My chances of getting into top10 schools

International Students
1

I am international, Korean first-year applicant (but I went to school in US so i might be considered as domestic in the process idk)

My gpa is 95.2/100 (4.0/4.0 if calculated in common gpa system) and SAT is 1480 (english 690/ math 790) and essay is 19 (6/6/7).

APs : calculus bc 4, ab subscore 5, us history 4, statistics 4, and ap lang 3

Subject tests : math 2 770, us history 700

Senior year courses : ap physics, ap bio, ap computer science, ap gov, ap lit, spanish, band, global issues 1&2

Race : asian
Income bracket : <40000$ (applied financial aid)

ECs : us history notes distributor&tutor/ concert&marching band clarinet leader&first chair for four years/ non-profit foreign exchange student program agency student representative journalist/ math team captain/ science research club founder&president/ Volunteer at the local library in Korean city where poor immigrants reside/ internship at the IT technology company/ School spirit club / initiating discrimination claim based on sexual orientation against landlord

Awards : University of Rochester national leadership award, letter to an author contest connecticut state semi-finalist, national spanish exam honorable mention, ap scholars award, first honors (9-12th), sophomore math&citizenship award

Main essay : talked about overview of my entire life, how I was raised in extremely traditional household, how I am from socially conservative, homophobic country, how my parents are also deeply religious and how I went to all-boy catholic high school and how I struggled with accepting my identity (queer/gay) and transitioned with the discrimination claim I made against my partner’s landlord who kicked me out after she found out I was gay. Ended with how i eventually came out publicy and stood up against injustices and talked about my future hopes of reforming korean society as a lawmaker and containing spread of HIV (also talked abt my personal experiences of taking hiv prevention meds and going thru their side effects)

I know I have low standardized testing scores compared to normal asian, international applicants. But, I focused on my identity in the application to stand out in the pool of Koreans, because I know very few koreans would publicly reveal themselves as LGBT, and colleges are all for diversity and distinction. My recommendation letters and supplemental essays all focus on how my identity and struggles shaped me as a person I am now.

I applied to : all ivys except dartmouth, uchicago, northwestern, johns hopkins, nyu, stanford, washu, ND, uiuc, purdue, etc

I believe I have very unique, touching story compared to other asian, international applicants especially Korean although I may lack scores and activities (I inteneded to major in engineering for a long time to live up to my father’s expectations which i talked about in supplements, which made me pursue activities in those fields mainly).

Would I have strong chances for those colleges?

2

Your chances are not good for many schools on this list because they’re not good for anybody, international students in particular. Will you get into some of them? Probably. Will you get enough financial aid? Hard to say. But if you really want to go to college next fall, you should apply to some safeties – academic AND financial – which are few and far between on your list right now.

3

you probably can get in nyu, uiuc, purdue but can you afford them financially?

4

International students requiring a lot of aid have extremely low odds to begin with, and most of the schools on your list are reaches for everyone.

UIUC won’t give much aid, if any, to out of state students. They do accept a large number of international students, but almost all are full pay at a higher international tuition rate. Both UIUC and Purdue (WashU too?) have high overall acceptance rates, computer science and engineering majors have about 10% admit rates, so they are also reaches if those are the majors you want to study.

You might look at some liberal arts colleges, such as Bates. Your stats would be a great match and they are more likely to be generous with aid.

5

NYU, UIUC & Purdue are no-hopers financially.

6

A unique story doesn’t get you in to most of the colleges you’ve applied to. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but your sexual identity and race is not a hook of any kind. Your test scores are low for most of your colleges. You need financial aid as an international. I think your odds are not good at all for any of those schools.

IMO, you do not have a good list because you have no financial safeties. You have a few days or a couple of weeks maybe to apply to some other schools. Look at LACs, where Asians are not usually over represented. You need to look at colleges that give aid to internationals, and where your stats will place you at the top of the stats for admitted students. Best of luck.