This post was supposed to be posted on yahoo answers but I released there’s a limit when I was done so here I am.
I will keep this short and straight-forward as much as I can ( Forgive me if I can’t ).
I’m from the Kingdom of Bahrain and I’m going to second semester in high school in two months when summer is over and I’ve just turned 17 last week. I’m a hardworking student and I try to keep my grades as high as it gets. We have a different system here, but pretty much all of my grades are like 100/94 to 100/89.
I’m passionate about evolutionary biology, astronomy and astro-biology ( science in general ) and little bit of physics here and there. I have a gift for drawing/art in general and I’m really good with design but unfortunately I’ve never tried to expand my gift, so it’s just the sketch book and a pencil for me. And also people tell me that my writing skills are “good” but I don’t really believe that and I try to stretch my self as much as I can ( Been learning Korean and Mandarin for about 4 months now). I have been thinking about the future of my education and college for a while now and I realized that I’m no way going to attend a college in my home country because;
A. I have been secretly an atheist since I was 14 (3 years) and I don’t think I want to keep living somewhere where freedom of speech pretty much doesn’t exist, ( They will tell you the opposite of that ) and religion is shoved down your throat in schools, education centers, hospitals or pretty much everywhere you go. ( But that’s not the point ).
B. I don’t think I’ll get to anywhere here, see point A.
As you may have noticed I have said that the school system is different here because I attend a public Arabic-speaking school and they don’t offer any SAT/ACT and AP tests, so I have spoken with my father and fortunately he agreed to put me in an English-speaking private school next year so I can get those tests/scores. And again fortunately enough for me, my aunt and her husband live in the United states in Virginia particularly and I believe that they made it clear enough that they have no problem letting me stay with them as much as I want or for a while.
Based on what I’ve read so far on websites like College Confidential, Ivy League colleges like Harvard University care quite a lot about your;
- That having top notch grades is a must, to be even considered in the first place.
- Personal potential in life and if you have the strength to succeed/ accomplish your goals.
- And if you are truly an interesting personality
- What do you offer to the college in terms influence and how are you going to make some kind of an impact in the university ( It's okay if you don't understand this part, I don't too myself ).
Now you see, the grades part I can go through. But the two other parts I’m not so sure about.
As I said, I work hard to accomplish my goals and success is number 1 priority for me no matter what I’m going to achieve from my goals. But I’m not really quite sure about my potential in life and what I want to be in the future. And about the personality part… I’m really insecure and NOT that much of an Interesting personality (Kinda boring too :/) since I’ve been always scared from joining clubs, socializing… etc.
Since those three things are really important I doubt I’ll even have a 2% chance to get into an ivy. I know getting into a great university like Harvard ( The one I truly love since I was a kid ) isn’t everything and you don’t need it to be happy in life, but I’m asking you to help me and tell me if I have the qualifications to even have a slight chance to get into Harvard and tell me what I need to get a higher chance.
This is kind of an embarrassing rant/chances/#storyofmylife thread so thank you for wasting your time reading it and you have no idea how much your reply might help me. Thanks again.