<p>I got into UChicago and MIT! I’m really happy but I’m sad at the same time. My best friend got rejected from both schools. She just moved to the US for 2 years and English is her second language. But she works VERY HARD. We founded a club, started our own business, and volunteered together. Basically our resumes look the same (except I did something else for 4 years and she only got 2 years).</p>
<p>I guess part of the reason that she got rejected is because of the class rank and test score. She got 1720 on SAT and 26 on ACT. I think it is pretty good for a foreigner. But do colleges consider this factor?</p>
<p>She came from Japan and the grading system is very different, and her school tends to have really hard finals (they have no extra credit or stuff like that, final exam grade=grade for the class) to prepare them for college entrance examinations. It is possible that no one got A in the class (they have no curve), and she got some Bs and Cs.</p>
<p>But she really shows her true ability in the US, she got 4.3 GPA for her junior year and approximately 4.5 for her senior 1st semester. However, our school ranked students according to their 9-12 grades, her grades in Japan made a huge difference and she ranked 30% in our class.</p>
<p>I really want to do something for her. She deserves to go to good college. I’m now trying to find some good colleges that would fit her. Can you guys give me some suggestions? Please, I really want to help her!!!</p>
<p>Colleges do consider foreigners and their background and understand that they won’t have as strong reading/writing skills on the SATs as native English speakers. (That’s why they look holistically and want to know your background). They do look at the TOEFL, I’m not sure if that’s a good score as I am unfamiliar with it.</p>
<p>Oh, poor girl! I’d just try to spend some time with her. When I was 100% sure I’d be rejected, my friend planned to take me out skiing . Winter break is coming up, probably, and the weekend anyway, so just, I don’t know, hugs and take her to lunch or something.</p>
<p>They do look at background. At the end of the day, though, there is a certain level of competence in English needed to attend MIT no matter how smart you are. (Not to imply that this was the problem with your friend’s application. I don’t know her.)</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is true or not. But would she have a higher chance to get admitted if she chooses majors like “East Asian Studies” rather than popular majors like econ? (for any other schools)</p>
<p>First, I should say I feel sorry for your friend and you too, EdwardJ.</p>
<p>Well I would say that TOEFL iBT < 90 (or PBT < 570) will get her into trouble. But that’s the minimum, and standing on the cliff is way too dangerous. I would recommend something higher, 100+ iBT or 600+ PBT. Though she may show her effort, passion, etc, if she doesn’t get the competence in English (I mean standard English, just to talk and write effectively so that people can easily understand, and to keep up with the pace of the lecturer, not something higher like SAT), then, to be honest, being rejected is no surprise, especially when the intended major is business.</p>
<p>So the only thing she can do is to improve her TOEFL score. Of course, to MIT, TOEFL + 2 SAT II + background + … is enough, but for the other prestigious university, SAT is important. But right now, you should “draw her out” of the room, because continuing with the application at this time is useless and just submerges her into sadness. Give her hope, inspire her :)</p>
<p>Btw, I don’t think choosing another major which seems to be easier will give her an edge. Passion is important, and that’s the only thing that can motivate her.</p>
<p>I think the best way to explain to her is that UofC and MIT are not the only school in the nation. I am pretty sure that there are state schools that would be glad to accept her. Since she is still struggling with English, why not attend a local/state school first? I do not mean to offend her in any way. But, sometimes we have make reality checks. And there was a lady that got into Harvard from one of our(Orlando) local/state schools. Although the lady in the article has nothing to do with business.</p>
<p>I completely understand how the process goes. as i am an immigrant myself, just coming to this country a year ago. And also, when writing essays, make sure that she writes them 100% personal as opposed to essays on “something that intellectually excites you”. I applied through QuestBridge and we had three long essays. And i used them to my advantage to talk more about myself. I literally divided my lifetime into three parts and wrote three essays. Up to now and I will always say that those essays are the most important factor in MIT accepting me. esp. my essay on how i will contribute to the study body / college community.</p>
<p>Tell her to apply to UK schools or even Japan if she has sufficient AP’s. My friend who came to America 2 years ago from Finland got into Imperial College London 2 weeks after he applied and just had an interview with Oxford. He didn’t even send in his SAT scores. 4 or 5’s in the subject you want to major in should be enough.
In case you don’t know, Imperial is like the MIT of England.</p>