Can anyone give me advice?

[Kilian]

OK, maybe this is kind of a rant but Im so lost I dont even have a proper question, I just need some advice.

 

So, I want to go study ASAP, I want a good university abroad, not too expensive and no homeschooling because of Corona.

 

Im german, 19 year old man and white so I dont qualify for any minority scholarships.

I got a 1430 on the SAT, want to retake it and get up to a 1500, used to wanna go to school in US but I don't with all the corona problems. FIrst idea was to stay here and work, but Im 19, I want to mive out, I always wanted to get out pretty early...

I want to study marketing or digital marketing and I worked the last schoolyear for an online marketing agency, I do poetry slams for fun and competitively and like playing basketball. Also I like making Indie music but Im not specifically good at it... I moved a lot because of my dad's jobs, I had been living in 4 different places before I even turned 6 years old. Then, with 15 I went for the first time by myself to morocco for half a year. I found my love for digital marketing there and have created some websites, but they are in very niche topics so nothing too impressive for a college education. Maybe this is TMI but I just wanna know like what chances I ve got for scholarships and college admissions, I feel literally so lost and the more I google the less idea of how tf college works I have, we had no education or anything on that in germany. 

My grades were decent, not excellent (1.8 from 1.0 to 6.0, 1.0 being the best) and I did have some more interests. When I was younger I was very competitive in running, ran too far at too young and destroyed my knees. I speak a lot of languages and Ive always loved writing and basketball. Im too short and too slow to apply on a basketball scholarship though, so maybe writing would be a better angle. I have won two poetry slams, I was one of the first students to get a perfect grade 3 times in a row in writing at my school and I wrote a lot on my job in online marketing, I also had a door to door sales job which I was doing OK at but I quit cause door to door is just annoying people proffessionally imo.

Furthermore, I love public speaking and gave tours at a holocaust memorial museum, when I was younger.

 

My parents are pretty wealthy, but they want me to support myself, not be dependent upon them, and I want that too so I wont be eligible for a need based scholarship.

 

I got 5k to my name and my parents would support me through some "normal" tuiton fees, no harvard obviously lol

 

My ideal universities would be the ones in new zealand cause I love the country, but tuiton there is crazy expensive (like 15k per year, which is a little too much for me)

Maybe if I got like a reaaally good SAT score in my next try and with some luck I could get into Imperial college, which ranks number 2 in marketing, but maybe Im just delusional.

Other great colleges for me would be lund sweden (also pretty expensive), paris (very selective) or others in scandinavia. I also like australia but I love forests and nature and don't know if i would withstand the temperature. My original dream school was dartmouth but its so f*cking expensive so I'd love a uni with an exchange to there...

 

Thank you so much for reading so far, Im looking for any kinds of advice, ideas or maybe just a quick reality check that Im being delusional and got no chance with college xyz. 

 

PS: My brother got into NYU on an incredible scholarship, so I also kinda feel pressured to archieve something, also all my friends are going off studying somewhere so I feel kind of left behing.

PPS: I dont always sound like a desperate idiot

Edited January 18, 2021 by Kilian

[mhf93]

This is a forum for graduate school applications (i.e. for master's or PhD level, not bachelor's), so you may not get much traction with this question. However, I would strongly recommend looking at schools in Denmark for your situation. Tuition will be free for you (assuming I understood correctly that you're a German citizen) and if you get a part-time job while studying you'll also be eligible for the Danish government stipend for students, of around €1000 per month. Some Bachelor's programs are taught in English so you could start by looking at those, but Danish is also pretty easy to learn if you're a native German speaker. If you're interested in marketing you should start by looking at Copenhagen Business School. I know a guy who did a semester at Dartmouth from the University of Copenhagen, so at least from there it's possible. 

I would not advise attending university in the US if I were you, your finances will be ruined for life. You have the opportunity to attend university in the EU for free or close to free so take advantage of that. Imperial College is off limits to you unfortunately as their minimum entry requirement for German students is a 1.6 Abitur (and SAT scores won't help you at a UK university). It is probably not possible for you to get anywhere "ASAP", as far as I know most schools will have closed admissions for the fall semester by now (although I could be wrong, it depends on the school). So you would be looking at starting around January or September 2022. Even if you start this fall I would not assume that remote learning will be off the table in the fall semester, given the slow pace of vaccinating worldwide. 

Good luck!

[Kilian]

2 hours ago, mhf93 said:

This is a forum for graduate school applications (i.e. for master's or PhD level, not bachelor's), so you may not get much traction with this question. However, I would strongly recommend looking at schools in Denmark for your situation. Tuition will be free for you (assuming I understood correctly that you're a German citizen) and if you get a part-time job while studying you'll also be eligible for the Danish government stipend for students, of around €1000 per month. Some Bachelor's programs are taught in English so you could start by looking at those, but Danish is also pretty easy to learn if you're a native German speaker. If you're interested in marketing you should start by looking at Copenhagen Business School. I know a guy who did a semester at Dartmouth from the University of Copenhagen, so at least from there it's possible. 

I would not advise attending university in the US if I were you, your finances will be ruined for life. You have the opportunity to attend university in the EU for free or close to free so take advantage of that. Imperial College is off limits to you unfortunately as their minimum entry requirement for German students is a 1.6 Abitur (and SAT scores won't help you at a UK university). It is probably not possible for you to get anywhere "ASAP", as far as I know most schools will have closed admissions for the fall semester by now (although I could be wrong, it depends on the school). So you would be looking at starting around January or September 2022. Even if you start this fall I would not assume that remote learning will be off the table in the fall semester, given the slow pace of vaccinating worldwide. 

Good luck!

Oh shit wrong forum? Ironically this is the most helpful answer from the 20 forums I posted in lol, thank you so much. 

Youre right about US, probably their school system isn't worth the trouble. Also copenhagen business school seems like a great idea Ill check if I can get late admission or otherwise I might have to start next year!

 

Damn, 1.6? I should have put more effort into the abitur... Maybe via COpenhagen I might still get into my dream school dartmouth...

 

Thanks a lot again, this really helped me a lot!

[OmniWheel]

If you decide to apply to the US, most colleges will give you the option to defer your enrollment for a year. You could always apply, get accepted, and then wait a year.

Can’t offer you much advice for moving out without college, except trying to get a job and your own apartment.

[janeausten]

If you want to move out, but still pay less tuition then maybe other EU countries would be better options? (Netherlands, Denmark etc). As I understand, as a German citizen, your fees would not be too high within EU. US is too expensive and I am not sure whether as a Bachelor student you will be able to make enough money with side projects to support yourself. I have not personally studies in the US but have friends doing Masters there, ans even for them with side jobs it is not very convenient. I am not sure how advisable it is to rake up that much in student loans.

 

All the best!