GPA: 5.55/7 (Where 7 is an A+ and 6 an A)
Sophomore GPA: ~5.8/7
Cambridge IGCSE exam:
Biology A (Almost an A* :@)
Physics: A*
ICT: A*
French: A*
Geography: A
Global perspectives: A
Maths: A
English first language: B
English literature: B
+
Fluent in Italian and English
Conversational in French
Basic German (I will probably continue with this later in the year)
I'm learning Russian on my own and spanish in school. Maybe I will do some Korean.
+
Citizenship: Italian
Ethnicity: Mixed, African-caucasian
I will require financial aid</p>
<p>BACKGROUND:
My freshman/sophomore GPA are kind of low because throughout my education i have been taught in Italian, and at the beginning of my freshman year I had a very very basic knowledge of english. This has obviously had a big impact on my grades. This also meant that i had less time to get involved in extracurriculars. I also live in a country that does not have any STEM extracurriculars available. </p>
<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:
-Volunteering:
-~20h volunteering at a church teaching maths to street children (not even sure it is worth mentioning (Freshman&Sophomore years)
- I'm organizing a trip to build a hospital in Ethiopia together with an NGO (Junior)
- I will probably volunteer at a somali school
-Sports
- Volleyball (Junior)
-Leadership
-MUN (Sophomore&Junior, right now I'm holding a leadership position and I'm one of the most active members, hoping to be secretary general next year. And my school has the second strongest MUN club in the country)
-Creativity
-Journalism club
-Yearbook club
-Photography club
-Others
-I'm responsible for lots of school events (UN day, Peace day, etc...)
-I'm organizing my own events, like a school-wide competition with the objective of making students create artworks through recycling
-I'm organizing the first MUN conference to be hosted inside my school
-I MIGHT get an internship at the UNESCO
-I'm trying to learn how to program in Python
-I will take part in the Duke of Edinburgh award competition</p>
<p>Prospective Majors: Either Molecular Bio/Biotechnology/Biomedical engineering, Materials science, Computer Science or International relations</p>
<p>Schools where I would like to go (Just the reach ones lol):
-MIT (By far my top choice)
-Stanford
-Princeton
-Cornell
-JHU
-UPenn
-Columbia
-Harvard
-Yale (only for international relations)
-G'Town (only for international relations)
-CMU (even if I get in there is NO WAY I can afford the tuition, and they do not give financial aid)
-Duke
In UK:
-Cambridge
In other places:
-HKUST (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology)
-NUS (National University of Singapore)
-ETH Zurich</p>
<p>OK, I'm aware that getting in any of this universities will be a crapshoot and no one can predict if I will get in or not, besides the admission officers. However I would like to know if I have a chance of getting in any of them. Moreover, can you suggest me a few match universities where I should apply?</p>
<p>@Aunt bea: Oops! I forgot to mention that i have taken some ACT practice and i was scoring between 30 and 33 in english and reading, 9-10 in the essay and 35-36 in Maths and science. :)</p>
<p>I think you can get into Cambridge and Oxford maybe you can opt for other top universities in the UK.
I don’t know about the rest,but I think you have a good shot at ETH Zurich.You have nothing to lose if you apply.</p>
<p>I’ll go off of an ACT composite of ~34 and assuming you get an A average this year.</p>
<p>MIT: reach
Stanford: reach
Cornell: low reach
JHU: low reach (high match if major is does not contain “bio”)
Penn: reach
Columbia: reach
Harvard: reach
Yale: reach
Georgetown: match-high match
Duke: low reach</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the int’ls. I would also suggest Harvey Mudd and Pomona as reachy schools if you’d be into LACs. The Claremont Consortium is worth looking into.</p>
<p>Suggested matches:
Boston College
Georgia Tech (if engineering)
University of Texas @ Austin (if engineering)
University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill
Vanderbilt (they love high test scores)</p>
<p>All of them are mostly high reaches as they are for most of them. You not only need a high score in SAT & SAT II, but also some hook/extraordinary EC to get you in.</p>
<p>You need to get great grades during junior
American colleges look for not only great grades but also how big the improvement is.
Also, you better have SAT over 2200(super) to have a better shot.
BTW, why do you wanna learn Korean or other languages? You can just concentrate on Russian only, that’s already interesting part.
The another way to compensate for your lack of STEM due to lack of resources is to make your own project, for example, Chemistry or physics. (that will look great not for its accomplishment but also your extra effrt, particularly in schools like MIT)
Or maybe you can compete in chemistry olympiad.(local/state) if available.</p>
<p>Make sure you have some safety schools.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Oh also participate in multiple clubs doesn’t necessarily help you A LOT. You need to have significant achievement or leader position, like you are a leader in MUN.</p>
<p>Due to your prowess with languages, I’d recommend applying to Middlebury. You’re the kind of student they love – it’s a top10 school with awesome international relations/global studies program, same thing for International Politics&Economics, and you can double major in CS, biochem, or neuroscience.</p>
<p>Paul2752: I’m trying to learn many languages simply because I find them interesting!
STEM competition: There is literally no way i qualify for any of them. As I said I’m an Italian citizen, but i live in East Africa. I do not qualify for any Italian competition or olympiad because everyone interested in participating needs to live in Italy. And here, I’m not a local citizen and, therefore, I do not qualify either. However I live in the city that can be considered the CAPITAL of Africa, therefore I have lots of opportunities politics-related.
Extracurriculars: I just do ECs if I actually find them interesting, not simply to have a laundry list on my resume. Moreover, at my school, teachers do not like to see the same student being in charge of too many things. Ridiculous, I know
-.-
International95: Last I checked ETH offers courses in English too.</p>
<p>What International95 was pointing out to you was that ETH requires all students to demonstate facility with the German language to be even considered for admission. You really should do some research. Dont apply to colleges just because they are prestigious.</p>
