Very peculiar case here, need help!!!

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I’m an applicant from China. My family is poor - both of my parents are over-aged, divorced, and retired. I’m the top of my school, Wuxi No.3 Senior High nobody’s heard of, from Wuxi, a small city equally anonymous.</p>

<p>I made this decision to study abroad 6 months ago, and my initial goal was Dunedin College in New Zealand, and that changed to NYU later. Since I still cannot afford either, I thought it pertinent to give it a try on Dartmouth College.</p>

<p>I then self-studied and scored 2340 - C800/M780/W760 with 11 on Essay in SAT Reasoning Test - not as easy as it sounds like. I’m confident that a perfect score is within the reach, but I have Subject Tests ahead, and hotel and airplane ticket all need money.</p>

<p>I’m ambidextrous, I have a 139 IQ, and I speak perfect American accent through self-talking. My Personal Essay, the blend of stream-of-consciousness and vorticism, would surely be an eye opener for admissions officers.</p>

<p>My GPA would be 4.0 and my rank would be top 1%. But our school doesn’t handle cases like mine. They don’t offer recommendation letters in English, and lack any basic knowledge of what constitutes a transcript. I did everything myself - my only source of information is the Internet.</p>

<p>It was suggested to me that I should resort to an Education Agent, but gee that’s quite expensive.</p>

<p>So, is there any guideline I should follow? Do I have a chance in Dartmouth?</p>

<p>And lastly, Dartmouth and Amherst, which one is more cordial for people like me? Things like geographic location or political inclination are not what I should consider, sadly.</p>

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<p>You should contact to the admissions office directly and ask them to help you.</p>

<p>But, regarding your question choosing between Dartmouth and Amherst, I have no idea.
You should consider that which school would be a good fit for you.</p>

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<p>Very interesting. You may have a “perfect American accent” but your grasp of syntax, grammar, and idioms is a bit lacking. And, I would not necessarily count on “stream-of-consciousness and vorticism” as appealing to an admissions officer (although that could vary depending on your tentative major/areas of interest). And, why do you think being ambidextrous has any relevance?</p>

<p>Folks, I’m having a hard time taking the OP at face value despite the LinkedIn account. Thoughts?</p>

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<p>Jimmy, thanks for the advice, I’m definitely going to call the admissions office and brief them with my distinct condition.</p>

<p>AboutTheSame, I’m sensing both of your questions are rhetorical. But I should say that I learned English myself, and personally I’ve never had a prolonged conversation with anyone from an English-speaking country. So, although my "syntax, grammar, idioms, and LinkedIn account might all appear problematic, my real point is that I possess the capacity to solve the problems and transcend the limitation my parochial perspective imposed on me.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t know what is considered relevant by an American college. Based on what I’m informed, a huge portion of the admissions decision process relies on subjective judgement. So I consider every piece of information could at least be of some benefit.</p>

<p>Still a lot of thanks to both of you guys.</p>

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<p>“my real point is that I possess the capacity to solve the problems and transcend the limitation my parochial perspective imposed on me.”</p>

<p>lol he just killed you guys with that sentence (sin one minor article/number agreement problems)</p>

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<p>Billie,</p>

<p>My questions were not rhetorical, but you have answered them, so that’s of little moment. For what it’s worth, I would not mention being ambidextrous unless you can tie it to something relevant. If you’re a baseball pitcher, that could be very cool. From an academic point of view, my take would be that it has no meaning. </p>

<p>That your school does not offer recommendation letters in English should not be a problem. Any school you apply to should be able to handle a translation if you explain the circumstances. You’re obviously not going to be the typical applicant, so you may just have to write your own rules in places and hope for the best. </p>

<p>I’m not clear what you mean by “Things like geographic location or political inclination are not what I should consider, sadly” in term of comparing Dartmouth and Amherst. I would not see an extreme difference between the two on either score. Can you clarify?</p>

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<p>I really need some help… Ive messed up so bad here. My cumulative gpa, (freshman, sophomore, and junior) is a 2.21. I am at the bottom 50% of my school. MySAT score is a 1950. Can I get into any decent schools?? (No ccs please) I am from California, I am Indian (If that helps my chances at all) and I have 150 volunteer hours at a hospital, plus academic decathlon for a year. My essays are decent, not bad at all. Can I get into any of these schools:
-Baylor
-Texas a&m
-University of Arizona
-Arizona state (I think I can, but Id rather not go here)
-Indiana University Bloomington
-Syracuse
-Florida Sate
-Clemson
-Texas Christian
-Umass Amherst
-University of Oregon
If I cant get into any of these schools, or if you have any, PLEASE leave sugestions for other good schools I may be able to get into. Thanks :)</p>

