What are my chances? (Ivy league)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m an international student from Italy and I’m interested to know how my application would look compared to that of an American student since the school system in Italy is very different and doesn’t offer the same opportunities. I would really appreciate some advice. If you can spare a couple of minutes to read through this, it would really mean a lot to me.

Background:
White female
My parents are originally from the Republic of Moldova, which means I grew up bilingual and I speak fluently Romanian and Russian in addition to Italian.

SAT: 1560 (760 WR, 800 M) I haven’t taken the subject tests yet, but I’m planning to take latin and math 2 in December

Grade average: 9.9/10 (my school has a 0-10 grading system) The only thing that is remotely similar to a gpa is what my school calls “credits”, which are calculated based on your grade average. I have 16 out of 16 credits.

ECs:

  • I’ve been enrolled in a music school all through high school, where I take piano lessons, music theory, history of music, composition and opera classes. I’m also part of the youth choir and play the piano in monthly recitals.
  • Internship at the Center for integrative biology at the University of Trento (near my hometown) as a research assistant
  • ICT days summer camp, something between a coding camp and a hackathon (my team received an award for our software)
  • Internship at the civic museum in the zoology department, where I took part in a research project studying the behavior of newly-hatched tortoises
  • I volunteered as a tutor at my high school. I also took part in a program aimed at helping children with their homework at the local middle school and elementary school.
  • I volunteered at CoderDojo, where I helped children learn to code and assisted them with their own programming projects.
  • Creative writing group at school, we wrote short stories which were then published in a book
  • 3 weeks summer study abroad program in England for which I received a scholarship
  • Poetry marathon project at school, we organized events in which we read poems in different languages for the local community and the students at our school. I also attended an acting and public speaking course to participate in this project
  • Geology project, I took part in a geological analysis project for which we mapped and surveyed certain area of Mount Baldo
  • Statistical analysis of meteorological patterns in my region, I analyzed data provided by several weather stations in the local area and wrote a paper discussing my findings.
  • Ice skating lessons during the winter months (freshman and sophomore year)

Awards:

  • award for coding camp project that I mentioned earlier
  • 5th place in regional math competition, I qualified for nationals (I also qualified for nationals in middle school twice and I took part in math olympiads every year but didn’t get beyond the regional stage though)
  • 9th place in chemistry olympiad
  • certificate of appreciation for outstanding grades awarded by my school (every year)
  • certificate of appreciation for my work as a volunteer tutor awarded by the school

Honors: I took several exams that were extracurricular but I don’t know if they count as honors.

  • German language certificate b1 level
  • National Latin exam
  • ECDL european computer driving licence, which tests your computer literacy, the ability to use computer and related technology efficiently as well as programming and problem solving
  • Cambridge First certificate in English c1 level
  • Cambridge certificate in advanced English c2 level
  • IELTS english language exam c2 level

Essays:

  • I’m writing about my love for art and math and how these two aspects combine when I code ( but I’m afraid it may not sound very unique) Do you think this topic might be overused?
  • I also plan to talk about my background in the supplemental essays and about spending my summers in Moldova

I would like to major in Computer Science

Do you think I have any chance of getting into an ivy league? Do any of my ECs seem even remotely impressive? And is there something that isn’t worth mentioning on the application?
Do my activities effectively convey my love for science and programming?

I also have a question about the awards section: should I put in the math and chemistry awards even though they are only regional and not top 3 or will it hurt my application because it looks like I could have tried harder?

2

Your stats and ECs will have you competitive everywhere but CS is a highly sought after major and slots for international students are even more limited. If you need financial aid, even more so. Be sure to have a list of schools that are matches and safeties, especially in Italy.

3

Why “Ivy League”? Is it specifically those colleges b/c they are famous? b/c they have good financial aid?

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard , UPenn, Princeton and Yale are more different than similar. Your chances of getting into any of them are in the low single digits- at best- simply b/c there are so many applicants. You can help your odds by working a little harder to figure out more of what you want and they are looking for- and applying to those with the biggest area of overlap.

So, do you like Columbia because of it’s Core or urban environment? then UChic might be better for you than Dartmouth. You have a strong music / art element- why wouldn’t you look at CMU’s BXA program? A bunch of state universities are better ranked for CS than some of the “Ivies” (for example, UWa, UIUC, UMi, UC-B are all stronger for CS than Dartmouth or Yale). Other schools that you might not be familiar with, such as Oberlin, Vassar, U. of Richmond and Wesleyan, offer a rigorous academic experience, including a strong CS program, plus a great undergraduate experience.

4

It’s mainly because of financial aid and need-blind policy. I do plan to apply to other colleges as well but even if I were to get in, chances of getting a scholarship that covers most of the cost as an international student would be really low, so I wouldn’t be able to pay for it. On that note, do you know of any colleges that may offer full scholarships other than reach schools? Many of the schools I’ve looked into require you to state your finances and to have a minimum amount of money in order to apply.

5

Check out these:

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2006094-2017-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html#latest

6

Hi OP,

I am not quite familiar with international awards and such. However, based on your stats, you should be a competitive applicant as long as the subject tests go well. Please note that you may need a science SAT subject test (Bio, Chem, Physics) in order to be applicable for a computer science major. Your ECs are decent but I don’t see anything too outstanding (ex USAMO, Research with Distinguished professor, Prestigious Summer Program). I would say you have a shot but ivies are always reaches.

7

Also check out these schools, many of which meet full need for a small number of internationals:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission#U.S._institutions_that_are_not_need-blind_for_U.S._applicants_and_meet_full_demonstrated_need

What you need is meeting full need; need blind/aware is irrelevant. Check each school’s Net Price Calculator, but likely less accurate for internationals.