<p>Hello everyone my name is Alessandro and I was wondering if you guys could give me any tips regarding college admissions.
My situation isn't very common: I have a dual citizenship (my dad is Italian and my mom is American), I've been schooled in Italy but I'm also a New York State resident so I wouldn't be applying to college as an international.
I go to what is probably the most challenging public high school in the country, I'm in a experimental section where we not only study subjects in italian but in english as well and take 7 IGCSE exams from Cambridge.
I don't have straight As but hardly anyone here does, I'm fluent in french as well and have various ECs showing my leadership skills.
I hope that you could advise me on what schools are in my range.
I took my SATs only once and scored 1990, I'm taking them again in October hoping to score at least 2100. I'm really strong in Math and Physics so I will be taking the Subject tests.
I'm looking to study engineering but I don't really know where to apply. I'm really interested in Penn and Johns Hopkins because they have study abroad programs in the city I live in so they probably know my high school (it's pretty prestigious).
Would those schools be too much of a reach? I wanted to apply to a SUNY school and Tulane University as well.
In your opinion do I have any kind of advantage being an Italian/American who lives in Italy so that schools may look past my grades? In addition would being Italian in a prevalent Asian major help? What do you think I should do?
Thanks for reading and have a great day!</p>
<p>Bumpp</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo will probably love your background, apply to Bing or New Paltz too. Tulane is a match. Penn and JHU are high reaches. You need to find more schools in-between these. Buy “the Fiske Guide” or “Insider’s Guide to the colleges” or “Princeton Review’s Best colleges” (2015 if you want a new ed, but anything from 2013 or 2014 would work).</p>
<p>@alebentivogli - If you live in Italy, you might not meet the requirements for in-state tuition at NY public universities. I suggest you look closely at <a href=“https://www.suny.edu/smarttrack/residency/”>https://www.suny.edu/smarttrack/residency/</a> and contact them if you have any questions.</p>
<p>Regarding dual-citizenship - at most (possibly all) US colleges, you should be able to apply as a US citizen, not an international. This will likely give you some advantages in admissions (impossible to quantify though), and make you eligible for aid not available to internationals.</p>
<p>SAT scores: 1990 is low for both Penn and JHU. 2100 puts you at about 25% for admitted students, so you can assume that most accepted students with SAT scores in this range are very strong in other areas, or have some sort of hook (recruited athletic, legacy, URM status).</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 thanks for answering again, I really appreciate it! What do you mean by in-between schools?</p>
<p>@BldrDad Thanks for answering. I have a NY state drivers license and pay tax there, isn’t that enough proof of residency? </p>
<p>@alebentivogli - I can’t answer that question, but SUNY can. Are you financially dependent on your parents? Because if you are, their residency status may be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>If your college application strategy depends on your residency status, I’d highly recommend you get a definitive answer now, rather than making an assumption that may prove wrong.</p>
<p>@BldrDad I’ll find out right now. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Bumpp</p>
<p>As a general rule, if you are under 25, not married, not a veteran, not a grad student, you can inherit the residency of each parent. You wouldn’t need to reside in NY if either of your parents is legally a NY resident, even if they are temporarily (even if long-term) living outside NY for business or other reasons, as long as they maintain their NY resident status, file NY tax returns, etc. However, you should verify this directly with SUNY.</p>
<p>It is possible that neither Penn nor Johns Hopkins admissions officers are familiar with your HS; they may not have any interaction with study abroad programs.</p>
<p>I do believe living in Italy provides an advantage for a US citizen, it’s a very unusual background.</p>
<p>I don’t know what “being Italian in a prevalent Asian major” means. Are you suggesting that engineering is somehow racially segregated in US schools? In any case, I don’t believe Italian-American is considered URM at any college here.</p>
<p>I meant that there are HUNDREDS of universities in between Penn and New Paltz. You have two reaches, two academic matches that may not be financially possible, and one safety. You need one more safety and more matches, including running the NPCs to find schools that are affordable. Any university or LAC ranked in the Top100, especially if you get into the honors college for schools ranked 40+, is good. Remember that you can’t think on an Italian scale, where maybe 10 schools are good out of a maximum of 100 - in the US, you have 3,700 colleges w<ith roughly 2,800 selective ones. Top 280 is good, Top 140 is better, etc, you get the idea. Look at regional universities ranked up to 10-15, too.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering!
@FCCDAD I meant that by looking at some threads it seems like a big percentage of student applying to an engineering school are of asian descent.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 Would you consider UNC Chapel Hill and UVa reaches as well? I’m considering SUNY schools as my safeties and looking for schools that have need-blind admission and are possible matches.</p>
<p>Any school with an admission rate under 30% has to be considered a “reach” regardless of applicant credentials.
UNC-CH has a cap on the number of OOS students who can be admitted - as a public university, it has a legally binding mandate to serve students from North Carolina first, and the OOS applicants they’ll consider next are athletes, legacies, and students who are otherwise important to them. Odds of admission for an OOS, unhooked applicant are very low. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, especially considering they meet need, but it can’t be considered anything but a reach.
UVA is a low reach but run the NPC to see whether it may be affordable, since they no longer promise to meet need for all OOS applicants.</p>