Please Chance me at NYU, BU, and BC

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hello everyone, I’ve been stressing hard about universities and it’s really getting to me right now so I just wanted to come here and add to that stress. Please be brutally honest. A little background: I take the IB international system in a school in West Africa. I was at a 29 IB score around 3 months ago (around 3.0 GPA) but I worked hard and made a final push to a 37 IB score (around 3.7).

Demographics: First Generation, Asian Male (Pakistani), Senegalese nationality at an international school. I speak English, French, Urdu, and Punjabi, and have a basis in Arabic and Spanish, no financial aid.

Intended Major(s): Economics

ACT/SAT: 1320 (Not submitting)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.7 UW but take it with a grain of salt because IB to GPA is not a real conversion. School doesn’t rank.

Coursework HL (Higher Level), SL (Standard Level): English HL, Physics HL, Economics HL, Math AA SL, Business Management SL, French B SL

Activity List:

  1. Paid work as a salesman at a local textile firm. Helped sell to foreigners who came in not able to speak the local languages as I’m fluent in English. 39 weeks/40 hour weeks.
  2. Worked as an assistant financial manager at the Pakistani Embassy of Senegal. Helped with organization of documents and learned the basics. 76 weeks/ 3 hour weeks.
  3. President of Film Club
  4. President of Entrepreneurship Club.
  5. Student Council Representative
  6. Anchor for the school’s news show: Created humorous/informative videos about school events and interviewed teachers and students.
  7. Member of Model United Nations for 3 years.
  8. Member of Debate Club for two years.
  9. Online summer camp at Columbia Business School.

Essays: I believe my common app is quite strong. I talked about how our house had burned down and detailed the story of what ran through my mind and the whole story yadda yadda. Tried to not make it to sob-story-esque. My father had told me “What’s Next?” in reference to how we have to move on. Talked about how it became my life motto and how it fired up a hunger in me to not bow in the face of diversity. My supplementals are also good. The NYU question is about diversity and seeing that I speak 4 languages and have a basis in two more, that I am a Pakistani who grew up in West Africa, and that I’ve always been surrounded by internationals my life will help.

LOR’s - Counselor 8/10: My counselor knows me very well and I believe she will write me a good letter of recommendation as, when she’s not mad at me (constructively), she praises me a lot.

English Teacher 10/10: I talked to her and she told me that she wrote me an amazing letter of recommendation and told me how much she has loved teaching me through the years. She said she included some quotes for me that she says will “stick with her forever”.

Economics Teacher: 6/10: He praised me here and there but he never said anything crazy special about me. He did know me well though and he knew that I was a smart worker when I had to be but I don’t think it’s gonna be insane.

What Helps? - One thing that I’ve really really focused on is my internationalism. I’ve touched many different cultures and I’ve been told by my counselor that that will really help. I hope sharing my experiences about being tied to so many cultures and my struggle with that will help.

Schools: NYU EDII, Boston University, University of Toronto, Boston College, Fordham, and then the rest of the universities are bums.

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While I can’t say much about your chances at these particular schools, I just wanted to say that your essay sounds great - good job on finding a solid theme and providing such a strong, memorable frame for it.

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You are clearly an impressive candidate with a great attitude. It is truly wonderful being a part of many cultures, but keep in mind, there are students already living in the US that come from similar experiences, growing up abroad in multicultural families, as well.

One thing you don’t mention is budget.

As an international candidate, my understanding is that you would likely not qualify for much/any substantial financial aid from the schools you list, so are you or your family prepared to pay out of pocket what it will cost? Over 4 years this will likely run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, it is probable that you will have to be able to show that you have the funds for tuition, living expenses, etc. in advance.

Sorry to put a damper on your enthusiasm, but if you ARE able to afford these schools at full price as an international student, I’m sure there are others here that can better speak to your chances.

Also, what are the ‘bums’ that you refer to in your last sentence?

