Chance me + recommend schools plz?

Chance Me / Match Me
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SAT I (breakdown): 1480 (700R, 780M)
SAT II: 740 Math II, 680 Biology [should I send these scores?]
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6/57
AP (place score in parenthesis): None offered until this year
Senior Year Course Load: Civics, Physics, AP Calc AB, Advanced Wrt/Speech, Bible 12, Span II, Orchestra
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nope, just school awards - principal’s award [11], honors roll [9,10,11], math department award [9, 11]

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Orchestra 9-12

Varsity Cross Country 10-12

Class Spiritual Vice President 9?-12

Humane Society Volunteering Club 11-12

Co-Life project 12 → I do this by myself, but should I state that on the common app or would they notice I’m doing this alone since I’m spending a lot of time on this?

NHS 11,12

Other stuff that I didn’t include in common app: band[11], girls club international representative[10]
[Question: Do I have to write a resume when I’m basically restating things I wrote on the common app?]

Job/Work Experience: nada

Volunteer/Community service: Summer activities #1 + school activities + Extracurricular #

Summer Activities: 1. volunteering at the animal shelter [9-11] :3 at least 100+ hrs but not recorded since its a private shelter
2. house chores + cooking dinner [10,11] mama gone missing hohoho… well not really but she left
and my dad is old so gotta work work work!
3. Toefl!!! [9,10] SAT!!! [11]
4. Church orchestra [9,10,11] : violin ヽ(´∀｀ヽ)
5. Teen KARA [11]: this is a teen animal activists program KARA (Korean animal rights advocate) has
started this year! I think the acceptance rate was somewhere around 25~35%. Surprised, but not
really since KARA is one of the most well known Animal rights org in Korea. was BLESSED to be a
part of this group.
6. Participated in a rally against dog & cat meat consumption[11]
7. Spoke as a citizen representative at the cultural festival against dog meat - “Go away, dog days” -
held by KARA and Korean Animal Welfare Association. [11]

Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common app essay about a significant event! Wrote about the day when I got to know there were several puppy mills around the shelter I volunteer at, and one dog meat restaurant near the bus stop I use to go back home. Eye opening event for me that things I read on the book and see on the TV are things that are real and exist very near to me. —> Don’t know how the college peeps will react to this but I spent a lot of time on this and this was the incident that ignited the passion I had for animal burn again so… ya.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): No idea how the recs are.¯_(ツ)_/¯ Waived my right to read
Teacher Rec #1: Got from Junior year math teacher! (Had four classes with him: Bible 11, Civics 1 semester, World History 1 semester, Precalculus)
Teacher Rec #2: English teacher! Had her for my freshman year, junior year, and this year!
Counselor Rec: Gah. No idea. Hopefully good.
Additional Rec: So far no, but I really want to get one from my music teacher! He’s my orchestra conductor and one of the teachers I’m really close with. Should I get one from him? He said he will write me one if I ask him but I don’t know if the colleges will want it.

Other: I listed Summer activities #5,6,7 on the other and the Honors orchestra on here too!
Also added some info about my 9th grade year in Korea. (Technically I graduated middle school at 9th grade but then
y’all start high school at 9th grade so… explained about that one.)

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes.
Intended Major and College: Bio [Philosophy and Environmental studies second choice!]
Country (if international applicant): COREA MIS AMIGASSS
School Type: Christian boarding school. Rural. Washington state
Female
Income Bracket: > $60,000 combined a year
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): NADA

I have Amherst, Williams, Brown, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Colby, Emory, Hamilton, Middlebury, Grinnell, Colgate, Union, Kenyon, U. Richmond on my list right now (Yes… I am well aware that most of them are reach)

Would you please recommend me some more colleges that provide financial aid for international students?

I don’t really care about the location, as long as there are transportations available to the students.
Prefer small schools but big schools eh. Fine with me as long as the faculty student ratio is low.
Academics matter but to be honest, I feel like academics in any top 100 universities will challenge you to learn.

Student body atmosphere: collaborative>competition [hate rankings! hate competition! ERGH]; engaged; diverse; and I would love it to be a place where I can find women role models! It was kinda sad when few women professors listed on one of the college booklet were all associate professors while the male professors surrounding their picture were all professors… like what in the world… is there any women professor in your college? (Well, why be surprised. Donna Strickland was an associate professor when she received the nobel prize.)

I know you won’t, but please no ivy school recommendations… I placed brown on the list because of their focus on undergrads and also because I resonated with their mission statement. Cornell was the other school that I really loved their mission and their focus but, ED, rejected. BAAM. So yeah.

