Long question - I really need advice on college admissions (international)?

[jolie95]

I know this is a long question, but I will greatly appreciate ANY advice, tip or comment!

So, I live in Slovenia, and in about 8 months I'll be applying to a few American universities. My plan is to major in Chemistry and then go to med school. I've been doing quite a lot of research and getting a lot of advice from friends from the USA, college counselors... but some of it is contradicting. I would just like to get an unbiased perspective.

I'm currently a junior and I'm taking 6 IB courses (Math and Psychology on Standard Level + Slovene, English, Chemistry and Biology on Higher Level). Currently it looks like I'll finish junior year with a grade average of 3.90-4.00 (on a 4.00 scale - we don't keep track of a GPA though). What I'm worried about are my grades from freshman and sophomore years. In Slovenia, universities don't require transcripts from those years, so I was, at best, mediocre (my grade average was about 3.00, but I took 13 courses each year (mandatory in the national program here).
I took the ACT in December, my composite score was 32 and I've already registered for a re-test in April - I think I can get the composite score up to a 33 or 34. I'm also taking the TOEFL (English proficiency test) in May and 3 SAT Subject Tests (Math level 1, Chemistry and Biology) in June. In the next few weeks I'm also participating in the national Chemistry and English competitions - i think I have a chance for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the country in English (I placed first in the regional competition).

About extracurriculars and other experiences:
- I've been in the school's drama club in junior and sophomore years
- I've taken Latin in junior year.
- I speak Slovene, English, German and I understand (and speak some) Croatian and Serbian.
- I went to music school for 10 years (I play the accordion and the flute)
- I play volleyball in my free time (I'm not in the school team or anything)
- I tutor math and chemistry from time to time
- I'm the junior class president
- I traveled around most of the Western European countries, and I participated in 2 international student exchanges (Germany and the Netherlands).
- I do voluntary work in the local library for 4 hours per week and I sometimes help out at my dad's compan
- I often participate in charity projects at school - this year I helped raise money to help fund a kidney transplant for an anonymous person with inadequate health insurance by selling school calendars and by producing my own organic soap in the school laboratory and selling it house-to-house and at a stand in the street.
- I'm an editor of our school's IB newspaper, I write a couple of articles for each issue.
- I'm doing extracurricular chemistry research at Slovenia's institute of chemistry (supervised by my chemistry professor and a professor at the institute).
- I'm gay, and I'm participating in my country's LGBT organization. One of the current activities is spreading awareness about this month's voting on a new law which would legalize gay marriage and adoptions.

Although this year I'm much more focused on school work, I'm definitely not one of those boring geeks with no social life - on the contrary (just saying). I would die to get into a school in New York City (visiting in in June) - I'm really fond of huge, urban cities. The bigger the better. Do you think I have any chance of getting into Columbia? What other NYC-based options do I have?

My parents would be able to contribute some money, but I'm definitely going to need financial aid from the school or take a US-based international student loan (for which I'll need to find a US co-signer). Basically the two most important factors in my university search are location (preferably in a big city, and on East coast) and finances. This is another reason why I would love to go to a need-blind school like Columbia (although most of the schools below offer relatively a lot of merit- and need-based financial aid too.

My top non-Ivy League school choices include:
-Tufts University
-Pace University
-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
-University of Chicago
-University of Miami
-Amherst College
Do you have any other school suggestions, any comments?

Thanks in advance for anything useful you write and for the time you took!

[patwin87]

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[iomar]

Hello friend i want to inform you that there is still genuine lenders
in the internet, though it is not that easy, am Tazz Bourne i am an
Australian, i don't know if you have been using ANSWERS.YAHOO.COM and
ANSWERMEFAST.COM if you are, do you took notice of a post some times
ago by one Mr. Andrian Ramirez from Spain who is talking of how to
find a legitimate lender? and even make mention of one oceanic wave
lenders limited who he said help him and his company out when they
where in financial crises on how they can meet up with the stock
market and then i was searching for a legitimate lender here in
Australia who can lend me loan to buy a house but all i they keep
saying was that i have to give them some document of all my properties
as a collateral and i don't have any thing to give them as collateral,
it was then i decided to ask where i could get a loan online when Mr
Adrian Ramirez answers my questions and i wrote oceanic wave lenders
limited through their email addresses and they ask me to contact an
insurance company but before then they already told me that i am going
to pay for the insurance charges, why all other fees will be paid by
them it was then i first get discourage and i contacted Mr Andrian
Ramirez and ask him if this is real and he should guarantee me that i
won't be scammed and he guaranteed me so i went on with the insurance
company and paid all the fees they ask me to pay and my loan was
insured, after then my loan was approved by the loan firm and was
transfer swiftly to my bank account in Australia, one good thing about
them is that they give yearly benefit to all their customer's that has
contributed to their success, if you need a loan, i advise you write
them through this Email address: [email protected] big thanks to Mr.
Andrian Ramirez and oceanic wave lenders limited for given me the
opportunity of having my own House here in Australia if any one want
to write me this is my email address:[email protected]