How do I stack up? / International student help

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Hi all!
I’m an international student hoping to get into the pre-med programmes at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Yale, Princeton and Rice. Please tell me if I have a chance of getting into these schools based on the stats below :slight_smile: I’d really appreciate it!</p>

<p>IGCSE:
Mathematics - A*
Chemistry - A*
Biology - A*
Physics -A*
History - A*
ICT - A*
English as a Second Language - A*
English Literature - A*
English as a First Language - A
Business Studies - A
Additional Mathematics - B
French - B</p>

<p>AS-Level:
Mathematics - A
Biology - A
Chemistry - A
Physics - A</p>

<p>Predicted grades for A-Level:
Mathematics: A
Biology - A
Chemistry - A
Physics - A</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning test:
CR - 760
Mathematics - 800
Writing - 770</p>

<p>SAT Subject tests:
Maths Level IIC - 800
Biology M - 800
Chemistry - 790</p>

<p>TOEFL iBT - 116</p>

<p>Class rank: 1
Class size: Approximately 40</p>

<p>EC’s:
Toastmaster’s Gavels club (Leadership and communication programme)- Vice President - Public Relations for 2 years. Member for 4 years.</p>

<p>Conducting a leadership programme every summer all summer just because I love it (Approximately 5 hours a week).</p>

<p>Public Speaking club - Member for 2 years (It’s a new club). President for 1 year.</p>

<p>Student Government - Head Girl in grade 10. Junior prefect in grade 9. Senior prefect in grade 12.</p>

<p>Charity Committee at school - Head for 2 years. Treasurer for 1 year. Member for 6 years.</p>

<p>HMC Volunteer - Shadowing doctors and nurses. 3 summers all summer.</p>

<p>Reach Out To Asia charity - Member for 3 years. Official photographer for 2 years.</p>

<p>Sri Lankan charity group - Member for 5 years.</p>

<p>Global Citizen’s award, Bronze level.</p>

<p>School newspaper - Reporter and photographer for 3 years.</p>

<p>Most notable accolades:
First place in numerous public speaking contests at national level.
Highest achiever in class for five consecutive years.
Awards from various departments at school, including maths, science and English.</p>

<p>I don’t know how strong my essays are, but I’m working on them. Also, our school doesn’t have a guidance counsellor (talk about embarrassing), so is it alright to get my class teacher to fill in the guidance counsellor’s form on the commonapp?
Also, the international student supplement - I understand it can only be sent via mail, so should I send the rest of my application through mail or should I send bits online and the rest through mail?
I’m also not entirely sure how to address the AP/IB grades box on the common application form, since I don’t do either. Please help me with that too! :)</p>

<p>I know it’s a looooong post, and I’d like to thank you all for reading it, and thank you so much for your help :)</p>

<p>Happy applying!</p>

2

<p>From what I have heard, internationals are rated on a stricter scale than non-internationals. Your academic stats are impressive, but compared to most internationals- kind of expected. Your EC’s are varied and interesting- what do you want to major in and have as a career one day? As long as your essays stand out and are well written, I think you have a good chance in getting into some of these schools (penn, yale, rice, dunno about harvard but yeah)
I hope that helped! :)</p>

3

<p>Thank you, that was helpful :slight_smile: It’s just that where I come from, there aren’t loads of people applying to America, so I’m a tad bit lost :stuck_out_tongue:
So basically, I have to make my essays shine in order to get in? Oh dear… essays are not my forte…
Thanks so much once again :)</p>

4

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Do you mind me asking what your first language is? How come you took English language as a second language at IGCSE, yet took English literature as well?</p>

<p>Also, the TOEFL generally isn’t necessary if you’ve got 700+ on CR and W.</p>

<p>Your stats look pretty good. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>My first language is Tamil, but I taught myself English in grade 5. I speak mostly Tamil at home though. </p>

<p>Our school gives us the option of completing an IGCSE in English as a second language in grade 9 and moving on to English Literature and English as a first language in grade 10 if we feel that we are capable of doing so. English as a second language is a must for us all because for most of us, English isn’t our first language.</p>

<p>Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated :)</p>

6

<p>Okay, I’m really bad at chancing, which is why I don’t usually respond to these threads (I’m an international student applying this year myself, so I don’t know enough to give a good evaluation), but I saw you were tamilian, and it made me smile. Yepdi irrke? (I’m guessing you’re sri lankan though, not Indian? Since you’re talking grades and so, not marks?)</p>

<p>Other than that, just from what I’ve heard, your standardized test marks are fabulous! Don’t go by CC standards, you in terms of testing can’t get much better an applicant. I guess the only thing left is to show them you’re unique through your essay, and different from the other applicants in that way.</p>

<p>As for the guidance counsellor thing-- my school doesn’t have one either! I’ve heard that your principal’s the best person other than a GC to go through with the forms. And you don’t need to fill in anything to do with AP/IB if you aren’t a part of that system.</p>

7

<p>Nalla irruken, thank you :smiley: Yeppdi irruke? <em>sigh</em> The little things in life… Yeah, I’m Sri Lankan.</p>

<p>Thank you! I was a bit worried about my SATs after seeing that everyone on here’s a genius O_O I feel reassured now. And thank you for the info about the guidance counsellor thing, and the AP box :)</p>

<p>Good luck with your applications!</p>