<p>Country: Canada
Ethinity: Asian
Fin-Aid: Needing full aid (low income family)</p>
<p>SAT: 2160
SAT II: Biology M - 760
Math II - 750</p>
<p>Extremely competitive public high school
GPA: 92% roughly
School does not rank, but roughly top 3%
Taking the hardest courses available (except music..)</p>
<p>No AP credits yet, taking 2 APs this year (school only offers 2 APs)</p>
<p>No significant awards</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (school):
- President of business club
- Co-president of student ambassadors (founder of school-wide program that awards volunteerism)
- Founder of astronomy club (purely for interest and discussion purposes)
- PR officer for school magazine
- Secretary for music council
- School Orchestra (all 4 years) as well as outside of school youth orchestra (2 years).
* plays violin (until grade 11..) with (only) grade 8 RCM.</p>
<p>Community Extracurriculars:
- Various leadership roles in an youth organization that is part of [located in] city hall.
- One of the founding members and Director of Comm for an youth action group.
- Elected president of a student company (an afterschool program).
- Member of a group that select works for a magazine published by public libraries.</p>
<p>Teacher Recs: I have no idea, I am "writing" one of them, and the other one..well the teacher loves me. Submitting an additional rec from my EC's advisor.</p>
<p>Essay: Basically explaining why I got involved in my ECs..somewhat autobiographical. (I was struggling with English the first couple years in Canada..which contributed to my sub-par grade 9 & 10 mark..and my lack of ECs in those years. Do you think I should mention this in my essay?)</p>
<p>Thanks for reading!</p>
<p>Also looking for schools with good rep in the business world that would be safeR with my stats.</p>
<p>you’re application looks good…remember that harvard is nearly impossible to get into. No harm in trying but look towards other mid-low ivies and safeties</p>
<p>you want the truth and nothing but the truth?? Don’t waste time applying. I sincerely apologize for being so harsh and blunt but thats just the truth for Asians. Watch the IVY Dreams videos on You Tube. You will know what I mean. On top of it you are an international.
Your GPA, Rank and ECs are good but your standardized tests will hurt. Also the excuse of your school not offering APs is not strong enough. One can easily do APs independently. My schools offers none, I still did 8 and am going to 4 more.</p>
<p>I suggest try for schools like U Chicago, Penn(CAS not Wharton. Wharton is as hard to get into as harvard), Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, Duke, CMU, UCB etc. Ace those essays and you may end up at an IVY. Forget HYPS, they are not gonna happen. Maybe, just for the hell of it try at ONE of them. </p>
<p>chelrox: You should not expect an international student to have 2300+ SAT like SAT native experts here.
Fatum: nobody knows what admission officers think. Apply although your SAT is your weakness. If you apply, you have a small chance. If you do not, your chance is 0. That’s the only truth.</p>
<p>^ AP’s hold little weight in college admissions, especially self studies. What they want is the most rigorous transcript and a great GPA/rank to accompany it.</p>
<p>@chelsearox: I took a look at those videos you mentioned, and forgive me if I’m wrong, but I think my application is stronger than those people’s…</p>
<p>chelsearox, you can’t say this with any certainty. You don’t know what the adcoms are looking for specifically, nor have you read OP’s essays. I realize that it is your opinion, but I think you should qualify it as such rather than presenting it as an undeniable “truth.”</p>
<p>Well, he’s from Canada… it’s not like he’s ESL or anything.</p>
<p>But that being said, I think you’ve definitely got a shot. It may not be a very good shot, but nor is it for most people. Apply. Chill. See what happens.</p>
<p>Thanks quomodo. 2300 SAT! How hard should I work towards that?</p>
<p>BTW I came to Canada about 5 years ago, will they expect less of my SAT score for that reason? Or are 5 years absolutely enough to score high on the SAT?</p>
<p>And is my name really “manly” or something? Everywhere I post I’m referred to as “he”. I’m a girl :).</p>
<p>^ haha, I think people assume you are a guy because there is nothing overly girly about your name. Overall, your stats are very close to mine. Unfortunately you are international which makes it that much harder to get in. Everyone assumes that a 2160 is low for harvard, but if you look at the stats you are within the middle 50%. I have hear (from an admissions officer at harvard) that they first check to see if you are qualifies (which you and about 80% of the applicants are). They then look at your ecs, recs, and especially your essays for specific reasons to admit you. That is how you see people with 2400s get rejected while some people with 2000s have gotten in. Best of luck to you, but the odds are weighted against you heavily due to the shear number of qualified applicants. About 7% of applicants are admitted, and even less internationally. Good luck though.</p>
<p>Definitely apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Dartmouth, Columbia and Penn, since they are need blind for Canadians. I would say you can get into Penn if you work hard and dont apply to Wharton.</p>