<p>Do you feel like you're the only international applicant from your school for the last decade or possibly, ever?</p>
<p>I do. I come from a small city in the Philippines, and no one here knew about the SAT and the likes unless I told them about it. No AP courses, IB and testing center 100km radius.</p>
<p>If you're in the same situation as I am, then hop in. We want to remain sane, don't we?</p>
<p>maybe it's your advantage. adcom will look and your application and think: hey, this kid really has the 'thing'. He/She is passionate enough to overcome all the....</p>
<p>I do. I think nobody from my town, and maybe only some in history in my state (> oblast' < really) applied to American great schools.</p>
<p>ngohuongly88,</p>
<p>Yes, I'm thinking that that could be my hook. But then, it's possible that hundreds of applicants every year are in the same situation as I am.</p>
<p>stardragon,</p>
<p>Where are you from?</p>
<p>paradox, I'm in the same situation also!</p>
<p>No one has ever heard of SATs.. some exceptions I guess.</p>
<p>No one has ever heard of Yale Princeton Stanford MIT... exceptions also.</p>
<p>My guidance counciller doesn't know what an Ivy League is - lol I went to ask her for advice on admissions and she didn't know anything. I had to explain it to her.</p>
<p>No AP classes, IB courses - Although IB is offered at a school which is nearby but the school just started so it's only accepting year 9-10's at the moment lol.</p>
<p>Less than half the people from my school go onto a university.</p>
<p>Lots drop out by the year 12 - (our school yea goes from year 9-13)</p>
<p>Many go onto small courses such as MIT ( not the US one - Manakau Institute of Technology lol). </p>
<p>No one cares about the U.S. No one cared about the U.S election. No one cares about anything outside New Zealand... Other than some adults i guess.</p>
<p>First, I had to research everything myself - no help from anyone. Then, I found this guy who teaches at an International College and I get some help from him. He's my only source of information.</p>
<p>lol I felt so lonely until I found collegeconfidential:)</p>
<p>^Who/what made you decide to apply? What city/town in New Zealand are you from?</p>
<p>Paradox, I'm from Russia. I doubt that it can be hook, because many internationals are in similar situation. </p>
<p>Here, nobody heard about any American school (except harvard), and thougt that it's possible to apply to any foreign univ.</p>
<p>well, mine is not as 'desperate' as yours. In Ha Noi, there is a high school HN-A where there are about 4 or 5 kids going to the US (with F.A) each year. But in my school, it seems that no one cares (though 97% attend a 4 year institution after graduation). I believe I am the first one to dig into the U.S education.
-I have no IB, AP, Honor or accelerated course
-my counselor and my teachers know nothing about the process and U.S uni/college.
-the shops have few books on SAT (the only one is Barron's) Go to IIE from 9a.m to 4 p.m if you want to study.
-The only name ppl know is Harvard.</p>
<p>hey paradox_master,</p>
<p>ive always felt the same. every senior (except me) from my all-girls Catholic school in Katipunan (yep i come from the Philippines as well) plans of going to either UP, Ateneo, DLSU or UST.. and i feel so alone with the college admissions process.</p>
<p>my school doesnt offer IB, AP or other honors classes, and the only foreign language taught there is Filipino (which isnt even a foreign language for us), but man the course load is so demanding - would that place me at a disadvantage?</p>
<p>where do you come from btw?</p>
<p>paradox,</p>
<p>I live in Auckland, New Zealand. My mum recommended to me at first. She said that she'd give me time to think about it - said it will be hard work and lots of commitment would have to be enforced. I didn't really think about it - I just said yes right away.</p>
<p>PierreMarie,
It would put you at a disadvantage if you don't take every oppurtunity provided to you.
At my school, they offer us German, French, Spanish, Japanese. I took 1/2 year of Jap and 1/2 year of French for my first year: only bcos it was a core course.
I didn't think that I would need a foreign language : Doctor = language?
I only chose to go to america, start of this year. So, I didn't take those accelerated classes and only had one EC - soccer : for the first 2 years of school.
Now, since I didn't take a language in year 10, I can't take it anymore for this year and +. Same for the accelerated classes.</p>
<p>I probably have the worst chance of getting into any colleges lol.
