Here’s my stats. I’m applying to a variety of schools, with the most selective being the likes of Dartmouth, Amherst, Brown, Cornell but many less selective schools also. Since I’m aiming to do Film Studies & English (except the former in schools that don’t offer it), I’m also applying to NYU Tisch for Cinema Studies, but that’s a different process and I doubt I’d be able to afford it anyway. Note that I’m applying during the second of two years away from school so I’m in a unique situation (see below).
Objective:
-ACT: 34 overall, 12 on the writing
-GPA: 3.95 unweighted (school didn’t weight, I’d certainly have over a 4 if they did as I got A’s in all my AP classes except one semester of AP Lit)
-Class rank: Don’t know my specific rank, but they put us into achievement groups at the end of high school and I was in the Top 21. There were other students in my school who did just as well if not better than me; the majority of them are at U of Michigan now. One at Cornell. I went to an excellent public school in Michigan. About 375 in my grade.
-APs: 5 on Lit, Lang, Us Gov, Us History, Calc BC / 4 on Microeconomics
-Other classes: Honors English 10, Honors math until Calc BC, Spanish up to level 4
Extracurriculars:
-Captain of Debate Team 12th grade, member since 10th grade
-Leadership position (non-engineering) on FIRST Robotics Team, 11th and 12th grade, member since 10th grade
-On Model Un team
-In National Honor Society & National Spanish Honor Society
-Editor-in-Chief of school newspaper, 11th & 12th grade (this was a class, not after school)
-Member of creative writing club
-Breadth of work experience in the film & journalism industries
Demographics:
-Straight, white, male. Age 18 (one of the youngest in my class; even though I graduated from high school over a year ago I’m still younger than many of my friends were when they graduated)
-Born in England, moved to Michigan in '07
Essays:
-Writing is my strong suit; I want to be a journalist or screenwriter. I have many ideas for the common app essays (with one draft written) and have worked strenuously on the supplemental essays.
Recommendations:
-Had two of the teachers I was closest to write my recs. They’re both English teachers - is that o.k. provided they’re the two teachers that knew me best? (One was my AP Lang teacher and also my debate coach. The other was my AP Lit teacher and my newspaper teacher who I had for all 4 years of high school)
Intended major: Film / Media Studies with a likely second major in either English or Political Science. For schools that do not have a film or media-related major, I’d do English. Since my interest is in screenwriting/directing and not as much the technical side, I wouldn’t mind if that ended up being my major anyway.
Other:
-Live in America, but classed as an international student as am not a permanent resident yet. Intend to stay in America permanently once we have green cards. If we get green cards within the next year (unlikely), financial aid issues won’t be quite as pressing.
-On the second of two gap years. Family have travelled around Europe with my dad’s job during this time. It’s because of that and because of a lack of financial aid options at U of Michigan that I’m not currently at college. Currently living in Ireland and have also been in France, Germany and England this year. Will return to America in December.
-I’ve been on an internship with a film magazine/website for the past year. I’d say the time commitment is akin to a part-time job or one of my more taxing extracurriculars, but since I do the job at home from the computer it’s hard to tell. I interview people, write regular articles and film reviews, edit everyone else’s articles, and communicate with pr/distribution companies and the company’s sponsors.
-I’m currently taking classes in Ireland and have also taken online classes this year through Coursera, which I will continue to do until college.
-Went to an intensive journalism summer camp before junior year.
Past colleges applied to:
-Both Oxford and Cambridge. Reached the interview stage of both but rejected from both. They probably wouldn’t have been the right fit for me, anyway, and besides - I wouldn’t be eligible for student loans from England anymore regardless as I’ve been away for more than 3 years.
-Accepted into University of Michigan. Was going to go, but they wouldn’t give me any kind of financial support as an international applicant. I cannot go to school ANYWHERE unless said school is able to provide international students financial aid. Because of this I’m applying to 15-20 schools - from ivies to local public schools - and keeping my options open. I think I’m in the 100,000 - 120,000 bracket (dad works, mom doesn’t, 2 siblings), but I will need significant aid to be able to afford uni.
-Rejected from Yale, Penn and Columbia. This was back in 2013, and my essays were significantly worse than they will be in this application cycle. I was very lazy with them back then. Still, even with fantastic essays I still probably wouldn’t have gotten in to those at that point, mainly of course because they’re reach schools even for the most impressive candidates.
What are my chances? What are my other options for financial aid (the goal is to stay in America, so college there is my absolute aim, though I’m considering Canadian colleges as I’ve heard they’re cheaper)? We’ve tried everything but our hands are kind of tied. Considering Dartmouth ED as they are need-blind and claim to meet full need. If this is true and I get in, it’d be a dream come true.
I know it’s a situation that few of you will have faced, but do you think I should push my problems with residency status & financial aid on my application, or will it just hurt me and be a “red flag” even to the need-blind schools I’m applying to? I’ve obviously explained it on the Common App, but I’m not sure whether to go into more detail about it on a supplemental essay.
