Rejected to all my schools - advice needed

Applying to College
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<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I was an international student applying for financial aid at these institutions: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, UChicago, UPenn, Tufts and Wesleyan.</p>

<p>I received rejection letters from 8 out of 9, and was chosen as an "alternate" to the Wesleyan Freeman Asian Scholarship program. Not the primary, the alternate. Which means I can only go to Wesleyan if the primary gives up his/her scholarship by May 1st.</p>

<p>Financial aid is a huge factor, actually, the ONLY factor, in determining whether I can go to college. That's why those above schools were so appealing to me, because of their attractive financial aid gifts. </p>

<p>I haven't told my family or friends yet. I anticipate my mom will yell at me for my stupidity, my sister will pity me in a manner that will drive me insane, my teachers will tell me to consider UK or Australia and my friends will scream outrage and condemn the schools for not not choosing me. I don't want to deal with ANY of these possible scenarios right now. </p>

<p>Truth is, I believe that I would have been able to impress the colleges with my essays. I was certainly very naive and rather stupid in thinking that, I know, but at that time the risk seemed to be worth it. I now believe that it wasn't SAT scores or lack of ECs that got to me, but rather the fact that I was homeschooled (therefore, making my academic life not as "rigorous" as the schools would like it to be). I had a homeschooled friend who got into Dartmouth years back but that's because he homeschooled for the A-Levels. I was homeschooled under an American, Christian program with the generic Grade 12 syllabus except with more Christian influences and less mainstream science leanings. Furthermore, applying to local Malaysian colleges for Pre-U programs (such as American Degree Program, A-Levels or IB) is almost out of the picture for me because 90% of schools in Malaysia will not give scholarships or financial aid to students with only SATs. </p>

<p>I'm thinking that I should wait till May 1st for the final decision on the Wesleyan scholarship but in the mean time apply to about three or four middle-grade schools in the US, with the hopes of attending this year (Any recommendations?) but if all else fails, I'll take either an American Degree Program or IB diploma at a local Malaysian college (I still wouldn't know what to do about financial aid though) and hopefully after completing the IB or whatever diploma, start applying to US colleges again. </p>

<p>Some of you might be asking if I had a counselor to guide me through the application process and the answer is no. We homeschoolers have no such counselors (I homeschool in a centre, so it's kind of like going to a tuition centre), and my homeschool centre certainly has ZERO experience preparing its students for large, famous US universities. My mother didn't even finish high school so she let me take charge.</p>

<p>In your opinion, what should I do now? Should I stick with my above plan? Do something productive like City Year (I would love to and would like suggestions on what programs are out there), or just do a local Pre-U program? I wouldn't want to take a Gap Year to work because I already did. I graduated with Grade 12 when I was 17 and have been working as a journalist up till now. I will turn 18 this July. </p>

<p>My stats briefly:</p>

<p>SAT I: 2130 (700 R, 710 M, 720 W)
SAT II: 750 Literature, 690 World History, 660 US History
GPA: My homeschool centre does not count GPAs, but if I were to estimate, I'd say 3.7-3.8 (unweighted)
ECs: (ECs in homeschool is extremely limited)
1. Director and scriptwriter for annual school play
2. Editor-in-chief for centre's yearbook
3. Captain of netball team
4. President of camp committee
5. Electric, bass, and acoustic guitarist for school band
6. Community service - orphanage and drug rehabilitation centre
7. Member of the National Society of High School Scholars
8. Journalist at national English daily newspaper theSun
Essays: CommonApp essay was on my life's passion, heavy metal music, and additional essay was about my single-parent background and homeschool experience.
Recs:
1. From my centre's pastor: sang my praises like he was paid to do it
2. From my centre's principal: PROBABLY sang my praises as well, not sure because I didn't read it
3. From my teacher at homeschool: sang my praises as well, but included a little note that I "wasn't very social", while my my pastor's rec said I was "extremely social". No idea what happened there. </p>

<p>So yeah. Thanks for reading, and if anyone is going through the same thing I hope we can all find some solutions soon. I REALLY want to study in US this year. It's what EVERYBODY is expecting of me and what I expect of myself. Please suggest colleges if you think it would be a good fit for me, and if anyone here has experience with the FREEMAN ASIAN SCHOLARSHIP, I would love to hear whatever input. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for the help.</p>

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<p>Your SAT’s are a little low for an international student applying to schools of that caliber.</p>

