Student from Madagascar: Chance me please!

International Students
1

Hey guys, I’m a newcomer to College Confidential :slight_smile: I’m a senior at an American School in Madagascar.
I am applying to 4 UC schools (UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, UCSB) and USC, Stanford, NYU, Boston University, and Occidental College. I am aware of my incredibly small chances with Stanford but want to know my chances with the other schools. Here are my scores and activities which may help me get accepted or prevent me

GPA: 3.9 (Unweighted)
SAT: My SAT without essay (which isn’t accepted in UC system) is 1400. I took the SAT with essay just now on Dec 1 and will get the scores on Dec 14, which I will add.

I have taken 5 AP’s so far, and got a 5 in AP French, Macroeconomics, and Environmental Science (my major is focusing around Environmental Economics, so my scores correspond too). I got a 4 in AP Statistics and a 3 in AP Literature. I am currently taking AP European History, AP Calculus AB, and AP Language. I will be taking all those exams in May and will be taking the AP Microeconomics exam (Self-taught) in May, too.

I am a malagasy citizen, which will help with their diversity but with an Asian Indian ethnicity, which is very common!
I am Student Council president (but it’s a very small school of 300 people), I have been the GISS (Global Issue Service Summit) president in my 9th and 10th grade and have attended summits in Tanzania, South Africa, and Kenya. I have also been part of MUN at school from 9th to 11th grade.

In 2016, I was an intern at the World Food Program during the summer for three weeks in Madagascar.

In 2018, I interned at an American company called Symbion Power during the summer for three weeks in Rwanda. It was a very interesting project that converted methane from Lake Kivu into electricity.

Between 2017 and 2018, I have been part of an environmental internship off the coast of Madagascar. This is an area that has gone through many fires, and in order to rejuvenate the forest, We have succesfuly planted 1,000 trees across different species, like the Red Park Baobab and Rosewood trees (rosewood is illegally logged a lot in Madagascar. I have also planted Vetivers, a plant that is known to reduce soil erosion.

Other than my internship experience, I have been boxing for years, been playing tennis for years, been playing guitar for years.

So, what are my chances? :slight_smile:
It’s very long, sorry!

2

You are full pay for your UCs, so UCSD and UCSB might be a thing. NYU too at full pay( if not Stern/tisch). Your tippy top need blind schools will be the usual massive international reach exacerbated by a lower test score. Make sure your finances are OK.

3

Yep, I have considered all of these when I made my decision on what schools to apply. Thanks1

4

Are you recruitable at D3 level for boxing or tennis? See with Occidental and contact the coach, as this would help you.
Can you afford to be full pay (ie., no scholarship)?
You have a shot at BU but not sure it’s worth it for Environmental Science/Economics. UCSD is a low reach, UCSB a match, NYU a high match/low reach.
I’d have added UCSC for that subject. Still time to add Whitman and Pitzer.

5

UCB and UCLA should be considered Reach schools. I concur with @MYOS1634 assessment that UCSD is probably a Low Reach and UCSB a Match school as long as you and family can pay the OOS fees for the UC’s.

Best of luck.

6

Thanks for the replies. I am fortunately able to afford full pay, but not able to be recruitable at D3 level for boxing or tennis. By the way, my latest SAT score was 1390, which I am not happy with; the curve was so harsh! I got -5 in math (out of 58) and then -5 in reading and -4 in writing and that gave me a 1390 :(. I’m going to post something about this shortly!