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<p>ORE, oh, man… I must confess that I lack the basic knowledge of colloquial English - I went through the vocabulary list and learned to implement those words myself. So my sentence must appear very odd indeed… But I’m trying to change that. I bet if I’m talking in Chinese, I’ll be a totally different person :-)</p>

<p>AboutTheSame, first of all sorry about the sarcastic undertone in my previous post. </p>

<p>I shall explain that, I live in this extremely small city, Wuxi. And frankly by the day I left school I knew nothing but an impulse to change my destiny. I cannot afford most of the colleges in the world - only 6 of them are need-blind. And they all need SAT. So I nailed that test.</p>

<p>However beside it, I’m still nearly directionless about the application process, and which school to choose, and my own future. I don’t always have an Internet connection, but that’s my only source of information. I’m both ignorant and desperate. I don’t know where to resort to, so I posted here in the hope of any difference - another of my ploy to make sense out of this nonsense.</p>

<p>Although now I know Dartmouth and Amherst are pretty much the same, when I googled it, a lot of people are discussing that which place is colder, which place is more conservative - and I’m not even entitled to include those in my consideration. That’s where that sentence came from.</p>

<p>I’m essentially a gambler who has forgotten to cash in the chips. So, since need-blind is my only option, I’m eager to know which one of them is the best stake for me. If you can answer it, I will be very grateful!</p>

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<p>ORE, It just occurred to me that watching too much The Big Bang Theory might have a ginormous impact on my use of language, and yeah, that’s pathetic.</p>

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<p>You have a good sense of humor, Billie, and that will stand you in good stead for years to come. Your grades and SAT scores would give you a shot at Dartmouth – and many other schools. Apply to every need-blind school you can find. You have nothing to lose (except the application fee, but that’s the price of getting in the game). Nothing precludes you from applying to both Dartmouth and Amherst, and there’s never a clear answer whether applying ED has any benefit.</p>

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<p>Just to add on to what AboutTheSame said, you can also request fee waivers for the applications so you would not even have to pay for that! Anyway, good luck with everything! I hope it works out for you :)</p>

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<ol>
<li>Don’t put your IQ. No one cares.</li>
<li>You don’t sound Chinese. But of course, there are exceptional…people…maybe you are one of them. But my experience tells me that Chinese students who self-studied English don’t…really know about stuff like “oh, man”…</li>
<li>If you watch Big Bang Theory, you should realize that the characters are…kind of…anti-social imo. You may not want to come across as that in the eyes of the admissions. Though they don’t judge on charisma, it nevertheless has a psychological impact on your chances.</li>
</ol>

<p>That said,
→ For your recommendation letter, allow the teachers to write in Chinese. Let an approved translator or something translate it (could be your English teacher). Send both versions. If not possible, send the Chinese version.
→ Writing your essay just to let the admissions learn something new is NOT the way. You could do so, but that’s not the main point. The main point is to show something about you. You could integrate both together to achieve great results.
→ If you know Finnegans Wake, translating it to Chinese could be very impressive based on your apparent interest in…stream-of-consciousness.
→ Don’t use hard vocabulary for no apparent reason. You seem to like to do that.
→ You sound proud. That’s fine. But don’t show it in your essays.</p>

<p>You are truthful though, and I think that’s a good start. Obviously, because of your cultural background, you don’t seem to have many extracurricular activities, but I suppose that’s fine; the admissions will know.</p>

<p>–> Your SAT scores are fine. A perfect score is not going to make a huge difference in your case.
→ Mentioning that you’re ambidextrous is useless. No one is going to psycho-analyze you. They don’t have that much time. It may make a difference on the brain level, but don’t count on that.</p>

<p>Lastly, show humility and that you’re nice in your essays. There are many students who are just like you: geniuses, diligent, poor… But it’s always kind of hard to find someone who cares for the society even in blight. Did you do any local community service or stuff? Talk about that.</p>