US college application- A Nepali's view

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>HI everyone,</p>

<p>I am from Nepal and I have had a tormenting college application experience. I hope you find this an interesting read.</p>

<p>I finished high school in March, 2009 and applied to colleges in my country. But because admission to good colleges requires either political influence or briefcases, I failed to get into any. I was the highest scorer in my high school with 92%.
One day, I went to United States Education Foundation (USEF), an Education USA advising centre in my place and was inspired to pursue education in the US. After several visits there, I made up my mind to apply. It was November then. I hurriedly registered for the December 5 SAT. But juggling with college search, getting to understand US education, standardized tests and preparing for few exams I had here I couldn’t score well on the SAT(sorry for sounding like a whiner). My scores were CR-510, M-800, W-620(1930). I am confident that this isn’t my best.</p>

<p>Even after giving my SAT, I wasn’t able to select the colleges to apply. Many colleges had deadlines on December 31 so I randomly selected colleges that stood high on rankings. I feel very stupid for having done this, especially with the score I got on SAT. I wrote essays for 6 colleges in the last 10 days and submitted those only minutes before the deadline. 20 days later, I sat for the Sat subject tests. My scores were physics-720, biology M-730, Math IIC- 710. A week later I took the TOEFL and scored 105/120. As expected, I got rejected from all the colleges I applied to.</p>

<p>After the rejections in the beginning of April, I quickly sent an application to Idaho State University where I will be attending this fall. </p>

<p>I took the SAT subject tests again on June 5 to prove to my parents that I could do better (they said I had lost my abilities). My score was- Physics-740, Math IIC-800, Chemistry-800. </p>

<p>I feel very guilty and have a deep regret for being ignorant and not starting earlier. Do you think I can get accepted to better schools as a transfer student? How can I make myself a more competent applicant?</p>

<p>• SAT: CR-510, M-800, W-620(1930)
• SAT Subject tests(1st attempt): Phy-720, bio M- 730, Math IIC- 710
• SAT Subject tests(2nd attempt): Phy-740, chem- 800, Math IIC- 800
• TOEFL: 105/120
• High school Percentage: 92%</p>

<p>ECs
• Table Tennis Team- 2 years(captain on the final year)
• Gold medal- volleyball, basketball, quiz
• Silver Medal- Table Tennis
• Choir, Plays, Science and math Olympiads, swimming team, cricket team.
No work experience, community service.( im building up on this one)</p>

<p>Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>P.S. Please bear with me if my English is bad.</p>

2

<p>I suggest looking for schools that have high percentages of international students. American University, University of Southern California, and Boston University are great for internationals. Going to a community college and then transferring to a local state university would be a lot simpler and less stressful.</p>

3

<p>The English in your post above is excellent. If it is the result of your own work (without too much editting and rewriting), you should be easily able to beat your original CR and W scores. </p>

<p>I should think you probably would be able to transfer to many other schools (assuming you do well during your first semester). What constitutes a ‘better school’ for you? Does it have to be a Top-20 research university? LAC? Top-50? Your question is very broad…</p>

4

<p>Thank you Spatula and Memake for your response. For me a better school would be one in top 20 offering financial aid to international transfer students.</p>

5

<p>You would be better off not starting college, improving scores and applying as a freshmen again. Few schools have much money for international transfers, the ones that do-a few ivies and top LACs, are much harder to get into as a transfer than as a freshmen.</p>

6

<p>Since i am already one year out of college, do you think waiting another year will be worth getiing into top school? mmost people have advised me otherwise.</p>

7

<p>Sorry, <em>one year out of high school</em>. In Nepal, the final two years of high school is also referred to as college. So, i mixed it up.</p>