<p>I'm currently in Year 9 (equivalent to high school freshman year) in Australia. I would like to hopefully apply to some US
unis during around late 2017 (NYU, UCLA, Columbia). I was wondering if it would be worth it for me to go to so much trouble to study for+ take the SATs and subject tests, and spend my HSC years stressing about more stuff. Anyway, here are my current stats atm.</p>
<p>High School: Ranked in top 5 in the state </p>
<p>Grades: Vast majority A grades. A couple of Bs for music/pdhpe combined. However, for my semester 1 report this year, I received Bs for both science and maths due to personal/ family reasons. Will getting B's for 1 semester in math and science essentially be the end all?</p>
<p>ECs:
Symphony Orchestra
Women's rights group
Volunteering
School newspaper
Animal welfare group
Model UN
Saturday language school
Playing cello
Horseback riding</p>
<p>Yeah, that's kind of a really brief outline of everything I'm doing right now. I know I'm basically still a freshman but how can i improve, especially with ECs? </p>
<p>You’re a freshman…in HIGHSCHOOL, I suggest you do your best in school and try to find something that you’re truly passionate/interested in and work on that. You’ve got 2 more years until you can truly worry about college.
When it comes to EC’S it’s the QUALITY not the QUANTITY that matters, top schools want genuine people who can work hard and have a passion for something.</p>
<p>Will you need financial aid? For a schools like NYU and UCLA – schools which give very little or no financial aid to international students – the most important factor is whether you have the $60,000 per year. </p>
<p>If you need financial aid, you need to take NYU and UCLA off your list. NYU is notorious for not giving much aid, UCLA is a public university which only awards significant aid to highly accomplished California residents. You need to be looking at private schools and those few public schools (such as University of Alabama) which do have money for internationals. </p>
<p>You need to focus on 2-3 clubs and become extraordinarily accomplished in them.
The colleges will only want your yearly grades, typically, so that one-semester B won’t hurt you.</p>
<p>As katliamom said, the key question will be your budget: will you need financial aid? How much?</p>
<p>Look into need blind schools that meet 100% of need:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Amherst
MIT
Dartmouth</p>
<p>Except the schools above, the other top schools are either need aware or need blind but doesn’t meet the full need. More money you need=less chance you get in unless you are extraordinarily talented/accomplished.</p>
<p>As @katliamom said, U of Alabama offers full OOS tuition for 8 semesters if you have 3.5GPA+, SAT math and Critical 1400+ or ACT 32+.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice! I’m just a bit loaded on groups because I want to get a feel for each of them and see which ones I really want to contribute a lot to. </p>
<p>@katliamom @paul2752 Yes, I’ll probably be needing financial aid so NYU and UCLA definitely off my list (ironic though since my brother is actually a freshman right now at UCLA). I am considering HYP and the other Ivies, however competition is insanely high and I’m not completely sure how to navigate my way. Hence, why I’m asking for advice! Thank you by the way </p>