<p>International (central Europe, currently not US resident), </p>
<p>applying for financial aid</p>
<p>Currently soph</p>
<p>GPA fresh: 3.87 mid-year, 3.73 final
Soph: 3.6 (i know, low, but I changed school), ??? (expect 3.6 - 3.7)</p>
<p>EC’s: Founder and leader of ecological club at our school (1st year)
Member of European club at another school (1st year)
Interested in US law, international relations (3 years )</p>
<p>This year expected: school magazine editor
member of debate and discussion club </p>
<p>Expected summer activities:</p>
<p>Olomouc summer institute (=governors school - global issues, politology)
Vienna International Model of United Nations</p>
<p>SAT’s not taken yet, but expect over 730 each exam</p>
<p>Stel, I’d say you’d be a good accept at Lawrenceville. Not so sure about Exeter and Choate. Actually… I think you should apply to at least 10 schools. 12 grade is one of the hardest years. I’m not sure if it’s harder than eleventh. Don’t look upon this like you’re applying to ninth grade. It’s much harder in 12th.</p>
<p>i think both of u are way too optimistic…
i m not seeing much chance in all 3</p>
<p>applying for fin aid, not exactly steller GPA, decent but not amazing SATs, typical ECs plus applying for 12th grade; these all go against the OP</p>
<p>stelmaria: Quite frankly, your chances for grade 12 at as a financial aid requiring international applicant to exeter are zero. Forget it. Where your chances are not zero is to mount a strong application to Princeton/Yale/harvard right from where you are in Prague. A dutch girl “Flowertje” with approximately your credentials managed to get very strong support from her ‘gymnasium’ and applied and got into Princeton, Yale, Williams and university of Pennsylvania. She had quite good English, and good but not stellar SAT’s. Check out her odyssee by using the search function to find posts by “flowertje”. Because all majore US places have departments of Slavic languages to keep alive they will look at strong applicants from Eastern Europe very hard. To my certain knowledge Harvard, yale . princeton and Williams are need blind for internationals. If you get in you will get all the money you need. </p>
<p>You need 1. to put yourself into the top 5 % of your current school. 2.To find a mentor --teacher, rector , conrector, who can wrote for you. 3. to eat, sleep and dream in English–there is no reason you cannot read 2-3 books a week 4. get your French, Latin etc to a functional state, 5 have a demonstrable strong interest in something like music, or international affairs.</p>
<p>This is a tall but not impossible order. Its been done before by people just like yourself. Go for it. As a fallback position I would apply to Oxford. You never know where you might get lucky.</p>
<p>At the risk of becoming a bore, here are the posted CC statisics for "flowertje’ who managed a virtual clean sweep of Ivy applications in 2006. Although, to my taste, she sometimes laid it on with a trowel, the approach obviously worked. </p>
<p>my stats are a bit different since i’m an international, but here they come:
Stats:
Fee Waiver Used?: No
SAT I (by section): Cr 800, m 720 wr 680 (2200) one sitting
SAT IIs: Latin 770 Math 2 760 bio m 730
GPA 8.7/10 in the netherlands this is extremely high
Rank:1/116
Senior Yr Courseload: Most rigorous, 10 courses of which 5 different languages (dutch, english, german, french and latin)
Number of Apps from Your School: NONE, first ever to get into and ivy leage! And i got into 4!!</p>
<p>Other stats: </p>
<p>Subjective:
ECs listed on app: Student council president, student representative in school board, Theater course of 6 houres a week for three years at local college, photography, tutoring, debating team, tennis
Job/Work Experience: tutoring, amnesty international 8 hours/week
Essays (subject and responses): common about why I love learning
foreign languages, how I discovered my love and how I use my skills, I believe it was very good. Supplement about my passion for Photography, also good.They were both very personal and me!
Teacher Recs: Haven’t read them but I think they were very good and one of the top few of my career stuff (they told me some parts), they all know me very well
Counselor Rec: very good, also top of career and she knows me very well as well
Interview (feel and general location):wasn’t offered one!
Hook (if any): 5 languages and 800cr as an international? I sent in a good photography portfolio as well</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: The Netherlands
School Type, Public, one of the best in my country and very comprehensive
Ethnicity: White
Income Bracket: <50.000
Gender: Female
Strengths/Weaknesses: languages, very heavy course load, good photography portfolio and good recommendations and essays/ very low GPA compared to american students and no outstanding Ec’s and jobs</p>
<p>I think you should at least apply to safeties that aren’t mentioned on this board. Blair applied to Tabor, though I’m not sure this was a safety as much as she liked it … J (prettyckitty) applied to Concord. However, J was only applying for 9th grade. It’ll be harder in 12th. Much harder. You’ll need 4.0 GPAs and 99% SSATs to get into the top, top schools …</p>
<p>I agree with bearcats, actually. Apply to 10 schools.</p>
<p>This will help you determine your chances and help you with the application process:</p>
<p>What do you have that Exeter, Lawrenceville, and Choate want that they do not already have, and will they pay $40,000 and sacrifice a spot that a top athlete could’ve taken (incoming seniors and PG’s are mostly athlete recruits)?</p>
<p>I don’t know you, or what you have to offer, but honestly ask yourself if you:</p>
<p>a) have what it takes (many of the incoming kids have easy 4.0’s at home and then struggle to get a C+ when the arrive),
b) is this best for your needs and college placement prospects,
c) what do Exeter/L’ville/Choate have that you can’t get somewhere else,
d) what would you offer to the community (they have plenty of paying internationals)
e) are you ready to live in a different hemisphere away from family, friends, and everything you’ve known</p>
<p>Again, I don’t know. You seem great, and I’m sure theres something that you could offer to the community… this is what they said about me (I was accepted for 11th grade):</p>
<p>Exeter liked that I had “an inquiring mind” (definitely from my essay) and that I was someone who “loves to debate” (though I’ve never done any official debating, I think they could tell that I was opinionated from the recs and my essay). They also seemed impressed by my riding ribbons (accompanied by my equestrian therapy volunteering) and pegged me “an equestrian enthusiast from California.”</p>
<p>Just try to sum up yourself in a few sentences in this format… what would they be impressed with?</p>
<p>i applied to deerfield for 9th grade & got rejected. my stats were pretty good in my opinion, but not quite different from the rest of their “typical” applicants. you need something extremely unique about yourself to get in. i agree w/ blairt & bearcats.</p>