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<p>EC’s in homeschool isn’t that limited. i only have 2 on campus Ec which is soccer and founder prez of badminton club. my more impressive EC’s are outside of school, like eagle scout, 600+ hours. so i think that you shoulda done more ec’s because that is what many top notch colleges consider because it shows your character.</p>

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<p>sorry but i had to agree with ccuser95. this will probably make you feel better. my stats are much higher and i got rejected by all ivies that i applied. luckily, i did apply to quite a few matches.</p>

<p>up until a few days ago, i was still receiving emails from a number of colleges. I believe a few of them have April 1 as their deadlines. Good luck.</p>

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<p>I dont understand why you would have gotten turned down because as i review your information, everything seems to fall into place. Your SAT scores are in good range, but the only factor that i could come across unacceptance, would probably be the course load of the christain curriculum. Maybe they just feel like you didn’t challenge yourself hard enough? idk…</p>

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<p>how were your essays? maybe that was a deciding factor.</p>

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<p>I thought my essays were pretty good… I took all the possible advice out there either from here in CC or in other forums/websites to always be yourself, but to make sure to be profound and intellectual and so on. Be relevant, but don’t try too hard etc. Grammar was checked through a million times so. I admit my essay topic talking about heavy metal was kind of “untraditional” but the topic WAS some kind of art work that had inspired your life… I don’t know, maybe it WAS the essays :S Anyone in a similar boat?</p>

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<p>First of all if your mother starts to do that just ignore and just know you are smart; second where are you from?; third those are top tier schools should have applied for University of California or something as your backups if you wanted to study here.</p>

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<p>I’m from Malaysia. Would University of California accept me with financial aid? I’m researching schools to apply to again and UC Santa Cruz came up. Any other such schools?</p>

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<p>Yeah they also provide estimates for international students and if you were are a prime candidate could have afford you a work-study program.</p>

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<p>Oh and UCLA, UC Santa Barbara,UC Berkley, UC Merced. just to name a few</p>

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<p>@univstudent11
Really sorry, I don’t understand what is meant by estimates for international students? Oh and thanks for the suggestions!</p>

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<p>@univstudent11
Really sorry, I don’t understand what is meant by estimates for international students? Oh and thanks for the suggestions!</p>

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<p>How much money do you need? A true full ride that includes everything except your plane tickets to and from your home? Can your family pay anything at all? Did you look at any of the colleges and universities associated with your family’s particular denomination?</p>

<p>A very small number of institutions in the US that admit entirely by the numbers do guarantee merit-based aid to international students as well as to domestic students. Most have application cut-off dates around December 1, so if you can do a Gap Year, that could work for you. Some may still be open for the fall. Go to the Financial Aid Forum, and scroll down until you find the threads on Automatic Scholarships and on Guaranteed Merit Aid.</p>

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<p>@happymomof1</p>

<p>I need at least 80% of tuition and fees covered, assuming the fees are in the USD50k+ range. I can take care of personal daily expenses and plane tickets, although this would mean visiting my family back in Malaysia maybe once during the total four years. No, I am not looking at religious schools because even though my family is religious and my homeschool background was religious, I personally am not. My Harvard essay was actually about this.</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the lead on the FinAid forum!</p>

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<p>try the netherlands - not sure of application deadlines - but you can get a brilliant liberal arts education in english for a fraction of the cost of US unis. if you get a job working 8 hours a week you will be supplemented by the dutch govt 250 euros a month. there are about 10 different unis and they are excellent. the woman who wrote infidel went to Leiden.</p>

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<p>You and i very similar. but my SATs are worse than yours, but my Sat subjects are good. Money is the only factor for me too. got rejected from every college , one waitlist. I’m Considering gap year. I’M ALSO INTERNATIONAL BTW.</p>

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<p>If you can only visit your family once in four years, where will you live during the summers, and many schools close over winter break, even for internationals? These are things you need to consider.</p>

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<p>@verylumpy: This is super interesting, thanks for the tip!!</p>

<p>@qazkas: Dammnnnnnn. You applied to similar schools as well? Where was the one where you were waitlisted? Yeah, we’re literally identical, my position as an “alternate” to the Freeman Scholarship is considered equal to being “waitlisted”.</p>

<p>@GA2012MOM: Yes, my family did consider this. That’s why I’m so keen on schools with guaranteed housing for the first year and a strong international student body and support centre so even if there are any slights, there is always someone I can go to. I will have to work to support myself and accumulate money to spend on trips back home etc but I understand that a lot of the work has to be done on campus or after the first year etc.</p>

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<p>@qazkas: Oh yeah one more thing, what are you planning to do in your gap year, assuming you do take one?</p>