My chances (international student) :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>i'm a junior from croatia, and i'm all into college admission process and the SATs right now, because i'd like to take a shot next year at american universities :)</p>

<p>you need to understand that in my country, especially in my town (which has around 50 000 people) there are not many possibilites for young people like there are in the US. by that, i mean that you guys do much more extracurricular activities than us, but we've got 17 subjects (at least i have this year: english, croatian, math, physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history, sociology, german language, logic, psychology, religious studies, art studies, musical art studies, computer science and physical education), and we're being orally examed on daily basis, so we don't have much free time along studying. also we don't have APs or Honours</p>

<p>my grades average (9th, 10th and 11th grade): 4.3, 4.5 and 4.6 (out of 5). is this good enough for, e.g., stanford or duke?</p>

<ul>
<li>i am a volunteer for about 3 years in local school for disabled (retarded) chlidren, where i teach them english (2 hours per week)</li>
<li>i've worked as a waiter last summer, and the summer before i've worked as a laborer in my dad's company (both about 30 hours per week)</li>
<li>this year i am going to volunteer with our endangered species, a griffon vulture, which i wanted last year too, but i was underage. this will be some 20 days</li>
<li>i am also going to volunteer in a bear reservate (feeding baby bears and stuff like that) this summer, for about a week</li>
<li><p>i am teaching my friends and peers biology, chemistry and english (for free of course, about 4 hours per week)</p></li>
<li><p>i play basketball for a local club for 7 years and my highschool (no special results)</p></li>
<li><p>i have a black belt in taekwnodo</p></li>
<li><p>i speak english, croatian, german, serbian, slovenian, latin (learnt in highschool), and would like to learn italian and spanish</p></li>
<li><p>i participated in state competition in ecology in my 7th and 8th grade. that years i won regional competitions in biology, and participated in english and geography</p></li>
<li><p>i had a project of mapping flora of my town for that competition (ecology)</p></li>
<li><p>i participated in regional competition in biology, latin and english in 10th grade (third in bio, second in english)</p></li>
<li><p>i am taking computer science as my additional subject (we need to take one every year)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>that's it. i think that dealing with endangered species such as vulture will look good in my app, but i'm not sure if the admission board will think that i'm doing it just because it looks good?</p>

<p>i will take my SATs in october and november, biology and chemistry will be my subjects. i am interested in one thing; if other candidates take for example 4 SAT subjects, and i take only 2, but score well, are they in advantage, even if the university requests only 2?</p>

<p>thank you for you answer, and i apologize about my english, it's my second language so i'm not that good at expressing my thoughts :)</p>

2

<p>bumper</p>

<p>help me please :)</p>

3

<p>I’ll tell you an anecdote - I went to the Dean of Admissions’ office for a chat with the Dean once, and I noticed a plastic bag hanging on the door. It wasn’t a plastic bag like the ones you find at a supermarket, no. It was a woven kind of handbag, and at first I wouldn’t have noticed it was plastic due to its fine embroidery (MIT on it, of course), but then the dean said that the bag was made from stretched plastic from supermarket bags and the such, stretched to fine threads, then knitted together. He explained the bag came from an international student from a country that I believe used to be part of the USSR, and that the student, despite her poor credentials, was admitted into MIT when she sent such a bag.</p>

<p>Undoubtedly, there may be hidden factors involved, but the matter of fact is that universities only look at academic achievements and the such as indicators of whether or not you can handle the curriculum, and trust me, many people can. The discerning thing is whether you are dedicated to learning, why you want to attend a certain institution, and what you can accomplish by attending the certain institution. The bag was indictment of the girl’s desire to improve the environment, as she majored in environmental science.</p>

<p>In short, do something to prove your determination to excel at the field you wish to study in, and prove that you will perform well, and you have as fair a chance as anyone else.</p>

4

<p>You seem to love ecology and bio so focus your time and passion in those subjects -by getting good marks performing well in the academics and working as a conservationist in those eco parks and you could come out as a dedicated and passionate candidate and then displaying all this through your resume and essays</p>

<p>No you are not at a disadvantage if you have 2 SAT subjects - however if you apply for MIT caltech etc its good to have Maths subject</p>

<p>best of luck!</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>Are you doing it because it will look good? I didn’t get that impression. </p>

<p>It appears consistent with your other interests and activities.</p>

<p>Keep your list of schools limited to those which offer generous scholarships to intl students. There’s no sense in applying to schools that you cannot afford to attend if they don’t offer grants.</p>