<p>I think if I really wanted a school that would fit me best(academically and financially and socially) that is well within my reach, I would go to the top university in my home country. I’m not bragging, but that school would be somewhat a safety~match school for me since I’m local and I have very decent stats in comparison to the other applicants.
I think if I applied to a decent sure-fit school overseas that is not “branded”, my parents will not pay for it because employers in my home country will only recognise brand-name schools, or local unis. I hate to admit it, but my country is highly elitist. If you said you graduated from ABC school (I didn’t put any school here in order not to offend anyone, but I’m referring to 2nd class universities that are good but not well-known) , generally people would go like “uhm…I see…I haven’t heard of it”; if you graduated from (hypothetically) Harvard, people will look at you with a different eye and go “WOW!!”. Same thing happens with employers.</p>
<p>But you are right by saying I should ask this again when I have my SAT scores. Then it wouldn’t seem like I’m being presumptious :)</p>
I’m just going to narrow down the ivies list to only a few schools that fit my character. I will be having my major IB exams in November 2014, which is around the time of my application and I don’t want to burden myself with filling too many forms and writing too many essays:)</p>