Your psychologist is right, in my opinion.
Schedule an interview with Northwestern University in Evanston. Try to attend a class.
Of course, the University of Chicago could also be visited, but in a slightly dangerous area & very intense academics.
For your information, the average student attending Northwestern & Chicago would have an ACT score of 34 or higher.
Many with ACT scores of 35 & 36 (the highest possible score) are denied admission to these universities.
US universities, other than technical schools, tend to look for well rounded applicants. Your talents in gymnastics & film making should make you an attractive candidate in addition to your linguistic skills & superior academic performance. My concern focuses on the fact that English is not your first language & these are all very competitive academic environments.
Also, you do not have almost zero chance of admission. You would almost certainly be admitted to 99% of American colleges & universities; in this thread we are just discussing the top one-half of one percent (0.5%) of US universities.
Furthermore, it is difficult to assess international applicants. I am not an expert in this respect.
Something else that you should understand. Some very prestigious US universities “superscore” the ACT test scores of applicants.
Superscoring gives an advantage to those who take the ACT more than once & have varying scores per section. The below listed prominent universities will take your highest section score from each sitting & combine them to get your highest possible composite score. This makes these universities look better for US News rating & ranking purposes.
Northwestern University does not, to my knowledge, superscore.
The elite universities which superscore are: MIT, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, Duke, NYU, Caltech, Johns Hopkins University, NYU (New York Univ.), Tufts, and Washington University of St. Louis.
@Publisher Thank you for your advice.
I understand your concerns about the English langages: however, because I have many foreign friends and have attended an international school (even though I was in the French section), I am now more used to listening/speaking English. Of course, it will be difficult to study in a language that is not my mother tongue, but it’s a challenge and I want to learn.
Unfortunately, I have never taken the ACT so superscoring is not a possibility for me.
I have 2 days left before flying to Chicago, so I will study hard to have a better chance of getting a decent score.
Thanks!
With respect to Northwestern University, if interested consider setting an interview, read up on their different schools (SESP School of Education & Social Sciences ; School of Communications --includes theatre & film; College of Liberal Arts & Sciences would be three of seven or eight that apply to your interests). If accepted to Communications or to SESP, you can take courses in & major in anything in the College of Arts & Sciences but not vice-versa.
SESP is often regarded as the best in its field, while the theatre program is regarded as #2 in the country behind Juilliard in New York City. NYU Tisch for theatre is also very highly regarded & ranked & in the heart of Manhattan NYC.
Research Brown University (Ivy League) in Providence, Rhode Island on the east coast of the US. Students & parents love Brown.
Although the ACT is important, I think that your interview & essays along with your outstanding achievements will be a significant factor.
I only know a few McGill graduates, but all seem to have loved their experiences there.
@Publisher I will set an interview with Northwestern, I hope I will have time to have one (I leave on Monday evening). I will also look at Brown website, I heard it’s a really artistic university.
Thank you again for your help!
@Amelie24, a few random notes:
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As the parent of a daughter who went to University of Chicago, I disagree with @Publisher’s suggestion that the area is too dangerous to visit.
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Money: if your parents have agreed to pay $20K, and you have agreed to pay the rest, you need to be aware that even the most generous schools will only meet what they define as your need. Obviously, I don’t know anything about your finances, but my hunch is that if your parents can afford to send you to a summer program in Oxford (which runs several thousand $$), can fly you on a last minute ticket to the US (at least $1K), and can afford KCL/UofL, you may find that what the schools think you can afford is a lot more than you are expecting.
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@Publisher is right that you have a very good chance of admission at most US universities, but your odds of being rejected by the schools you list is 95%+. That’s not just you- that’s all transfer applicants. As you are a competitor, you know about winning, and going for the gold, but you also know that succeeding is also about having the right prep for the right event.
An additional school to consider would be Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
And, yes @Amelie24, I do want you to keep me updated.
@Amelie24 Are you a citizen of Switzerland, France, or somewhere else?
You mentioned that your ACT scores are somewhat limited by the time that it takes you to translate the questions from English. Of course if you study in the US or at any English language university your English will improve rather rapidly. However, I also noticed that you included McGill on the list of schools that you have applied to. Are you aware that if you are a student at McGill, at least as of when I last checked (a few years ago) you are permitted to take tests in French instead of English if you prefer. The exception is classes whose purpose is to teach you a second (or third, or fourth in your case) language. I think that the reason for this rule is pretty much for students like you, whose English is very strong (so they can study at a demanding English language university) but whose English is just weak enough or slow enough to hurt them a little bit on tests.