<p>Hi, I'm a Swiss student attending a public high school in Switzerland, and my dream would be to be able to attend an Ivy League college in the US (though I'm sure if my choices are really Ivy League) like MIT, Stanford, and NYU. I'm interested in studying Economics or Math.</p>
<p>But from what I've read, it takes a LOT of goods to get accepted, so I was wondering what you think my chances are.</p>
<p>I don't really know how to convert my grades into American letter grades, so I'll just post them in Swiss form, (6=highest, 1=lowest, Wikipedia for further details)
English 6/French 5/German 5.5/Math 5/Chemistry 5.5/Biology 5.5/Physics 6/Music 6/ Art 5.5/History 5/P.E. 5.5</p>
<p>I'm also aware that grades aren't enough: I'm taking Economics & Law as my high school "Major", so to speak (you have to choose a major here); I play piano; I enjoy Drama Club and I'm going to play in a piece by the Stadttheater (Berne's main theater); and I'm learning Chinese (I'm planning on spending a year abroad there).</p>
<p>Can anybody tell me what my chances are? What's good? What's bad? What I can do better? I've heard as well that colleges accept a smaller number of international students (compared to number of applicants) that national ones :/</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>A few things</p>
<p>Are my SAT scores high enough? You don’t need a 2250+, contrary to popular opinion, but getting a 2100+ would be ideal.</p>
<p>Have I taken the most rigorous courses available?</p>
<p>How are my essays—> Super important</p>
<p>How is my GPA? You should be at least top 10% in the year.</p>
<p>How are my recommendations? </p>
<p>Do you need financial aid?</p>
<p>Well, I can answer SOME of those questions.</p>
<p>SAT scores: No idea, I’d have to do the test first (or the ACT)</p>
<p>Rigorous courses: I think so, you can’t really choose in Switzerland, but since I took Economics as my “major” I think so.</p>
<p>Essays: I guess they’re good (I like writing in my free time) but since I don’t really write English essays–this being Switzerland after all–I could imagine I’d have to work on that.</p>
<p>GPA: Doesn’t exist here, but I can tell you we have a system which takes your grades and counts them together to tell you how many “Pluspunkte” you have (you get +1 point for every grade above a 4, so if you have a 5 in math that’s +1, if you have a 6 that’s +2; for every grade UNDER a 4 two points are taken away, so a 3 in math gives you -2). I have 16 out of the possible 22, which definitely puts me in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Recommendations: I’d have to ask my teachers, but I’m generally regarded as a good student.</p>
<p>Financial aid: No, my parents are capable of paying (but I definitely want to pay them back)</p>
<p>What’s your intended college major? </p>
<p>Need to be top 10% of your class, generally. </p>
<p>IF your only ECs are drama club and piano you really need to work on them. </p>
<p>Hard to chance you without SAT.</p>
<p>Economics.</p>
<p>Top 10% isn’t a problem.</p>
<p>I know, it’s not as easy to pile up ECs if you’re not in America, there isn’t as much variety :P</p>
<p>And is there some kind of practice test you can take? That would help a lot.</p>