My unweighted GPA is 4.0/4.0 (if transferred to 4.0 system)
If you will be an international student at US universities, then admission will be more difficult at many, and financial aid and scholarships will be limited or non-existent at most.
My recommendation with respect to extracurricular activities is for you to do what is right for you. Ignore university admissions. Instead do what is right for you. Whatever you do, do it very well. Treat people fairly. As I understand it, this is the approach recommended in the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site – which you should read. The advice on this blog is also appropriate for other very good universities in the US. For me this did not include any physics competitions, but did include chess. Other people I know have used a similar approach and been successful with it, but what they did was very different from what I did.
Also, some very good universities outside the US will not care and will not even ask you about extracurricular activities. For example one daughter was accepted to McGill, and at the time (maybe about 11 years ago) they did not ask about extracurricular activities at all.
If you want to compete in physics competition, then do so. If you do not want to do it, then do something else.
One issue with applying to universities in the US is that admissions to the top universities is very competitive and very hard to predict, and is significantly more competitive for international students. Also, university in the US tends to be expensive. However, as others have mentioned, there are a lot of very good universities in the US. How well they are known in China I am not sure. Admissions tends to be more predictable at the top universities in some other countries, which is part of why I was recommending that you at least consider schools in Canada and/or Australia.
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Yes, I will. Thank you so much. It really helps a lot.
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Update:
I was the member of Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences infrared photoelectroscience volunteer team. (Started from 2024.2.5)
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Is there anyone can tell me whether the Global TOP100 of Physics Bowl will be helpful.
Why aren’t you qualified for this school? Could you please explain?
The thing is I’m Chinese, but I studied in America education system instead of GaoKao which is the Chinese official exams for getting universities in June every year. In brief, if I’m not Chinese citizen, I will be allowed to apply for Chinese university through AP or IB .etc, but I’m Chinese, so the only way for Chinese citizen is to take part in GaoKao (we are not allowed to apply for Chinese universities as a Chinese citizen with any other diploma but GaoKao.)
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So are you saying that you can’t consider any colleges in your home country?
Perhaps you should consider some colleges in Europe, or Canada.
@MYOS1634 do you have any ideas?
That’s right. Maybe I should consider Canada, and I will.
@DadTwoGirls might have some suggestions.
There’s no issue with you and American schools.
The issue is you asked for suggestions but then eschewed very good ones for UC or US News top 30 only.
And if you want to go to grad school for finance, you’ll be working before for a few years. Ir engineering, you’ll be taking pre reqs but where you’ll go undergrad will matter less.
You’ve been given FANTASTIC physics schools. Not sure Canada changes anything.
But you need to be open vs limiting yourself as you’re doing.
What’s meaning of b4
Before
I fixed for you.
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