I had straight B's last year. And in year 9, I had 3 C's and rest B's. And one EC - Soccer (for year 9 and 10). Now, I have really improved - First in most of my classes, and improvement in ECs - SADD, Amnesty, etc..</p>
<p>QUESTION: Would colleges rather see a big trend (grades, ECs, performance)? or would they rather see straight A's and a laundry list of EC's?</p>
<p>lol pierremarie
filipino is your school's foreign language course?
uhh might be a dumb question but: What is the language you normally speak in phillipines?</p>
<p>NoFX,</p>
<p>The two categories are too vague, but I guess the former. Also, what's your rank in class.</p>
<p>In my school, we don't even choose courses. All are in the same college prep program, and we take 11-we-don't-give-a-da.mn courses for the entire year. It's insane, but I managed.</p>
<p>We don't have rank.
We have like rankings of subjects.
Actually, there's no rankings of subjects. It's like, there's only - first of Maths. First of English, etc.. They don't announce anything about the second, third, fourth, etc..
So, I could be second in English, but they don't calculate that. It's just like - calculate the 'first' student. That's it.</p>
<p>This year, Im first of Maths, Biology, Chemisty, Physics, Art, Graphics.</p>
<p>Uhh big mistake choosing art and graphics - so much course load.</p>
<p>It must suck not being able to choose classes paradox.. But atleast you won't be compared to other people from your school. Wow 11 courses. We can only take 5.</p>
<p>I don't think your low 9-11 grades wouldn't hurt that much. Colleges want to see either consistent high marks or gradually increasing ones. Obviously, you're in the latter.</p>
<p>I feel like that too.</p>
<p>interesteddad on the swat forum feels schools prefer to take kids from schools they know of, even for internationals... that scares me.</p>
<p>Astrix,</p>
<p>Are you serious? That's ridiculous. They should prefer the new blood, since if that person would be admitted then in the following year, tens would follow.</p>
<p>Say, I got accepted at Rice and attend there. Nobody here has heard of it, but when they learn that it's a competitive school in the US(after I tell them), they'd blow out a low whistle.</p>
<p>Following my lead, they'd apply to the US colleges too and definitely not removing Rice from their list. After all, they would want to show everyone they could.</p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>hey, the course distribution seems to be the same all over Asia lol Students can't choose what to study. I have to take 11 subjects a year, too. It's just simply insane.</p>
<p>in my country, the insanity grows exponentially every year. 5 years ago, if there was anyone who obtain 10 As, it'll be front page news. only 3 years ago, one guy with 12 As became the front page news. last year, it was 16 As.</p>
<p>NoFX,</p>
<p>our high school works like this:</p>
<p>for each year level, students are randomly grouped into "sections". these students stay together in one classroom for the whole schoolyear. unlike the system in the united states, students dont change their classrooms for every subject. every student in the year level follows one general curriculum (my high school though has relatively one of the toughest, compared to other high schools in the country); AP, IB and honors courses are not offered. students dont choose their subjects - its already pre-set - so basically everyone has the same opportunity
yep the only "foreign language" offered in my school is filipino - which isnt even a foreign language for us considering that its our first language lol (aside from english)</p>
<p>sometimes its like I'm the only applicant from my entire country to some of the colleges I'm applying to.</p>
<p>I'm definitely the only guy from Burma here on CC, i searched for "burma" using the forum search thing hoping to find posts by fellow countrymen/women and the results were quite amusing.</p>
<p>excerpts:</p>
<p>"It's tough sometimes though because no, I haven't cured cancer, I'm not the president of Burma, nor have I started a national charity organization, and sometimes it really feels like thats what matters, it's all about the gimmick."</p>
<p>by IoSon33 from the thread "Chances at Columbia, Brown, Vassar, Wesleyan... PLEASE HELP. I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER."</p>
<p>"Are you really from Burma?"</p>
<p>by kjayson7 on the thread "A Chance at CAS?", as a response to someone named "Bermie" who posted something there, it turned out she was actually from california</p>
<p>those were a few the 4 or five search results for "Burma" (excepting posts by me of course), the others were about some statistics for number of international students from different countries at Yale (apparently there's one student from burma there) and something about that legendary punk rock band "Mission of Burma".</p>
<p>I mean, does my country seem that far off and exotic to americans? its as if you guys think of Burma the same way 15th century europeans thought of Cathay or Timbaktu.</p>