<p>gonnastop, where is 70kRMB coming from? Registration and application fees certainly don’t make up that amount.</p>
<p>1 US dollars approximately equals to 7 RMB (I’m Chinese so we’ve got the same problem).
70k is exaggerated, since I don’t think the app fees and testings and so on make up 10k US dollars.</p>
<p>well if you’re applying to…7 schools plus TOEFL and SSAT then if you repeat that…10 times then maybe it equals 10k</p>
<p>I mean 70k=registration fees+test reporting fees+prep books fees+travel(to take tests)+app fees</p>
<p>It’s reasonable…</p>
<p>
Yes, they do.</p>
<p>@collucky:
I´m applying for grade 11.</p>
<p>@FayMom:
Yes, I am applying to a few of the top schools, although I would also consider the lower tier schools as top. I will have a couple of Skype interviews with alumni from the States, because the schools don´t have alumni in my area. Some other schools just offered me phone interviews with the Director of Admissions.</p>
<p>TKD, Do you know anyone who was accepted by top schools through spype interview? There was a thread a while back about whether skype interview actually gives any chances at all to top schools. I know lower tier schools have been using skype all the time.</p>
<p>If anyone got into HEADS through phone/skype/alum interview, let me know.</p>
<p>Gonnastop, Unless you take those 30KRMB prep classes for toefl or SSAT, I still don’t see how they can add up 70RMB.</p>
<p>
My interviewer addressed this point very directly. Only interviews with an admission officer (presumably at the school) can “help” your application. Off campus/skype interviews can hurt. In such an interview, by doing your best, you have no positive or negative impact. </p>
<p>
Yes.</p>
<p>Principle, re your “yes", which school was that？</p>
<p>why would they offer it if you couldn’t get in that way? they’re not going to reject you b/c you live in San Fransisco and can’t make it over there for an on campus interview.</p>
<p>You can get in, certainly, but the influence it has on your application is dampened, i.e. if you were a bad applicant to begin with (and it would show most in an interview) it will likely not hurt you as much. By the same token, if you were an excellent applicant–one who would shine in an interview–it won’t help, per se.</p>
<p>@ principal, I believe you said, but still need a concrete example, someone who doesn’t have a super hook got into Andover without even been there, or never been interviewed by an admission officer on road.</p>
<p>@Rad, it could be for many reasons, PR for one, equal opportunity since they don’t offer travel fund for interview.</p>
<p>FayMom: ???I’m confused at your response. I know WHY you would have one so what are you replying to?</p>
<p>@FayMom
Sorry! My bad! I meant 20k… Sorry again!!!</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, Chinese students who got into the top tier schools usually had interviews with the AOs face2face when they were visiting China. </p>
<p>So how likely…or what do I need to get into those schools?
As for academic performance, ssat and toefl value the most for int’l students, right?
And I’m just wondering WHY they’d like to offer me full aid…</p>
<p>@FayMom: I personally know a guy who got into Andover and Hotchkiss who did phone interviews. There’s another guy from my country who was accepted to Choate and he did a Skype interview. I think schools understand that some international families may not be able to afford thousands of dollars only for a 2-hour campus visit.</p>
<p>@assign, Finally I got an example！ When was that, recently or years back? You are not from China, right?</p>
<p>@Gonnastop, 20K is more reasonable. Are all those top schools sending interviewers to China? I still think you need to visit/interview on campus to get a good chance. I was in Andover AO a couple of times last summer, both times the whole house was full of people from China! It is an amazing scene.</p>
<p>@FayMom: Both examples are very recent, these two guys haven’t graduated from Andover and Choate yet. Oh, and I forgot to mention this girl who is a Davis scholar at Lawrenceville and she did a Skype interview. I’m not from China, though.
@Gonnastop: I think you should defnitely keep an eye on the TABS Asia School Fair when they come to China. Some representatives from top schools interview prospective Chinese students through the fair.</p>
<p>What?! Really! I didn’t expect that many people to apply to Andover. The only SSAT test site here is in Shanghai and it holds 250 people per test, which means 250*4=1000 test takers a year. I guess fewer than 1/10 of them will apply to top schools like Andover. And, fewer than 500 int’l kids applied to Deerfield last year. Chinese wouldn’t make up a proportion of 1/5… Are they native Chinese mainlanders? Do they actually speak mandarin? But yeah unfortunately, east asia is overrepresented everywhere, south Korea, hong kong, japan, Taiwan, mainland China,etc. </p>
<p>Seriously, you guys MEAN it? Did you actually hear any AO saying that "on-campus interviews are preferred? Is it a disadvantage to do it off-campus with an AO coming to my area?</p>
<p>@Faymom
Most top schools do. The Big Ten and other prestigious schools on the northeast coast send people here every year. There’s also a TABS college fair here in Beijing and shanghai every summer, though I’m not sure how selective the attending schools are.</p>
<p>Call the admission officers and ask if an on-campus interview is favorable.</p>