Remote Countries

shore · 05-25-2008, 10:43 AM

Hey, I live in Papua New Guinea (PNG) a remote island bordering Indonesia and north of Australia. It is so backward you can't send text messages and broadband was introduced this year and we only have dial-up. Electricity goes out every two days and we have 1 national channel. The very very brightest go to a mediocre Australian uni.

But I got into Phillips Academy Andover in USA and was a straight A student who was very active in a prestigious Australian high school.

My question is: How much of an advantage or a help will PNG be if at all, in helping me get admitted into Harvard etc?

Thanks

tetrisfan · 05-25-2008, 10:56 AM

I don't think there are too many kids from there at H, so I suppose it will help. If you do well at Phillips (congratulations!), you will definitely increase your chances by a lot for all the prestigious schools.

nickybol · 05-25-2008, 01:12 PM

It will definitely be a plus if you are able to show that you have overcome your difficult situation. Greetings from Holland ... we colonised your country until 1963... although most of are not very proud of what we did there...

imihan · 05-25-2008, 02:41 PM

it will help u a lot...i come from a remote country too...wish u the best.

shore · 05-25-2008, 11:18 PM

No hard feelings Holland. The people don't like the Japanese though. No, I don't think anyone from Papua New Guinea has gone to Harvard but I have no idea...But as an indicator when I applied to Choate Rosemary on the Internet, on their application page they give you a database on countries to pick where you live and they didn't have PNG!!!

So I should definitely do my essay on PNG? Also how hard is the GPA? Like I don't fully comprehend the system and I'm wondering how would the GPA scores be like at a school like Andover? Like for example:

Top 5% gets 4.0, top 5-15% gets 3.8-3.9 etc

nickybol · 05-26-2008, 03:40 AM

Well, PNG is not listed in this document: http://www.hio.harvard.edu/about_hio...School0708.pdf so I suppose there are not students from PNG at Harvard .... yet.

shore · 05-26-2008, 06:33 AM

Oh hopefully I'll be the 1st

And does anyone know about the GPA?

1544us · 05-26-2008, 09:33 AM

What nationality are you? Were you born there?

shore · 05-26-2008, 11:06 AM

I'm Indian, but have lived there since I was 2-3 months old. Does that classify?

laststopforme · 05-26-2008, 03:57 PM

So is your citizenship from PNG?

shore · 05-26-2008, 10:52 PM

umm, I don't have a PNG passport but I'm a permanent resident...

Does that count? I know this seems extreme but should I apply for a PNG citizenship as I'd easily get it having lived there for like 15 years.

fauve · 05-27-2008, 04:49 PM

No, because your ethnicity will still be Indian, no matter what your citizenship. If you try to disguise yourself as a different race, you will be misleading admissions and that would be fraudulant (and allow you to be subject to denial, expulsion etc.) Read the fine print in the applications about lying/deception: colleges have the right to oust you at any time, or take away your degree after graduation upon discovery of misleading statements on your application.

shore · 05-27-2008, 10:11 PM

Well, I never put down Islander as an ethnicity but I can say I'm Papua New Guinean because I have lived there my whole life and it has thoroughly moulded me?

shore · 05-27-2008, 10:13 PM

I always pu Indian as ethicity, but I say in interviews PNG has completely moulded me (and it truly has). Is that okay?

fauve · 05-27-2008, 10:22 PM

Definitely. And your upbringing in PNG would be a fascinating topic for one of the essays.