yet another "chance me" thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>Hi there, i'm guessing everyone's tired of this by now, and i'll be getting my answer in 3 days anyway, but might as well :) If anybody can take some of their time to give me their opinion, it would be greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>I'm an applicant from Mexico, so I don't know whether this gives me any sort of "hook"</p>

<p>My GPA is pretty close to perfect, top of the class,, and i have taken the honors and AP courses that have been offered to me. However, my SATs and ACTs aren't great, with 2000 and 30 respectively. I've been told that Mexicans tend to do lower in it though, and a friend of mine (mexican) got into Upenn with a 1900. </p>

<p>What really makes me stand out tzhough, i think, is that i speak english, spanish, french and german fluently, and have studied abroad on two separate ocassions. Last year I went to Switzerland without knowing a single speck of German, studied my butt off and managed to not only learn it, but end up as number one in the class by the end of the school year, and this is what i spoke about in one essay</p>

<p>Also, i have been personally affected by the insecurity here, living with constant shootings on the street, kidnappings. I was mugged and my car was taken from me 2 years ago, and i wrote about that in my other essay, how it helped me grow and decide that i want to end all this. </p>

<p>I've gone abroad every summer: went to Canada for a french program, the next summer travelled to new york for a youth legislative session and won "most promising female" out of over 150 delegates (who were all in the top 10 percent of their classes), and this last summer i volunteered at the dominican republic with a program called GLA, and impressed my counselors enough that they offered me a scholarship to go back (you had to pay for the program).</p>

<p>My teacher recs and counselor letters are absolutely fantastic, of that im sure of. </p>

<p>So, if anyone has the time, what do you think? I know my SAt and act scores are pretty much abysmal :S</p>

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<p>I don’t think being from Mexico gives you any sort of hook, in fact because you’re international you’re worse off than an American applicant of any race/ethnicity. I also think that for foreign applicants recs aren’t given much weight, since, atleast in China, they tend to be written by the applicant themself or by a paid consultant. Although I don’t know much about the admissions process for international applicants (other than the fact that its much harder) I would think that SATs would be very important to admissions officers, since thats the main way you can be compared to standard domestic applicants.</p>

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<p>Every day I see more people with amazing stats and URM status and odd family situations post their “chance” threads… the more I die on the inside and want to cry about my chances of getting in.</p>

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<p>Haha, same here, honestly. My SAT results and ACT results are terrible compared to all of you guys.</p>

<p>As I said, the only thing that gives me some hope is that people from my school have actually gotten into pretty selective colleges, despite all of their scores being below mine, the second highest has been a 1900. </p>

<p>Also, EmperorKong, I can’t be sure but I wouldn’t think they’d do that with my letters of rec. I go to an American International School, so they follow pretty much the same system as in the US and my teachers are mostly American, so is my college counselor. </p>

<p>As I said, my greatest stregnths are probably my extracurriculars (I forgot to mention NHS, student rep, comm service, newspaper editor… the standard stuff) but mostly my languages/study-abroad years, etc</p>

<p>In any case, if I don’t get to Princeton (and this goes for all as well), I’m sure we’ll all go to great colleges anyway. The advantage of living in Mexico is that all you need to go to the best colleges in the nation (and they’re actually rather good), are good grades, a good score on the admissions test, and money to pay for it (and it’s A LOT cheaper than US colleges… at least when comparing the peso and the dollar)</p>

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<p>In that case I think they would weight your recs the same as they would anyone else’s
Good Luck!</p>

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<p>Hi DMADL92. I was going to reply to your post on the 2016 SCEA thread but I then I saw this so I’ll just do it here. Firstly, I agree that being international is really not that big of a deal. For instance, my interviewer told me the last year there were around 300 applicants to Princeton from India, out of which 8 actually ended up going there. If being international had any kind of major advantage, the numbers wouldn’t be so absolutely horrifying…</p>

<p>However, on the bright side, I do think your study abroad opportunities give you that “hook” you’re looking for. Or maybe I want to believe so, since I too went on a study abroad program for a year, faced the exact same difficulty regarding the alien language and managed to overcome it well. I hope :slight_smile: I wrote my essay about it too. Going for long durations on study/exchange programs abroad is highly uncommon in India (I’m the first person in my school’s history to do it!), and I thought there won’t be many such applicants, but then again, it isn’t Princeton for nothing. Just hoping there aren’t many more. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, through which organisation/competition/scholarship (if any) did you go abroad?</p>

<p>And I wouldn’t fret so much about SAT scores. Standardized testing is a very, very small part of your entire application package, and of you yourself. Atleast that’s what counsellors here say!</p>

<p>“I also think that for foreign applicants recs aren’t given much weight, since, atleast in China, they tend to be written by the applicant themself or by a paid consultant.”
EmperorKong, are you Chinese or closely associated with the Chinese system of education? If not, what makes you say that the Chinese follow the above-mentioned procedure of writing their recommendations and also that the adcom knows about it? Just curious.</p>

<p>2 days and 11 hours. Stay sane everyone :)</p>

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<p>Thanks for that, you’ve calmed me down somewhat, haha. It’s rather uncommon to go abroad here as well, and especially to speak two lanuages fluently, let alone two, so hopefully we’ll both have an advantage because of that :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I don’t mind you asking about my study-abroad time at all! But i didn’t go through any association. I researched and found a private boarding school that i liked, and went there. Both years were on different schools though. My first year abroad was when i was 13 and i went to a catholic school in the french swiss area, and the other one just last year, when, as i said, i went to switzerland yet again but this time to the German-speaking area.</p>

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<p>dancingjuicedesu: I had read it in an NY Times article which I cannot link to, but you can find by googling: “The China Conundrum”, it’s the first result.</p>

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<p>@DMADL92: I’m glad :slight_smile: So after your return from both the two occasions, did you have to repeat a year in your school in Mexico to cope up with whatever you missed out on? Btw, what time will it be on your side when results come out? For me, its 2:30 AM :confused: And I’ll have to wake up in 4 hours and head to school to give an economics exam. Argh :/</p>

<p>@EmperorKong: That was one of the most eye-opening pieces of news I’ve ever read. Rather scared me too. But thanks a lot!</p>

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<p>@dancingjuicedesu. I actually didn’t have to repeat any years fortunately, but i AM one year behind most schools here in Mexico. We lose one year at my school because all kids need to take an English-only year if you’re entering from Kindergarden (my school goes from pk all the way through high school) and the Mexican Education Agency states we should have an extra year for the lack of Spanish. It’s a weird system, but most parents don’t mind their kids losing a year if it means an all-English education.
Good luck with the economic exam. It’s a pity about the time that you’ll find out though. I imagine you’ll be staying up anyway to find out? Haha. As for me, my time zone would normally be 3 pm, but i’m in las vegas right now, so it’ll be 1 pm. Less than 24 hours now :S</p>

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<p>Ohh, i see. But your English seems fine anyway. :slight_smile:
Thanks! Ofcourse I’ll stay up, can’t imagine checking it more than a second after it comes. Its after 1 pm on 15th here! Gooooooood luck when that happens on your side!</p>