<p>These are my main extracurricular activities:</p>
<p>Member-elected of the Administrative Council of the School
Member-elected of the Student Council
Member of the National Academic Contest team
Coorganizer of English-speaking biblical studies
Writer/Editor of the School Newspaper
Ballet student
Computing tutor</p>
<p>I studied in the best public high school of Brazil. I'm taking the SATs and ACTs this year and applying Early Decision to Williams College and Harvard University. What are my chances to get into Williams (my first choice)?</p>
<p>Let me guess: you picked Harvard and Williams by ranking? The two colleges are different enough that I am surprised that they are someone’s top choices. For starters, Harvard is in the middle of a city and Williams is in the middle of nowhere. Harvard has 20,000 students while Williams has 2,000. Harvard is primarily a research institution while Williams is primarily a teaching institution. Etc. </p>
<p>You may well be happy at both. Both are superb institutions and provide an intellectually stimulating environment. But you might be even happier if you took a minute to reflect on what characteristics besides academics (e.g. city vs rural, small vs large, high-stress vs low-stress, a big party scene vs being able to sleep at night, etc) are important to you. There are a number of universities on par with Williams and Harvard academically that you could consider!</p>
<p>Thank you guys. I’m answering your questions now.</p>
<p>First, about my grades: Well, that will probably sound pretty odd but my GPA is not above 80%, just like everyone in my school, and that’s because our tests are three to four times more difficult than tests in other schools. An article about my school was published in a well-known magazine in Brazil and I translated it into English. The translation is not very good, since I did it in about 1 hour… I still have to review it. I’ll provide you with a link for you to read it. I’m also scanning the article later.</p>
<p>Oh, yes, I see these differences between Williams and Harvard and I tell you that I prefer Williams because it is in a small town, has less students and all. And why I chose these two? Well, because they have good opportunities for foreign students (I mean financial aid) and a friend of mine in upstate NY encouraged me to apply to these two ones. Could you please tell me if you know other schools that have good opportunities for international students too? I researched over the internet and most of the other colleges have limited funds :/</p>
<p>I hope you guys can understand the article. It’s really not well-translated but I’m fixing the grammar mistakes soon :)</p>
<p>Harvard and Williams are need-blind for international applicants, as are Princeton, Yale, MIT, and several others. Need-blind admission policies mean that applying for financial aid should not hurt your chances of admission.</p>
<p>On the other hand, applying to a few need-aware colleges with limited financial aid may work in your favor. While Harvard and MIT do not care whether or not you apply for financial aid, getting accepted in the first place is really really hard. They have international admission rates below 4%! In contrast, a need-aware college might accept 20% of its international applicants and give financial aid to half of them. Overall, your chances of being admitted and provided with financial aid would still be higher than getting into Harvard.</p>
<p>If you are set on studying in the US, I would encourage you to apply to a bigger number and a wider range of colleges than just Williams and Harvard.</p>
<p>I guess Harvard and Williams have tons of international applicants who go the top schools of their countries. Nevertheless, make sure your counselor explains how exceptional your school is in the school report. You are not really supposed to that.</p>