sohpmore international student searching for college

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi everyone, recently I've been thinking seriously about searching for colleges due to the growing number of applicants each year. </p>

<p>background: I'm an international student from Taiwan now studying in the US
I go to a private boarding school in PA, and although everyone says the course is challenging, I feel pretty easy here...
acedemics:
we have no GPA or class rankings in our school, but I got 4As and 1B last term, and my rank should be at least in the top 10 out of 138</p>

<p>classes this year:
honors Geometry (learned precalc in Taiwan already, but the math department doesn't let me skip)
Sophomore Lit (Yes, I'm not in ESL English)
ESL History 1
Honors Chem
Health&Human spirit
Orchestra
I'm also self studying AP CHem and AP psychology this year.
I'll take SAT II Chem this year too</p>

<p>courses next year:
IB English
Honors Precalc
AP BIo
AP Stats
Honors World History
Orchestra
I'll self study AP Calc AB, AP Chinese, AP WOrld history, and AP macro/micro econ</p>

<p>Senior year:
AP Eng Lit/IB HL World Lit (the same class in our school)
AP Calc BC (the department head said I could jump AB)
AP US History
AP Physics
electives
Orchestra</p>

<p>Awards:
National Champion in debate contest in Taiwan
Mayor's award when graduating junor high (in taiwan, junior high is 7~9 grade, Mayor's award is #1 in the class)</p>

<h1>5 in Taipei ENglish speech contest</h1>

<h1>1 in school's English speech contest (in Taiwan)</h1>

<h1>1 in school's Chinese speech contest (in Taiwan)</h1>

<p>represent school in National English Speech Contest
Represent school in Taipei Teenager's day English & Chinese speech contest
Clubs & avtivities:
In Taiwan, I was in student council,
class leader
Teacher's assistant in Math, English, Science
I was in the debate club and team, and got national champion of the debate contest, this summer I'll get another top 4 and best debator in national debate Champion
Now: Model UN team (should be able to be president or VP by senior year)
JSA chapter (should be able to be president in senior year)
class of 08 executive committee
Community service:
In Taiwan, I was student descipline/servive team (sponsored by the deans office)
Now: dining hall service
peer tutoring
JUnior: will be ESL Prefect and Peer group leader
Senior: should be able to make Prefect, definitely make tour guide or library assistant</p>

<p>I'm 100% sure I'll do engineering in college,probably electrical engineering</p>

<p>I've developed a list of schools:
Reach:
Princeton ED, because it's need blind for international students, and pretty good at engineering
MIT
Stanford
Cornell
Harvard
UPenn (because I like the T&M program, which is engineering + management double degree)
UC Berkeley
Match:
U Mich--Ann Arbor (rolling, should be able to get in)
Georgia Tech
U wisconsin--Madison
Safety:
U Illinois--Urban Champain (rolling)
Penn State (Rolling)</p>

<p>Are there any other stats I should provide before you could give suggestions? I DID NOT take PSAT this year because it's the first year I'm in the US. also, our school offers very limited APs, which is why I'm self studying</p>

<p>Please give suggestions, thanks!</p>

2

<p>I'm quite amazed by your english.
I came here last year July and I emigrated from Hong Kong.
You are lucky as you can skip the stupid ESL. My school counselor put me in the ESL and she didn't allow me to take any AP because of my english, which she insisted for quite a long time. So, after a month or so, I changed my schedule for 5 times and I finally promoted to AP Cal AB.
And eventually, I scored all As......
Sorry, I should stop the storytelling.</p>

<p>I think you have been advanced too much. You don't need to plan everything in advance so far. Many things can happen during your high school life.</p>

<p>How competitive is your high school in US and how competitve was yours in Taiwan? That will be impressive if your high school in Taiwan was 建國高中.</p>

<p>I'm dumbfound that you are the executive committee of your class for the first year arrival. I can't do that because my class is as huge as 500+students and it is highly competitive.</p>

<p>And it is almost impossible to take AP physics without any regular physics prior to it. Don't think APs are so easy that you can self study them all unless you are genius.</p>

3

<p>Why are you applying to Harvard? If you are 100% sure you want to study Engineering, I would not waste the time and effort to apply to Harvard. You are applying to MIT, Stanford, Cornell and Princeton. Those 4 applications will take a lot of effort and time as it is.</p>

4

<p>to hoganwan:
1. 建國高中 is the #1 high school in Taiwan, and my high school is #3...(didn't do well on the entrance exam)
2. in our school, we need no regular physics to take AP physics, and it has worked over the past decades of years
3. many people say my high school here is competitive, with both IB and APs, and stuff. But I still think it's pretty easy...but the English, second language, and humanities programs are really good though. </p>

<h2>4. I entered te executive committee about a month after school started because some of my good friends were there and they asked me to do it. So in short, I know some people in the committee which might be a reason that let me in~! :)</h2>

<p>To Alexandre
I don't know if I'm right, but I think most people applying to Harvard are more of a humanities person and now as good in math/science. I might be able to stand out, and I just thought Ivy league's engineering might not be as selective. (cornell and columbia's engineering school's aceptance rate is pretty high considering it an ivy league school)
besides, Harvard is need blind+meet full needs, so "if" i could get it, I might be able to save some money~
I'm not sure if my perspectives are right, and if they aren't, please give some more comments and suggestions~</p>

5

<p>btw, I did some research and found out that Harvard and MIT have exchange courses, which means that I could take the science courses in MIT. Yes, I might as well apply to MIT instead which I'm planning to, but I assume it's easier to get into Harvard's engineering than MIT's.
Please correct me if there are anything wrong.~
Please also give other advice on college search and stuff I could improve on~
THanks~!!</p>

6

<p>more suggestions??</p>

7

<p>Rice University in Houston, Texas. It is known for science, engineering, etc, though it is a great university overall.</p>

8

<p>I dont think the engineering at harvard will be any easier considering most students switch thei majors while in school. So theyll probably judge you the same way as if you were an english major or so forth.</p>

9

<p>Carnegie Mellon U.</p>

10

<p>Kenny, applicants to Harvard are usually equally good in the sciences as they are in the humanities. Harvard, like Yale, Princeton and Stanford, has the luxury of attracting mostly very well rounded students. So I doubt you will stand out. </p>

<p>And although Harvard and MIT students can cross register, it does not mean you will be able to take many classes at MIT or benifit from MIT's Engineering resources and career center. Like I said, if you think you can do justice to many application forms, go for it. But if you want to give each application form your complete and total effort, you are applying to way too many schools. I would never recommend a student who is 100% sure she/he wants to major in Engineering to apply to Harvard...or Columbia and Penn for that matter. Schools like Cal, Cornell and Michigan are easier to get into and they are better in Engineering.</p>

11

<p>thanks for the advices
How many schools should be on my list then?
are there any tips or suggestions on how I could improve and like Alexandre said, "stand out" from Harvard (or other elite school)'s applicants?</p>

12

<p>Please help! As the admissions get more and more challenging, and I'm in the MOST CHALLENGING pool, I really need to get started early.
Thanks</p>