Hi, if anyone would be able to review my profile that would be amazing. I am an international student and only last year begun looking at US universities, but am now set on this pathway. I graduate at the end of 2027, so I still have a while to figure everything out. I'm worried my GPA won't be strong enough, as in my country unlike in the US less emphasis is placed on year 9, 10 etc rather year 12 is viewed as the most important year (hence the low GPA) however I'm hoping my SAT will make up for this. Additionally, in the country I'm from AP exams, college credit etc aren't offered which I'm afraid will also put me at a disadvantage. Overall, I'm most interested in doing either Economics, Political Science or Law. Below are my stats + my preferred schools.
Demographics
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Residence: Australia
Income Bracket: Upper middle-class
Type of School: Non-selective private school
Hooks: potentially geographic location
Intended Major(s): Economics, Political Science
Academics
GPA (had to calculate externally from my school as this isn't a typical measure): 3.5
--> also still have over a year left of HS
SAT (this is only from a practice test but I am largely already prepared for this): 1520
No honours, AP classes etc as they aren't offered HOWEVER I do take 1 extension class (equivalent/higher than) AP for English and plan on taking Extension History next year
Summary of my extracurriculars (Y7鈥12):
Ethics Olympiad 鈥 Non-Art Competitions (2024鈥損resent)
Competed at school then state level; placed top 10 (2024, 2025), 2nd at State (2026) 鈥 advancing to the International round.
Religion & Ethics Festival of Speech 鈥 Non-Art Competitions
Competed in timed, unseen-question rounds analyzing academic texts; won the school's senior Religion Memorial Prize (awarded to one student across Years 10鈥12).
House Committee Beck House Student Government (Y11)
Elected to lead ~100+ students; ran house meetings, directed a 15-min house play, choreographed the house dance, and assisted at inter-house sporting events.
Cross Country 鈥 Athletics/Team Sports (Y7鈥損resent)
Age champion every year since Y7; competed at regional and state level; incoming Captain.
Peer Leaders 鈥 Interest Clubs
Selected by staff (25 of 105 students in year group) to mentor incoming Year 7 students 鈥 coordinated sporting events, study support, and school tours.
Community Service 鈥 Led a charity run 鈥 Community Service raising $10,000 for a local charity where I also volunteer (100 hours).
Waitstaff, Local Sailing Club 鈥 Part time job/Employment (2023鈥損resent)
Promoted to fill in as Head of Waitstaff; responsible for training and delegating tasks to the team.
Club Soccer, Division 1 鈥 Athletics/Team Sports (2019鈥損resent)
Long-standing member of local club division 1 team.
Dream school:
Wake Forest
Other top schools:
Providence College
Tulane
Syracuse
University of Wisconsin Madison
Sewanee (for XC)
Virginia Tech
I think your application (mainly ECs) is good enough for the colleges in the list and don't worry about the lack of APs classes in your school; colleges will probably understand this or explain them in the additional info. However, I would recommend you to take the sat early as possible to give yourself time to retake it later (imo college board practice tests might be not accurate) and try to improve your grades as much as possible by the time you apply to get an edge among other applicants.
Good luck !
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