UK International Student applying for Ivy League Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi,
I'm from the UK and have just finished the equivalent of high school sophomore year. I know that this may be a little early but its best that I gauge my chances now so that I know which areas to focus on the most. I'm hoping to apply to some Ivies: Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth and UPenn; as well as Stanford and NYU. I'm aware of what I'm getting myself into because I hear that competition is very tough, especially for international students such as myself yet I think I have a chance.</p>

<p>Race: Black British (Does affirmative action apply to international students as well?)</p>

<p>Academia:
Predicted 7A* and 5As for the GCSEs I've just taken, considered to be very good results. I also go to one of the top 20 schools in the country for GCSEs and the top school for A Level results, we regulary send about 40 students each year to either Cambridge or Oxford meaning that our school comprises of some of the best students in the country. As a result of this, my class ranking is somewhat lower than average for the colleges listed above, maybe 25th out of 106. If I were to note this on my application form, how would colleges look upon this?</p>

<p>I have also won awards and prizes for Mathematics.</p>

<p>I also took the online SAT on the CollegeBoard website (finished in about 2hrs 45mins):
760 Maths
710 Writing
730 Reading</p>

<p>Hopefully, these should improve when I take the real SAT next June.</p>

<p>I've looked at the subject tests for Maths II and Physics and they seem pretty easy as they are similar in content and difficulty to the GCSEs I've just finished.</p>

<p>Extra- Curricular:
Did some work experience at a local airfield
Taking Flying lessons (5 hours so far)
Have been on school soccer team for 2 years
Co- founded the school's first Grime (music genre) Society (GrimeSoc) which now has around 25 members.</p>

<p>Misc. (anything I think may boost my chances):
Single parent family with an income of less than £20,000 ~~ $30,000
Will be 1st generation college student
I know someone who is part of the Columbia Alumni Association (obviously only applicable to Columbia)</p>

<p>Any help or insight would be great and be as critical as you like.
Thanks</p>

2

<p>There’s nothing wrong with your grades but I don’t think your Extracurriculars are good enough to compete with many other students who will apply. Of course there’s still time to change that. I would recommend that you get involved more of them over the next year especially service activities.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for the feedback, I’m going to start voluntary work next week so hopefully I should have a couple of hundred hours by this time next year.</p>