Thanks for reading this!
Few hours past my bed time so I might have some few weird mistakes in here like Idk… writing down pastor for professor…?
Gah, I need to sleep. Bye. And Thank you for whatever advice you’ll jottle down for me!

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Oh and I also talked about my family situation briefly in the [other] section about why I had to do the house chores, and that I’m not sure if I’ll continue to do next year or not depending on how things go. And the extracurricular I placed in for volunteer part is the humane society club. Okay, I’m really going to bed now. BYE!

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I’d say you’d be competitive for Smith, Mt Holyoke (they need violin players desperately by the way), Grinnell (they seem to like Washington State in admissions), University of Richmond (also like musicians). You have great ECs and I think you have a decent shot at all of your schools (I would not send subject tests). Instead of a rec from Orch conductor why don’t you send in a recording or video of a solo piece?

I’d also look at St Olaf…not sure on FA but you’d be a great fit with your music background and I’m certain you’d get a fair amount of merit there and perhaps a music scholarship (Last year my D got a 12K music plus a big merit award)…maybe Lawrence University as well. Good luck!

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@Veryapparent Thank you for your advice! I appreciate it :slight_smile:

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What about University of Washington?

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UW is a state school, and getting financial aid is impossible as an international student. There are merit based, but those spot seemed to be too competitive. I need to have a steady source for aid so… It’s sad. It’s a great school tho!!

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St. Olaf is a great suggestion.

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@Otterma Thank you for your suggestion! May I ask you why you think St. Olaf will be a good school to look into? Aside of it being a match school for me, is there other reason you recommend St. Olaf? Thank you! :slight_smile:

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St Olaf is excellent in both math and science (not sure if you mentioned where you were leaning). Its a very well regarded LAC with an extremely strong music program (about 1/3 of school participates in some sort of music). It is a great school for anyone but you mention a spiritual background in your ECs so I think you’d enjoy the culture there (though it is not overly religious by any stretch). My daughter and I visited twice and I have to say every single person we encountered there was kind polite and well spoken. The campus is quite beautiful and its just a 3 hour flight from SeaTac (not sure where you are in Washington) and then an easy 40 minute drive to campus. The small town of Northfield has an adorable downtown with little shops and restaurants.

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@Veryapparent Biology and philosophy! Wow, that’s a big population of student body to participate in music program. That’s nice. :smiley: My highschool is 40 minutes away from SeaTac but I’ll be going straight to college from Korea so I guess the location won’t matter that much to me… It’s still a long way away from home lol. I’m not sure if I’ll stay religious as I was in the past when I go to college since I want to look into more religions and meet up with more people from other religion but your comment definitely makes St. Olaf a very attractive option! Thanks again! :slight_smile:

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Veryapparent summed it up nicely. The school would also meet your criteria of having a collaborative student body.

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By the way Glowoh I think Mt Holyoke would also be a great place for you. My daughter is there. Nice international population and very strong sciences. Very collaborative.

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Check out University of Rochester. I got in ED, and am an International from Canada. They give out generous financial aid and the Eastman School of Music is globally ranked. I am waiting to hear back from Eastman for the Dual Degree program.

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What about Eckerd College? We seem to be interested in a lot of the same schools, and I had some people recommend it to me a while back and I thought it seemed really nice (just a little far from my family for my liking, or I would have applied!)

Other ideas:
William and Mary
Macalaster College
College of Wooster
Davidson College
Denison (they’re also GREAT with aid, I’ve heard!)

Good luck in your college search :slight_smile:

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@Veryapparent thank you so much for your comments! I really appreciate it! Yeah, Mt Holyoke seems to be a really nice school :slight_smile:

@barts88 ooh thank you! Rochester is definitely a great school but some reason I dropped it out from the list… i think it was the financial stuff but now that you talk about it, I’ll look more into this school!

@bonjour1 thank you for your suggestions! Good to know other people with similat school ideas :slight_smile: I’ll definitely check out Eckerd! Thanks for other suggestions too!

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The University of Rochester seems somewhat noncommittal with respect to aid for international students:

@Glowoh: I hope you continue to research UR for further information. I certainly wouldn’t rule the school out unless you become sure it would be unaffordable for you.

I’m glad things worked out well for you, though, @barts88, and good luck with Eastman!

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@Glowoh: Overall, you have indicated nice accomplishments that match your ambitious college list. Best of luck to you!

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@merc81 Thank you for the comment! Yes, I checked out UR’s website again, and I think they favor(?) Canadian and Mexican students when it comes to financial aid. I’ll look more into it!