What was the point of asking for advice here? You are not interested in listening to what we say. Please apply, and good luck. Have a back up plan; you will, in all probability, need it.
“Do they take our National Exams (given the importance that they have in our country) into acount in our application?”
“Also, are there other ways for an international student to stand out from the rest?”
This were my two initial questions.
I’m interessed in advices but you guys can’t really predict, since i’m only applying by January 2018, what are my chances at this point, and that’s what you are doing.
The only thing you could say is, hypothetically, if you do all the things you are planning to do and you succeed at it and if you make a really effort to improve medium grades, have excellent grades in all exams and tests, and all other stuff you migh have a chance. If not, you don’t have a chance. You could also tell me that my plan is risky and probabilities of achieving all i want to achieve are low. But you can’t really tell me what are my chances, because we’re talking about a year and a half period…
Op, in English ‘to pad’ means 'to fill with fluff ’ and I don’t think that’s the verb you’re looking for.
Roughly all top 50 universities and LACs would be superior for undergraduates to most top 5-10 universities in Portugal, Italy, France, Germany…
It all depends on what ou’re looking for. If for you learning means listening to high quality lectures then most countries do that well. If you want an immersive experience with applied or hands on sessions, an opportunity to do research as an undergraduate, a sense of community and pride, then the top 50 universities and LACs are hard to match.
Think that there are 50 states in the US - compared to 30 in the European Union + 'area ’ (Switzerland, Norway). Surely there are 7-10 top schools in Portugal. Another 10 in Spain. About 25 in France (because top colleges are very small, many with under 1,000). Add Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania, etc, etc. Can you see why the top 100 schools in the US would easily match the top 100 in the European area, and can’t be compared to the top 10 in Portugal? Any top school in these countries is roughly equal - attending Insead , Oxford, HEC… Would be equally prestigious, difficult, and academically demanding. Attending top us colleges is the same - remember the scale of a country as large as a continent.
Buy Fisk Guide 2017. It’s out and will tell you about the top 10% colleges in the US.
If you add your averages from 9th until now, do our have a 16+?
Actually, nobody here can accurately chance you even if you were applying for 2017, because none of us are admissions officers. If you thought that anybody could provide you with a percentage with accuracy, I’m sorry to disappoint. All anybody can do is provide you with some guidance and share insights based upon their own experiences with the admissions process. Any of these schools that provide good financial aid have a limit on how many international students they accept and the acceptance rate for intl students is roughly half the overall rate. All you can do is put together the best applications packet possible. Good luck.
@MYOS1634
I understand what you’re saying, it makes sense. I will be looking also into other universities then.
Yes, if i had my 9th grade to my high school grades it will be +16 (closer to 16 than 17 thought). That’s why i feel the need to take a gap year and improve my average grades in 12th grade.
@skieurope
I didn’t thought that and that’s why i didn’t ask for that. Acceptance rate however doesn’t represent my admission chances. Most people that posted on this topic seems to think that way. I will for sure make an effort to make the best application that i can. Thanks for the advice.
“Taking a gap year is recommended by universities like Harvard, so i don’t really think it will hurt my application”
Harvard recommends taking a gap year AFTER being ACCEPTED , NOT before you have even applied !!!
AFTER!
Considering a Gap Year
“Harvard College encourages ADMITTED students to defer enrollment for one year to travel, pursue a special project or activity, work, or spend time in another meaningful way—provided they do not enroll in a degree-granting program at another college”
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/preparing-college/should-i-take-time
I know that but, as i said before, school year in Portugal ends in June/July and Portugal universities applications process starts in the same period. It’s not common for us to apply by January so i bet that a large number of students from Portugal that want to study in US as an undergraduate only apply by the end of 12th grade and delay one year (gap year).
Is there any reason,other than wanting to pad your application with additional EC’s, that you could not apply by Jan, as is the case with most other applicants to Harvard?
I think you are putting to much weight on what other students from Portugal do, vrs what most other applicants from around the world do, as far as the timing of when to submit your application.
harvard does not hold open spots for students whose schedules do not coincide with Harvards admissions schedule.
HS’s here in the US end in June, and seniors apply by the end of their first semester.
Another reason is to improve my grades and to do the exams that i haven’t done yet. European applications also start later in most countries (not in UK thought, as far as i know). Also it gives me time to do things that i think it will benefict me such as, for example, an internship or beggining new projects.
