<p>I am permanent resident card holder who moved to US two years ago from India/Saudi Arabia. I am going to be a senior. When i first moved here..I had no idea what GPAs were or how class rank worked. Imagine, i am in 10th grade and i dont know anything. But still in a school where so many ppl had 5.0s and a class of about 900, how did i compete. I had no idea what colleges look at. Being new not just to the school, but to the country i didnt join many activities either. But today when i am going to be a senior...i will be in the top 5-6% of my class, i have an SAT score of around 2000. And i am a member of the National honors society, math honors society and numerous clubs. My question is: how do i show colleges my fast pickup of the American School life plus how do i show them that i have seen the world and have vast knoledge of foreign lands more than 99% of my class. Also, my SATs right now are only a 2000 but i am taking them in october again and with a lot of practice i should atleast get a 2150 or so. (my goal is def 2200). So any suggestions or advice on how can make the ivy leagues or atleast a step down colleges approve my application. I won't apply to Princeton, Yale or Harvard cuz i know there is no way i am getting there. But i really want to get into a step down ivy schools like University of Chicago. SO what should i do?</p>
<p>Your guidance counselor should be able to write about your academics. The rest, you can write about in your essay.</p>
<p>you have to call the admission’s office to explain your situation first, then you write a killer essay demonstrating your experiences and what you were passionate about that made you become a better person, like for example talk about one of EC’s that you really love, stand out between applicants and work hard on your SAT scores. You’ll do just fine.
hope that helps ;)</p>
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<p>No. The adcom are well aware of the struggles of immigrants, they get tons of applications from them. As someone said above, you can ask your counselor to highlight this is the school report.</p>
<p>Top colleges get many international applicants and many well traveled ones. Don’t expect to be cut any breaks because of this situation. Show your worldliness in your essays and apply to schools that are a fit with your stats.</p>
<p>Write about it in your essay.</p>