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I am not applying with financial aid. My dad grew a business and we got out of poverty when I was 8. He’s always dreamed of me going to a great university in America so the price is the least of his worries. I hope not applying with financial aid. I was at an IB score around 29 or a GPA around 2.9 a few months ago. I made the biggest academic comeback at my school and got to a much better situation that put me in the running for some good schools. Back when I was at a 29 our school made us submit forms that finalized where we were applying. NYU and BU were out of the question so my targets were Clark, Drexel, and UMASS Boston. They definently aren’t bum univerisites but I don’t want to go. Thank you so much for your review I really appreciate it.

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I can’t comment on your chances at these universities, just wanted to say that I liked this comment. Pile on the stress! :wink:

With your positive attitude and sense of humor, I am sure that you will do well wherever you land. Good luck!

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Thank you Mr. Tamagotchi

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Good luck to you. As a full pay international student, you really do have a chance at these colleges which I believe are need aware for international students.

As an aside, if this screen name is your real name, I would urge you to change it.

@CC_Jon @CC_Sorin @CC_Jay

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I think you’re going to get into UMass Boston and Drexel, maybe Clark, too, since you’re full pay. I don’t think the odds are good for you for NYU, BU, and BC, because honestly, those three schools could probably fill their class with full-pay US students with higher stats than yours, were they need-aware for US students, and with higher stats full pay int’l students.

You seem to be interested in going to school in a big northeast city - hence the Boston, NYC, and Philly schools. You might want to take a look at Fordham. It’s in NYC, with its proximity to Wall Street for internships, and it’s much less selective than NYU. They’ll probably love that you’re full pay.

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Yes, I applied to Fordham and it’s definitely a back-up after NYU. I just hope NYU actually cares about diversity as much as they say they do because that’s what I have going for me the most. I talked to a student recently who went to Clark from our school and he said comparing our essays, grades, and EC’s, I have a very high chance there. I’m full-pay wherever I go.

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I changed it, thank you.

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If your parents are from Pakistan, you are nor the diversity that colleges are looking for. “Diversity” means certain underrepresented minority groups, namely African, Hispanic, Native American/Pacific Islander. If you are South Asian, which is considered to be an over-represented minority.

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No I’m applying with an African Passport. I have a Senegalese nationality.

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Your passport is not your ethnicity. Your parents are both from Pakistan, so I believe that the school will view you as South Asian, which is not an underrepresented minority, as opposed to African American. I’m assuming that you had to affix a photo to the common app - this will confirm their assumption that you are of South Asian, not African, descent. In any event, underrepresented minority status for admissions purposes is, I believe, in reference to underrepresented US minorities, which means African Americans, not citizens of African nations.

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Edit because the poster says they are full pay…and I replied above.

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You don’t want to attend your “bums” – so let’s help you find less selective schools that you would like to attend.

If you are interested in urban universities in the northeast, there are many from which to choose. Here are some ideas:

University of Rhode Island
Providence College
University of Hartford
Syracuse University
Manhattan College
University of Scranton
Rutgers University
Hofstra University

If you are willing to expand to the Midwest:

Marquette University
DePaul University
University of Dayton
Butler University
Xavier University
University of Cincinnati

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I didn’t mean bum in an offensive way. For us bum just means lower level. I increased my GPA by a lot in the last few months and our school makes us submit forms to choose which unis were applying to months earlier. After my grades increased my reaches became targets and targets became safeties but I couldn’t change the schools. I live in West Africa, I would be happy to attend any school I get into, it’s just that those 3 schools have always been important to me so the others pale in comparison.

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No, I know – I think you meant safeties. It’s all good.

I just wanted to mention additional schools, because ideally, a safety is not just a school you can afford and can be admitted to, but it’s also a school you wouldn’t mind attending.

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I disagree with this assessment. Diversity is not limited to ethnicity. There are not many Senegalese applicants, and that is a fact most definitely in the OP’s favor, as compared to, eg, an applicant from China. Schools want kids with a variety of life experiences, and growing up in Senegal means the OP’s life experience is different from most applicants, making them appealing.

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Thanks so much I’ve been stressing about this since the original comment. Really appreciate it.

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Since you seem interested in humor, maybe you should look at schools in Chicago. Arguably our best stand up comedy starts in Chicago, and it is a fantastic, world-class city. You could apply to a safety like Loyola Chicago or DePaul. What do you want to study?