I’m glad you are interested in applying to US schools, but you need to understand that there’s no way you or anyone could chance you for top schools, because their admissions are so complex that you will see kids with international awards and without any ECs at all, and this applies to every aspect of your application.
At least you answered to my questions and provide me with more info and that’s what i’m looking to get here, in addiction to my research.
Since financial aid is a concern, check this out
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/pulse/us-higher-education-institutions-awarding-most-financial-yoko-kono and this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
Look for the most generous ones, check TOEFL requirement since this is a cutoff for most schools (if you don’t have the minimum TOEFL required and you don’t get a good SAT score in reading & writing your chances get reduced to 0)
a 90 or above on the IBT test would do the trick, and a 100 would suffice all schools.
There’s another thing called ‘fit’ which is really considered among us applicants; however we cannot consider that, we have to make ourselves flexible in those terms.
Thank you. I will be looking into that list for sure.
I’m aiming for +110 on the IBT since my grade in English class is pretty good and i think it’s an above average score (Harvard average).
‘Fit’ being applying to selective and least selective colleges to guarantee at least an admission, right?
No, fit does not determine anything, only whether the Institution fulfills your desires (ambient, curriculum, size, location, etc). Look, I am in the same thread mill as you, and I am sure that there is nothing that can guarantee you admissions to top US universities, but there are things that can boost your chances of course.
These things can boost your app:
-Money
-Special socioeconomic background
-Special circumstances during your lifetime
-Significant achievements
-Coming from a lower represented country (I want to emphasize this aspect because it means that the spot reserved for your country will have less competition)
There may be more things but personally I think these are the most important ones. Besides that, you should also check the amount of Portuguese UG students in the US (I was surprised when I found out that there were more than 3000 from mine, that really changes your perspective)
FYI, ECs not to put on your CV:
https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-long-march-from-china-to-the-ivies
What do you mean when you say “special socioeconomic background” and “special circumstances during your lifetime”?
I think Portugal have about 438.000 students studying at an undergraduate level in US.
Seems like competition in Asia for top Ivy League Colleges is huge. It also seems that most of the students/parents focus on the wrong things…
@Mrduque I appreciate that you are clearly taking to heart a lot of advice that you have been given. So please let OP know, as he doesn’t want to listen to the rest of us, that “fit” is what adcoms are looking for. Sure, you might feel you fit at Harvard, but if adcoms doesn’t agree, you can forget it. Fit is the magic gold dust that not one single person on CC can give you, and the only people who know the fit of any given collge are the people on the admissions committee. OP, and you too, Mr. duque, can contact the admissions office at any college (it is probably on their website too,) and ask them what they look for in an applicant. I suggest doing that if you want to improve your chances.
@pedrofbandre let’s keep it simple, if someone with almost the same stats as you came from a Brazilian favela, the Adcoms (in some cases) would prefer him instead of you because he would look more impressive since he overcame his circumstances and achieved what others achieved without having the same resources. besides that, he would add diversity and a unique background to their new class. (Of course, these indviduals come in 1 of thousands)
@Lindagaf I see… So I think I should retract from my previous point about the importance of ‘fit’.
@Mrduque , not necessarily, because yes, you do need to feel you will fit in at a college. Fit is VERY important in US admissions, at those colleges which use a holistic process. I am simply saying that you will have no control over whether or not the admissions committee think YOU fit there. And no one should apply to any college where they don’t feel they will fit in. Unfortunately, one of the reasons the top colleges get so many applications is because too many kids do not consider fit when they apply to Harvard and the like. They only care about the name.
I don’t know why you keep saying that i don’t listen to your advices… I think that i should think about fitting after i’ve been accepted into the schools i apply, of course that i’m going to take fitting into account when choosing which colleges should i apply (i’m not going to spend $1000 on applications), but i’m letting the chosing part for later. Also, if you don’t have control about what admissions committee will think of you it doesn’t make sense to be thinking whether you fit or not, since you don’t really know what is fitting for that college. Based on that, i’m doing what i can to boost my application but at the same time, i’m doing things that i enjoy, not to impress anyone. What i keep saying is that i still have the time to do became a serious candidate to those top universities, even if now don’t think it’s possible. I never said it wasn’t a difficult accomplishment, but is far from impossible.