<p>Hi everyone, I am an international applicant from Moscow. Besides Harvard I am also applying to MIT, Princeton, and Yale. </p>
<p>My stats are:
SAT: 2230 (700r, 800m, 730w)
SAT Subject Tests: Math 2 - 800, Physics - 800
TOEFL - 114
GPA - 4.5 out of 5
I study at a school where we are taught physics and math very deeply. </p>
<p>Academic awards: Golden medal at the International Math Olympiad (IMO)</p>
<p>Extracurricular: swimming, 11 years (since I was 6), 12 hours/week (I am a candidate of master of sports, people from former USSR will understand I suppose :) )</p>
<p>No, because I don’t want to be a college athlete. I don’t want to be in college because of my sports, I want sports to be an additional part of my college experience I know this may sound strange, but I am not an athlete. I am simply swimming for 2 hours daily in order to stay in shape and relax. </p>
<p>And what are your times? Where are you applying?</p>
<p>That sounds like a great idea, the stress of competing and the strain of morning swims is gonna be a pain for the next four years. I’m in contact with coaches and have been swimming for about four years now, I train approximately 21 hours p/week (My first two years were about 8 hours p/week). My times go (in meters, short course):</p>
<p>50 free: 25.10 (25.89 long course)
100 free: 54.54 (56.30 long course)
200 free: 2:03.?? (2:05 long course)
50 fly: 27.30 (28.08 long course)</p>
<p>I’m also applying to Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Pomona, Bates, Grinnell, Amherst and Williams.</p>
<p>SAT I: 2130 (M: 640, CR: 730, W: 760)
SAT II: Lit 710, WH 790
GPA: 4.0/4.0
Class rank: 1/118
Teacher recs: stellar. They all love me.
Ethnicity: white.
Honours: I’m in the UK, so we don’t really have these, bit I included: 6 A*s in various subjects ranging from the sciences to french to history.</p>
<p>Essays: I participated in the Arab Spring (lived in Arabia up until recently). So made for a very interesting read. The supplementary essay was cracking, given I’m a third culture kid, raised in Arabia to an Irish father and British mother I found it very difficult to know where home was, struggled with my identity. Wrote about my voyage of self discovery.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: swimming, journalist for national youth magazine; internship at UN and first hand on a boat with a dive company; published book of poetry; played violin and viola for seven years, also in orchestra; member of literary and debating society; member of essay society; member of the ‘Oxbridge forum’ - club reserved for high-flying students; founder and president of entrepreneur society; played soccer light-heartedly for the past six years, participating in local, national and international tournaments; was head librarian for all of my school’s junior school; Model United Nations delegate.</p>
<p>POmani, it is a little strange for me to know that you are in contact with coaches during the admission process. You see, in Russia the main function of universities is to teach, most of the students live at home with their families, not on campus, and we very rarely have university sports teams or other kinds of “extracurricular activities”. </p>
<p>Do I understand correctly that student-athletes’ main job is to win races, and you don’t really have to study very hard? Because if you study hard AND win races I respect you!</p>
<p>@harvard1 oh no man, the emphasis is always on academics, that’s what you go to university for (otherwise I might as well go to the University of Alabama). And in my discussions with the coaches they’ve made it very clear that Harvard is first and foremost an academic institution, and in that sense swimming must always come second, as it should. The situation you describe with Russian universities is very similar in Britain, I emailed some top institutions in the UK (Cambridge and Oxford) and I told them about my swimming, and they basically told me if it were in anyway it would (inevitably) conflict with academics to quit, because wouldn’t be prepared to accomodate a student who had other huge commitments. So I told them to **** off. And now I’m applying to the states, where they value they believe in student athletes.</p>
<p>It is not like if you stopped competing they were going to kick you out of Harvard. </p>
<p>Harvard is in the Ivy League - a sports league. The sports are there so academic minds can relax and get excercise in friendly competitions. Who knows you might meet a girl with an 800 in CR and your writing might improve :). (I am joking here). However, not joking about the rest of it. One cannot get into the Ivy league schools, especially Harvard without stellar numbers, even athletes.</p>
<p>Your scores and stuff will get you in the door anywhere. IMO Gold will likely get you admitted anywhere as long as you don’t royally goof some parts of your app.</p>
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