A few questions....

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi there,</p>

<p>I'm Louise and I'm a junior living in Belgium. Next year, I will try to apply to an Ivy League school ( I don't know yet which one is the best for me ). I do n't know I'm good enough, but I will definitely try ( you never know... ). This are the most important things you have to know about me; </p>

<p>Objectif;</p>

<p>GPA; 4.0 ( my school doesn't offer but I calculate it on internet )
Rank; 1%-5% </p>

<p>Didn't take SAT, SAT11 and TOEFL yet.</p>

<p>Subjectif;</p>

<p>EC's; </p>

<p>Dance</p>

<p>-9 years in a professional dansacademy ) hiphop/tap/ballet/jazz and some other styles )
-did several performences for more than 2000 people each time
-was the leader/finder of a dansgroup ( and choreographe ) for 10 years and did a lot of performances with my group
-played the leading part in a musical</p>

<p>Alpine ski</p>

<p>-lessons for 3 years
-experience for 9 years
( black piste + freestyle )
-highest skigroup + all the alpine ski brevets ( even in skischools in Italy!!)</p>

<p>Waterski;</p>

<p>-experience for 6 years ( classic waterski, monoski/slalom, figure ski, wakeboard )
-all the waterskibrevets and swimming brevets ( I can also swim pretty well )</p>

<p>Tennis</p>

<p>-2 years experience and lessons
( not that long, but I learn the technic really fast )
- I also run a lot </p>

<p>Scouts</p>

<p>-2 years christian girls scouts</p>

<p>Reading</p>

<p>-reading a lot in all the languages I understand ( dutch, french, english, greek, latin, spanish ) and I mail a lot with people around the world in those languages for discovering their culture
-I'm in the jury for a national book contest</p>

<p>Youth town council</p>

<p>-I've beem the youth town council of our village ( I've been elected to a mayor through some votings, I got up a team together and have been elected to the leader of the groupe. Together we worked on a project we chose about the safety in our village especially around the schools. After months of round out the project, I had to debate with other groupes of adults, I won the debate. After winning this, I also gave some lectures about my project. Eventually, my project is been used in several villages and it really worked )</p>

<p>Others</p>

<p>I did a lot of excursions in my life and I'm really passionated by astronomy and history ( searched a lot of things about these on the internet and read a lot of books but nothing really special )</p>

<p>( I am pretty good at all my sports, but I do none of them on competition level, just recreating or sometimes interclub contests )</p>

<p>Summer activities;</p>

<ul>
<li>Did more than 15 sportstages ( see the sports above ) </li>
<li>selfstudy spanish</li>
<li>each day I was free I waterskied</li>
</ul>

<p>Honors</p>

<ul>
<li>3rd place on a ski contest ( not a big one )
-finaliste of national math olympiad
-2 times school winner of another math olympiad
-1st place of regional writing contest</li>
</ul>

<p>Job/workexperience;</p>

<p>None</p>

<p>Volunteer;</p>

<p>-helped young kids with reading
-my hole life ( as far as I can remember ) I do tasks for older/people in need of help
-I gave extra lessons to several people
-I was a member of the students council of our school for 3 years</p>

<p>So, that's it. It is probably not the best apply you've ever seen, but I just do all these things with love and I haven't think a minute on what would be great on my common app by doing these things. Now, I have a few questions for you guys.</p>

<p>1) Based on what person you think I am, which college would fit the best?
2) Do I make any chance? Even this chance is really little, I will try haha
3) Are there any advantages for international students like me?
4) If I would apply to more than 1 college, may I use the same recommodations, essays, .....
5) What could I do to make my application more attractive? ( I mean things that give some depth to my activities, I will only do things I love and I'm passionated by, otherwise I don't put effort in it )</p>

<p>I think these are the only questions I have so far. Hopefully, some of you will answer them!</p>

<p>( I'm sorry for all the english typos in this message, I've still got to work on that!)</p>

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<p>3) If you can pay for your education, that would be a plus. Internationals who don’t need financial aid get an advantage sometimes.</p>

<p>4) Recommendations: yes. Essay: depends. For general questions, like “Why do you want to go into [insert field here]?,” sure, reuse essays. For “Why do you want to go to Yale?” – no. You need to tailor those types of essays to the school in particular.</p>

<p>5) High SATs, TOEFL, etc. (“SAT II” is not the same thing as “SAT 11”–the I is actually a capital i, by the way)
Look into AP tests? Perhaps you could self-study.
Your ECs / volunteer work looks fairly impressive to me. Very selfless.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for your answer. Yeah, I do a lot of things and I’m quite good at them but I don’t play games with others or there’s nothing that makes me “special” (in my eyes)</p>

4

<p>Ohh I need FA in the highest catagory haha. We are not poor or something but I have a brother and a sister so I definitely need it, but are the applications of these schools not need-blinded? And are there somethings from my first post I schouldn’t mention on my application? Thank you!</p>

5

<p>So you think my EC’s/volunteer work is not that good? :/</p>

6

<p>Realize that need blind is defined by the need the college thinks you have, not what your family is willing to pay. So you might use one of the Net Price Calculators one college site. I don’t think it is intended for internationals, but maybe it works for both. At least you will get an idea what an American family would be expected to pay given a certain amount of assets and income. The schools will not be too concerned about brother and sister except at a basic level of family expenses.</p>

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<p>Ok, thank you a lot! This information is very usefull!</p>

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<p>Your chances at all these schools highly depend on your SAT and other test scores, if you’re a junior applying this year you need to get on that ASAP! than you’ll know if applying would be worth the shot. other than that you seem like a solid candidate!</p>

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<p>No, I will apply for the class of 2019. I think my test scores will be fine, but not a 2400. I think the SAT wil be around 2100, because English isn’t my native language. Thank you for your answer!</p>

10

<p>You can be 4.0 and SAT of 2400 and most Ivy’s, if not all, are a reach for anyone. So no, not a good chance. Not saying don’t try but have a couple safties. </p>

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<p>Ok, thank you for your answer! Where do you think I can work on my application?</p>

12

<p>Typically, an international applicant would apply to a LOT of schools (more than what American candidates would) because odds are so low due to financial need. Your odds at an Ivy are probably 1 in 30, for instance. Look at the Top 100 universities and the Top 100 LACs and see if you could get some merit aid; look at the financial aid forum’s sticky threads on automatic and competitive scholarships.</p>

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<p>The Ivies give the best financial aid, don’t they? I thought they give more money than any other college in the US because they’re that rich.</p>

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<p>Yes, if admitted they give a lot. It is just very difficult to get that admission. </p>

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<p>But @MYOS1634‌ said that my chances to get admitted probably are 1/30. I think that is pretty much, isn’t it? And @BrownParent‌ do you think I have any chance to get admitted in one of these schools? Thank you for your answer!</p>

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<p>peterslouise - Yale gets about 30,000 applications of which perhaps half are truly competitive. About 100 foreign students are admitted each year. These students are the absolute top students from their country’s. Your chance for entry is probably closer to 1:30,000. I also think that given your English writing skills you will have a very tough time at Yale and it will be stressful. The successful internationals applicants who post on the Yale CC threads usually write like native speakers.</p>

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</p>

<p>This POV is a sure-fire path to rejection.
You need to do significant research on each school you might be interested in and be able to articulate what <em>specifically</em> about that particular school is signficant to you from an academic perspective.</p>

<p>“I want to go to your school because you provide a lot of scholarship money” is pretty much an application-killer.</p>

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