Hi all, I just finish year 11 this month (yes we finish school in November in Australia) and I’m deciding to go to the US for college. However, I don’t think I have enough extracurriculars or leadership role at the moment. Personally, I really want to get into UC Berkeley, Standford or Caltech and I want to do chemical engineering.
My long-term extracurricular in year 11 are:
helping at afterschool math tutorials
outside of school homework club
Junior leader at Girl Guides Australia
Math, science and photography club at school
I also have a high chance of getting the math captain next year.
I am thinking of doing a few more things such as science ambassador and titration competition next year but will it be too late to start? Also, are these activities enough?
You have a lot of spelling and grammar errors here and I am half wondering if this is a prank post, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Having said that, if you can’t spell Stanford correctly, that doesn’t bode well for your chances.
How will you pay? Are our parents prepared to spend close to $70,000 a year x4 for your undergrad education?
Do you have the very highest SAT or ACT test scores? Do you have the most rigorous classes for all four years of high school? It’s not about having enough activities and leadership. It’s about genuine interest, curiosity and involvement in the things you do outside of school. It’s about fit, and if the college thinks you will do well in their environment. There will be truly outstanding stduents applying to those schools from your country. They will be competing against truly outstanding stduents from all over the world, and from the US. The odds are ridiculously low.
You need to do some research and at least determine the necessary minimum requirements to get into those colleges. If you are asking here if what you have is enough, then I suspect you don’t really know what any of those colleges are looking for.
Thank you for your reply. Sorry I know I have bad English but I’m working hard to fix it now. I did my first SAT recently and I got a 1330 with only 570 on reading and writing.
Not trying to be horrible, but I think you don’t understand how it works. Look at the common data sets of each of those schools (you can google it). As it stands, your current SAT score is below the bottom 25th percentile for CalTech, as an example. UCB is a public university and by law has to prioritize applicants from California. That means that, currently, there is literally no chance you could get into Berkeley.
You need realistic schools to apply to if you plan to study in the US.
If you are an 11th grader at an English speaking country, I don’t think you would be accepted or do well if you are accepted at those schools, based on your reading and writing skill.
@tiffae, don’t be discouraged. It sounds like you just started researching colleges, found out about the fantastic offerings at UCBerkeley, Stanford and Caltech and understandably want to see how you can go since you’re caught up in the excitement. That’s normal and OK. It can be hard to find detailed info for how the process works for foreign students and that’s why you’re asking. No worries, these are reasonable questions.
For international students, here are the big hurdles:
Finances. There are a few US schools who will give scholarship money to non-US students, but not many. UC Berkeley and Caltech (state schools) won’t give scholarship to non-California residents, for example. So - for any of the US schools, does your family have the ability to pay full price tuition, fees, housing and travel? If not, you’ll need to research which schools might give $$$ to international students. Competition for that $$$ will be fierce; tough to imagine a student would even be in the running with SAT scores below 1500 or without some sort of international skill or recognition.
Basic admissions requirements. The schools you listed are some of the toughest on the planet to gain admissions to. To have a chance you will have to be one of the top students in your country. Those schools turn away thousands of US applicants with near perfect SAT/ACT scores and grades, and fewer international students are admitted than US applicants to give you an idea of the level of competition. Until you can get your SAT scores into the upper 1500s, whether or not you have any interesting leadership roles will not be your biggest issue because you won’t meet the minimum qualification threshhold.
English ability. For any of the top schools, you’ll need to demonstrate a high level of English proficiency.
ECs and leadership. Since the top US schools admit less than 10% of the students who apply and they have thousands who apply with near perfect grades and test scores, just being one of the stop students in your country isn’t enough. US colleges are also looking at students who will contribute to the campus life and who are more than just grades. Students demonstrate that by their activities outside school. For many colleges, it’s enough to do some volunteering and join or even lead school clubs. To gain admission to the top colleges, though, you’ll need what I call a “Special Sauce” - something that sets you apart from all the others and that shows something interesting and unique about you as a person. It might be one of the usual routes like winning a national level competition, but it’s often something that just you have done and that’s amazing. Vague as that sounds, it’s not a formula and if everybody did the same thing it wouldn’t be special, so there’s no way to write out a formula. But think about what you would enjoy and what your Special Sauce might be. It won’t be any of the ECs you listed. Those are just “sauce”. They’re fine, but nothing special.
You have time to make this happen. And if those things aren’t realistic, there are literally thousands of other great colleges out there. Don’t be discouraged.
@milee30 just one correction. Caltech is private, not public, and they do apparently grant need-based aid to international students. However the OP’s profile does not indicate that Caltech is an appropriate goal given stats. https://finaid.caltech.edu/applying/NewInternational