African student big challenge!

TrackBabi17
Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:52:55 +0000

All I know is that when I saw that you’re from Senegal, I was surprised. I don’t know any international students from Francophone Africa who are undergrads at Cornell. It will be interesting to have that perspective in the African/Black American community.

Though your scores are low in the SATs I urge you to apply anyway if you have the means. For a person to know English in Senegal I know that they would have to have some cultural or financial wealth that bought them a good education. A background that would carry you through Cornell.

I don’t think many know how different an international student from Senegal is from other international students even African students. In Senegal the main language is French as opposed to Nigeria and Ghana where it is English. Not everyone speaks French but if one were to learn a Western language in school it would be French, to learn English I would bet you’d need some further, outside education.

I know in China and South Korea the main language is not English, but those countries have a lot more educational resources for their citizens that Senegal does not have. It is normal for students from there to aspire to US Ivys so there are prep classes available for admissions. In Senegal, I doubt that is widely available.

The admissions office takes things like this into consideration, reviewing applicants individually. Don’t ever let someone tell you not to apply anywhere, just do it. Taking advice is alright, but these people do not hold and are not going to live your future for you so do not make your decisions based off of their biased opinions.