<p>I already posted topic alike, but now want to approach it from different side.</p>
<p>I am an international student with great grades, hopefully great scores, and almost no extra curriculum activities. I did things for pleasure (dancing, drawing, tutoring), but never worked hard on creating EC profile, since it is not required in my country to get in college.</p>
<p>I decided that I want to study in US only 5 month ago and it is a little bit late to start creating my EC profile (I apply for Fall 2008), although I’m going to volunteer in local library as soon as possible and starting from September at school (I’m aupair in US now). I was just thinking…I don’t have anything to lose…what if I brighten up poor list of my extra curriculum.</p>
<p>What if I write something like this:
-Contemporary dance 5-11 grade (true)
-Drawing school 5-10 grade (true)
-Acting school 10-11 grade (true)
-Karate 11 grade (took it for 2 month…)
-Tutoring kids in English for past 2 years (true)
-Local theater troupe 11 grade (very small troupe, gave just a couple performances for a couple of people 
-School comedy club captain (actually I was just a member)
-Yoga club founder (we founded it with my friend, but it existed only for 1 month)
-School newspaper editor (draw a couple of pictures for it…)
-Class president (my teachers can prove everything I say in their references, they don’t care what to write) </p>
<p>I know it may sound disgusting…if I could turn my life back I would better work hard on doing all this in real life, since this is what I like to do. There are just not as much opportunities for it in my country, particularly in my town . No school clubs…no school presidents…no volunteering positions for kids…even no real school newspaper or yearbook to edit.</p>
<p>So what will can happen if I write something like this in my application…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Most U.S. colleges don’t care about ECs except possibly for merit aid. The only ones that do factor ECs in a lot are the most competitive colleges, places like IVies that have so many high stat applicants that the Ivies can pick and choose from their cream of the crop applicant pools to create the most well rounded (diverse, interesting) class possible.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t lie. Such things are likely to come back and hurt you. Should you, for instance, be an Ivy applicant, you more than likely will be interviewed. That’s where your lies will hurt you as it can be very easy for interviewers to spot liars due to inconsistencies in what is said in the interview. I am an ivy interviewer. I have caught students in lies, have told my alma mater about that, and those students didn’t get in.</p></li>
<li><p>Being an au pair would count as an impressive EC. While there is a box on applications for “ECs,'” colleges count things like jobs, major responsibilities for one’s family (such as if one had to do major help in a family business or care for siblings while parents worked) like ECs.</p></li>
<li><p>Lying is stupid and unethical. Yes, your plans to lie do sound disgusting. If your country or school doesn’t have ECs, the colleges in the U.S.that care about ECs consider what you’ve done in that light. Students from abroad are evaluated differently than are students in the U.S. Students in schools and cities in the U.S. where there are many EC opportunities are evaluated differently than are students in, for instance, rural areas where there are few ECs because most students have farm responsibilities.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What concerns me most about your tentative plans is what those reveal about your own ethics. U.S. colleges would accept someone with weak ECs over someone with weak ethics. It’s also hard to get into top U.S. colleges as an international, even harder than as a U.S. citizen. I’m sure those colleges are swamped with international applicants who stupidly try to lie their way in. Those applicants probably get spotted early by admissions officers, and are the first to go in the rejection pile. This would occur even if otherwise the applicant would have a good chance of entrance.</p>
<p>Especially now with all of the terrorism going on, why would any colleges want to accept an international applicant whose application has fake info? Of course, they don’t want to accept U.S. citizens like that either, but faked international applications could lead to more problems than just having an unethical student on campus.</p>
<p>One last thing: Based on your old posts, your predicted SAT I score is around 2300. If you get even a 1500, you would have the scores to get into the majority of the thousands of 4-year colleges in the U.S.</p>
<p>Going to a U.S. college shouldn’t be a problem – if you can afford it.</p>
<p>Most U.S. colleges don’t give $ to internationals. The ones that do are either among the world’s toughest colleges to get into or the competition for scholarships for internationals is very difficult.</p>
<p>If $ is no concern, you should be able to pick and choose among several college offers (as long as you take the thought to apply to colleges that are likely to accept you). If $ is a concern, you will have a much more difficult time getting in, and those faked ECs are not likely to help you. Indeed, they may hurt you more than you realize because the world of college admissions officers is small. Admissions officers know each other and see each other at places like college fairs. I can imagine adcoms swapping stories about, “Here’s another story of an applicant who lied”, and – even if they don’t drop your name – you would be easily identifiable (There probably aren’t a lot of Ukraine au pairs who work in Calif. who are applying to U.S. colleges). Not the kind of reputation you want to have.</p>
<p>Thank you Northstarmom
It were just some stupid ideas…The problem is that $ is concern…
Is there chance for international student with only high scores and great (true) story about all hindrances she had on her way to US education, to get into college that gives scholarships?</p>
<p>Check the financial aid board here. There is a thread pinned to the top about aid for internationals.
Also check the international students board here.
And check the boards here of colleges the interest you. You can find lots of info about students who were rejected and accepted.
There are many internationals who’d love to go to college in the U.S. and have heart breaking stories about what they’ve gone through to get an education. Unless your story is particularly poignant and your scores and other stats are extremely high, I doubt that such a story will help you much if you need a lot of aid. The colleges that give excellent aid to internationals attract stellar international applicants who – even though English isn’t their first language – have v SAT scores in the top 2%, so the competition is fierce for those those colleges’ slots for internationals who need lots of financial aid.</p>