Very peculiar case here, need help!!!

Skyrior
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 04:59:13 +0000

Don’t put your IQ. No one cares.
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”…
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.


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.

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.

–> 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.

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.