International Student trying to apply for Cornell, Brown, UMich and UCB

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hello, I was just curious to know what are my chances of getting into Cornell, UCB, Brown, or UMich if my SAT score's not very fantastic... I'm thinking of applying to their Environmental Science/Ecology/Geological Science courses.</p>

<p>SAT I total 2100
CR: 700
Math: 780
Writing: 620 (essay:7) T_T</p>

<p>I'm still going to retake in Dec. I'm taking my SAT II in Nov and judging from the practice papers I've been doing I THINK I should get 750+ for both Math 2 and Physics.</p>

<p>As for me, I'm a Singaporean female, going to take the A levels in 3 days. I'm currently ranked in the top 20% of my school (which is one of the top schools in Singapore; it's usually either my school or our rival) I'm quite sure that my projected grades are AAAA for my higher 2 subjects, not sure about the higher 1 subjects though. I take the maximum number of credits in high school.</p>

<p>I'll just give a summary of my achievements over the past 4 years...</p>

<p>2004 (9th Grade)</p>

<p>Prize Certificate – Australian Mathematics Competition for the Westpac Awards (top 1% of the cohort)
Silver Award – Singapore Mathematics Olympiad 2004
1st Runner Up – Vcamp 2004</p>

<p>Actress - Bonesetter's Daughter Production to raise funds for ST Pocket Money Fund</p>

<p>President – Byte Club</p>

<p>2005 (10th Grade)</p>

<p>Distinction - Australian Mathematics Competition for the Westpac Awards
High Distinction – Australian Mathematics Trust Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians (Polya Series)
Distinction - The University of New South Wales International Competitions for Schools (Science)
Champion – National Inter School Blogging Championships (Group leader)
Judge's Pick – Noise Singapore Festival</p>

<p>Bronze Award – National Youth Achievement Award Singapore
Subcommittee Leader of Environment – Nanyang Youth Forum
Eagles Award – Ministry of Education</p>

<p>President – Byte Club</p>

<p>2006 (11th Grade)</p>

<p>Accepted into Mathematics Accelerated Programme (MAP) in HCI, but gave the place up to take Geography and H1 Biology cause I wanted to study environmental science.</p>

<p>High Five Youth Member
Main Committee of Vivace – Citibank-YMCA Youth For Causes (raised $10000 for the ST Pocket Money Fund)
Performer – Touch Dance Night (raising funds for Touch Community Services)</p>

<p>Treasurer – Music and Dance society
Dance I/C – Athena Faculty Committee</p>

<p>2007 (12th Grade)</p>

<p>First Team – Soccer (Inter JC Girls' Soccer Championship)
Judge's Pick – Noise Singapore Festival</p>

<p>Treasurer – Music and Dance society
Dance I/C – Athena Faculty Committee</p>

<p>Thanks for reading through all this... Um, I know my chances aren't exactly high, so my safeties are in Australia and Canada, as well as my home country Singapore.</p>

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<p>oh dear I suppose I don’t stand a chance eh? ^^"</p>

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<p>haha i know who you are (: you know who i am, probably? from my name? don’t worry so much. your SAT isn’t too bad, but i think it’s a bit late to retake in case you want to bump it up a bit. i’m no expert on the admissions process but going by past records (at the no of people admitted into US unis) you’d stand a good chance at least :smiley: relax girl.</p>

<p>also, i think some of the stuff needs to be trimmed from your resume. for ex, you were admitted into MAP but you didn’t take it up, so it doesn’t really matter. for that matter, you can also take out UNSW - so many people get high d/ distinction so it’s not particularly prestigious. not so sure about AMC. </p>

<p>your extracurriculars are pretty good, but you need to elaborate - people on this forum are mostly US residents so they won’t know what noise singapore or NYAA. you might describe NYAA as an award given for community service, or athena faculty as a varsity pep squad. </p>

<p>yups. actually you gotta take what some people write with a pinch of salt cos they said i’d never get into top schools. i think more s’porean people get into US universities than expected, … i read some article on the huge number of rj exports to us unis. so basically. yups. cheerup and good luck for a’s! (: </p>

<p>love, fiona</p>

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<p>Hmm I myself am a JC2 student too taking A levels in the next few days (gasp) but after seeing from alot of posts from this forum, I’ll try to give an honest evaluation based on that and comparing with ppl tt I know who are applying to US.</p>

<p>lets start with academics. first off, pretty common SAT I score, wont really hurt you but wont really distinguish you either. I believe they pay more attention to crit reading and maths and you’re pretty strong at that (actually your score is almost identical to mine except tt I got 600 at writing, sigh)</p>

<p>AFAIK HCI should have brand name recognition I guess, especially because HCI have sent quite a number of ppl to prestigious US univs. </p>

<p>I think judging from the ppl tt I know who’s applying to the universities tt you mentioned, most of them are on full credits and will be predicted at least 4As anyway, so logically they might give more consideration to prelim grades to distinguish between the applicants. then there’s o levels too but I’m sure you did well since you are already in HCI. Im not so sure about this but just a thought.</p>

<p>moving on, pretty run-of-the-mill CCAs but I see a balance between sports, performing arts and academia so that’s okay I guess. Don’t get me wrong, your accomplishments are good but not very outstanding among the Singaporean applicants applying to US so I hope you understand. Did your dance participate in SYF? Might want to include that? </p>

<p>long story short here’s what I think, depending on how good your personal essay and teacher/counselor recommendations: </p>

<p>cornell : slight reach to reach
brown : slight reach to reach
umich: match to slight reach
ucb: slight reach</p>

<p>my guess is tt you will be admitted to at least one but its good that u already have some safeties in mind</p>

<p>if applying for fin aid then it’ll be even harder, do keep tt in mind</p>

<p>do your best for the personal essays, they are very important too and might just be the thing to push your application towards the admit pile. i hope tt’s helpful. good luck for A levels btw</p>

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<p>If you’re an international, then Berkeley is a reach.</p>

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<p>Hi Fiona I didn’t know you went to the forums here hahaha.
Yea I know I gotta elaborate more on my extracurriculars all I’ve got now is my list. I suppose I’ll write them in a nicer way after A levels…</p>

<p>Hi tomo, the modern section of dance participated in SYF, but I’m in hiphop…
Hmm I didn’t take O levels… I’m one of those lucky idiots who got into HCI by IP. Good luck for your A levels too!</p>

<p>Hi kyledavid, thanks for your opinion!</p>

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<p>I suppose you would get in these schools (UMich and Cornell especially, it adores Singaporeans), but whether they would give you financial aid (given their limited budgets) is a whole new ball game.</p>