Type of high school (or current college for transfers)
Similar to international school, but small size & runs on different schedule and semester
Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.)
None
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Applied FA for need blind colleges (Dartmouth, Amherst) and not for other schools
Intended Major(s)
Sociology, Philosophy
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.86
Weighted HS GPA: School doesn’t offer
Class Rank: School doesn’t offer
ACT/SAT Scores: 1510 SAT (720 EBRW, 790 M)
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
—> School offers 4 AP’s, received all As for them
History and social studies: Korean History, AP World History: Modern (4)
Language other than English: Korean, French
Visual or performing arts: Music, Fine Art
Other academic courses:
AP Microeconomics
Studied AP English Literature and Composition (4) and AP US History (4) myself
Awards
International Essay Competition 1 - High distinction (top 5%)
International Writing Competition 2 - 1st place (approx. 1000 participants)
International Writing Competition 3 - Prize for analytical writing
International Youth Journalism Competition - Finalist
School Writing & Presentation Competition 1 - 3rd place (10th grade), 2nd place (11th grade)
School Scholastic Excellence Award - Silver Medal (2nd place)
Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Nationwide LGBT Rights Alliance - Co-leader, gathered 1000+ signatures, set up a booth at the biggest LGBT rights venue in Korea
Student UNSC Research Program - Participated as a student researcher after a month of group discussion & learning sessions, research paper was presented at a student research platform
Youth Climate Change Rapporteur - Organized sessions with the former Minister of Environment, visited areas susceptible to climate change, wrote a final report on the climate crisis, which was published at environmental & climate change report platforms
Disability Rights Research - Interviewed multiple disability rights activists & human rights specialist, wrote a final report to be published on social issue-related platforms
Nationwide High School Joint Academic Conference - Representative keynote speaker for school
School Newspaper Club - Wrote articles to be selected in Youth Journalism Competition
School Political Philosophy Research Club
School Anthropology Club
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Essay: Wrote Common App essay about difficulties I had while leading LGBT rights group & linked it to personal growth while studying philosophy and sociology, which I think is pretty vivid and strong. I showed it to many teachers and other people, and got positive feedback.
LORs: Philosophy teacher (strong), English teacher (strong)
Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)
Does this mean you can afford full price at all the other schools?
If so, you’re unlikely to get much (if any) financial aid from any school.
If not, then how will you pay if you’re accepted to those schools?
Regarding your chances: you appear to be a competitive applicant, but admission rates for international students are in the low single digits at most of these schools.
Did you apply EA anywhere? If yes, what were the results?
Do you have an affordable fallback option in your home country or anywhere else?
And you won’t get a dime from the CA public universities…they don’t give aid to those who aren’t residents of CA. Unless your family can afford $75000 a year or more, you might want to remove those from consideration.
Many of the need aware schools on your list are going to be VERY costly. Are you sure your family can complete a certificate of finances detailing the money at hand to fund these colleges? You will need to do so to get a visa to study in the US.
I hope you have some affordable colleges in your home country.
And I’ll also add, IF by chance you do get a bachelors degree here, it is highly likely that you will be required to return to your home country after you get your bachelors degree.
Some of these colleges prefer one humanities and one STEM LOR. Yours are both humanities.
The California UC’s are test blind so your competitive SAT will not be considered for admissions or scholarship purposes, only for course placement.
Why apply for FA to only 2 schools? Do you need FA to make any of these schools affordable? The California UC’s are need blind but as noted they offer little to no financial aid to non-residents.
Overall you are a competitive applicant and you can probably can get an accepted in a couple of the UC’s but it does not make sense to apply to schools that will not be affordable if admitted.
Hello, thank you for your reply! Yes, my family can afford full price at other schools. We thought it would be rather difficult to pay for schools with over or near $90,000 for cost of attendance, so I applied for financial aid for Amherst College and Dartmouth, which are also need blind. Although UC schools and UMich are expensive, my parents thought that the schools are within the range that they are able to pay. Also, of the three Early Admission schools I applied to, I got into Rutgers, which my parents can pay for.
That’s great. You have an affordable option and acceptance.
Were any of your other EA schools similarly competitive to the remainder of your application list, and were you deferred, waitlisted or rejected. You really don’t have to say…but that might give you a teeny insight into your chances at the rest of your list.
Non-STEM majors only get one year of OPT and OPT has to be directly related to the major, which may make even utilizing that a little more difficult with a sociology major than some others might be.
Other than Rutgers, I applied only for almost the TOP institutions (Brown and UChicago), which I now regret… Maybe getting rejected to the two schools may give insight to other top colleges on the list. But I still had no idea for schools other than those that are still good but not as highly ranked. I know that some schools there are extremely hard for everyone to get into, but I think I also have schools that my SAT and GPA are within the typical accepted range. I wanted people to also look at my ECs, awards, and just general aspects, unlike things can be seen at college homepages, like only SAT and GPA.
Yes, I was aware of the things you mentioned. Still, I didn’t apply to any of the local schools or prepared for them. Although I was in Korea, I was preparing for international school admissions from when I was much younger, and so there currently is no way for me to go to a Korean school. For Korean college admissions, I should literally start from zero and study for Korean college entrance exam for years, aside from other preparation. That’s why I applied for US schools, and want people’s opinion on college chances.
Would you be happy with Rutgers if that is all you end up being accepted at? Or Irvine or possibly Davis?
As others have indicated, most of those schools have low admit rates for internationals so any chancing is of necessity going to be “a low chance”. Which is not to say you won’t get into any, but that you shouldn’t really expect it.
I assume you know the California schools are test blind so your SAT won’t help there.
Are you applying /did you appy to any UK or Australian universities?
I’d be very happy if I get into UC Irvine or UC Davis. Rutgers is fine too. If only I could get in there, UIUC, UNC Chapel Hill or UMich would be fantastic. Also, no, I didn’t apply to UK or Australian colleges.
If you are happy with the current sure thing and the couple most likely on your list and they are affordable, then that’s great and anything else is a bonus.
Not looking up about and applying ED for the three schools is another thing I regret about… I initially wasn’t thinking much of the colleges I mentioned, and was thinking of Tufts or Rochester instead, due to others’ recommendation. In late December, I got into Rutgers, which is a #41 school according to US News. I then removed Tufts and Rochester, which are of similar rank to Rutgers from the same source, and then started to put UIUC, UMich, and UNC Chapel Hill into consideration. Since I applied to and got interested in them pretty late, I also want some insight on my chances for the schools.
Thank you for your reply. Would it be possible for you to specify which aspect of my admission info made you think UNC Chapel Hill will be more of a long shot than UIUC? While UNC Chapel Hill has a lower acceptance rate, UIUC’s SAT range is slightly higher. Since my SAT score isn’t that high, I thought UIUC would be more difficult than UNC Chapel Hill.
UIUC admits by major and the sociology and philosophy are not particularly competitive there. They also admit a lot of international students. UNC does not admit by major and accepts the large majority of their students in state.
UNC has a cap on the %age of out of state students it accepts. It’s a VERY hard admit for out of state students…and even harder for international ones.