silkweed

Hello,

I'm British - been living stateside for four years. I've applied to six British universities, but in case that doesn't work out I'm also applying to some American ones.

I'm in Virginia, so I'm planning to apply to UVA, William and Mary, and UNC as I know these well. However, I was wondering if you could help me build a list of safety/match/reach schools in the US. Preferably on the east coast.

Stats:

GPA - 4.0 weighted, 3.9 unweighted (one B in ninth grade!) will be above a 4.0 by graduation.
SAT- took the old one twice, then took the new one twice. Have 620 Maths/ 700 Verbal / 760 Writing = 2080.
ACT- 31 composite.
Rank - 1/243.

Courses:

9th ---
Adv. English, Algebra I, Adv. Earth Science, Creative Writing, Keyboarding, World History I, French II, Health + Gym
10th ---
Adv. English, Geometry, Adv. Bio, World History II, French III, Health + Gym
11th ---
Adv. English, Algebra II, Adv. Chem, AP US History, French IV, Latin I
12th --
AP English Lit, Precalc, Physics, AP French, Latin II, Dual Enrollment US/VA Gvt.

- Dual Enrollment is a VA thing - it's college credit offered through a community college when the school doesn't offer AP. Our school offers very few APs, especially in the humanities/arts.
- Also planning to take an Intro Italian college class at a local college in VA in Spring 2006.

AP Tests:
US History - 5
I will take AP English Lit/ AP French Language. Will hopefully do well on the exams as I am going to be made offers on them by UK universities.

SAT IIs:
US History - 720
Will take French and Literature in January. May also take World History.

Awards/Honours/Extracuricculars:

- National Latin Exam - perfect score, 1% of all test takers internationally acheived this. Will be taking it again for Level 2 this year.
- Outstanding US History student award (ironic!).
-First place in Chem science fair locally, regionally, and specially asked to attend state competition.
- Academic letter for honour roll
- French Club member for years.
- Film society member.
- Now one of the two officers ("co-president") for our school French Honours Society.
- Also Latin Club Member, and Beta Club member (community service/ academic honours club).
-Contributed to creation of high school literary magazine, also founded/co-edited another lit. mag.
- Should receive a VA Govenor's Seal / also should be a VA Early College Scholar.

- Have got very nice recommendations from teachers thus far.
- Will be applying to do English Lit. at university as a major, and a foreign language minor. Being British, though, I'm not sure which schools are known to have good English departments here.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Doogie311

THAT IS SO AWESOME STATESIDE!

Yes!!! Dude, you made my day. Tony Blair is the man btw! Props to your homeland from New York!!

silkweed

Thanks.

Does anyone else have any advice/ thoughts/ suggestions?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Andi0rz

Have you looked at Brown, Harvard, or Yale? Those might be reach schools, but I think you have a definite chance of getting in if you get good recommendations and write good essays. Yale's prompts are a bit bland, though. I haven't looked at Harvard or Brown's, but I expect they're bland too. I'm used to reading UChicago's questions about jars of mustards and sticking minds...heh.

Your awards/acclimations definitely make you stand out academically. While I was reading them, I was a bit intimidated, actually. The fact that you're British also makes you stand out, and colleges definitely like that.

But, if you can apply to the UK Universities, I don't think you should have any problem with the US Universities. I nearly peed my pants when I read the Oxford/Cambridge applications.

silkweed

I applied to Oxford and it was the most stressful application; I was up until early in the morning, on the day I had to send it off, working on it. I am now preparing as best as possible for the interview (supposing I get one). I love Oxford (the city) and naturally adore the university, so fingers crossed, although it's an incredible reach.

I have thought about applying to a few top tier schools as reaches. The fact that each school requires different essays (and sometimes several!) makes the process quite time consuming! I hope the prompts are somewhat interesting. For British universities, they just wanted one personal statement to 'sell yourself'.

Thanks for your responce!