Chances? Top Universities.

k9scaevola
Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:40:36 +0000

GPA:
Our school does not have any GPA system in place…we don’t have class ranking as well. During school exams however, I get straight A’s (highest grade is A not A+)

SAT Reasoning Test: 2050; 690 CR/720 M/640 W with a 10 on essay; first sitting
SAT Math I: 680 (dunno what happened there)
SAT Physics: 740 (dunno either)
IELTS: overall band of 8.0
Application Essays: Strong
Teacher References: Strong, I think

AP:
None offered at my school.
IGCSE:
7 IGCSE’s with A*'s in Physics, Biology and English and A’s in Math, Chemistry, Accounting and Information and Communication Technology (self-studied all in 9th grade; got accelerated to 11th grade)
A Levels:
4 A Levels with A’s in Math and Physics and B’s in Chemistry and Biology
1 AS Level with an A in AS English

*My school sends very few students to top unis eg., 2 got into University of Toronto.

EC:
Head Boy in Senior Year; Duties include organizing on-school and off-school events and activities, liase between students and teachers and organize the school prefects.
Prefect in Freshman and Junior; duties are the same as above except for the last one.
Guitar Club in Junior Year; didn’t have any band leader. Our instructor was an advocate for member equality.

Additional Info:
Nationality: Filipino
Ethnicity: Asian
Current Residence: Kuwait
Net Income: Low
Gap Year: Yes
Applying for Financial Aid: Yes

Applying to:
Yale
MIT
Cornell
Brown
Duke
Johns Hopkins
NYU
HKUST
Nanyang (thinking about it)
University of Toronto


Biomedical Engineering 1st choice
Aeronautics and Aerospace Engineering (if available) 2nd Choice
Actuarial Science (if available) 3rd choice


As for the gap year, here’s a little history. I got accepted to Imperial College London - Biomedical Engineering - this year but the economic recession in Europe forced the university to increase tuition fees for international students. Living expenses are high and no financial aid given. Scholarships are a joke; they don’t even cover half of the tuition fees for one year. So, I just started applying to the US last October.

There aren’t much EC’s because I’ve been changing schools a lot and my parents couldn’t afford the extra expenses for activities like piano classes, theater, etc. In addition, varsity and out-of-school clubs competitions were almost always held during exams. Members were required to participate regardless so, didn’t even bother with that. I’m planning to volunteer for UNESCO, Red Cross and Cancer Aware Nation and maybe take a graphics design job in advertising and (a long shot) intern at an architectural firm. I’m gonna study BASIC and C# as well.