My Background

My name is Ryan Joseph and I'm from Surabaya, Indonesia, an urban city near Bali. I went to a relatively small IB curriculum high school with only 100 people per grade. It's a private school, but not a feeder school that sends kids to top universities yearly. The first time they sent students to a top university was last year, where they got into Harvard, Stanford, and UCLA. I'm the second person from my school to get into an Ivy League. 

Why I decided to study abroad

I feel that I don't have the career path that I want here in Indonesia. I want to be either a lawyer or a political journalist. If I were to be a lawyer here, I wouldn't be very successful because language is a barrier to my flourishing in that career path. Regarding political journalism, it's not prominent here in Indonesia. There's a very small industry and I think that it would be a better opportunity to study abroad.

Why USA & Dartmouth

The top colleges in the U.S. have world-class professors. One of the visiting professors at Dartmouth is the former president of Kosovo. I am also drawn to the intimate learning settings of liberal arts schools.

I also chose Dartmouth because of the community. One thing about Dartmouth is that they're not really competitive, rather they're more collaborative, which is an environment  I would like to surround myself with. Additionally, Dartmouth is on a quarter system, allowing students to explore their interests in different fields, while pursuing internships and study abroad programs in any semester. I’m interested in studying abroad in Spain or England.

Academic history, GPA, and test scores

My school does not have a GPA or ranking system. I sent my predicted grade for the IB exams which was 44/45. I was the first person to take 4 higher-level subjects in my school. I tried to maximize my rigor by taking Math AA, English A, Visual Arts, and Biology for the higher level. For my standard-level subjects, I took Environmental Systems and Societies and Indonesian A. Before the IB, I also did IGCSEs and sent my grades of A* in English as a Second Language and A in Mathematics Extended. I also sent my SAT scores of 1520 and a Duolingo English Test perfect score of 160.

Extracurriculars

1. I am the founder and president of my non-profit EMBRACE Youth International, which educates young people on global issues. We are spread across 26 chapters in 25 countries and have impacted more than 1 million people through community visits, our podcast, social media, and campaigns. Our non-profit has a podcast with over 25,000 views, where we've interviewed figures such as Miss Universe Jamaica and an author working with UNICEF. EMBRACE Youth works with a group of advisors comprising PhDs in medicine, a Commonwealth Young Person of the Year, Miss Teen Indonesia, and a United Nations advocate. We also have ambassadors, including the youngest TEDx speaker in the world. This was the main activity that I worked on throughout high school.

2. I founded The Green Plate Foundation, cooking healthy Indonesian food and distributing it to local communities. By the time I applied, we had distributed around 1700 meals.

3. I participated in the Caretakers of the Environment International (CEI) Conference, where I was a team leader and young reporter in 2022. I participated from 2021 to 2023 raising $3000 to plant 200 mangrove trees and teaching kids in an orphanage how to make ‘batik’ (an Indonesian traditional cloth) out of sustainable materials, to help them develop an enterprise.

4. I did the Lumiere Research Program under a full scholarship, researching environmental governance with a PhD from the University of Leeds.

5. I invented a product called the EpiWatch, which is an Epi-pen in the form of a watch to promote sustainability. I won first place at an international competition in Singapore and was awarded $1,500. A major accomplishment was when I presented my project to the co-founder of a billion-dollar company.

6. I also did screen and speech writing for beauty pageant contestants, as my sister is a former ‘Puteri Anak Indonesia’ (or Miss Teen Indonesia). One time I wrote a speech that was broadcast in front of a million people. Aside from this, I also wrote a couple of other scripts. 

7. I was president of my school's debate club, and am a 2X national Model UN champion.

Awards

I received The Diana Award, which was the main award of my application. I think it helped me a lot because The Diana Award is one of the most prestigious awards for community service. During my freshman year, I won a gold medal at the International Festival of Engineering, Science, and Technology, held virtually in Tunisia.

My College Essays

I wrote my college essay about Batik, about the process of making it, and how it translates to different parts of my life. Batik has taught me a lot about unity and community, but it has also challenged me to expand my perspective. Indonesia is a very conservative country, but at my nonprofit EMBRACE Youth, we talk about issues like LGBTQ2S+ issues. I talked about how I was able to defy societal norms and be brave about voicing things that matter. My intended majors are environmental studies, public policy, and creative writing, so I tried to blend all three in my essays.

Dartmouth Supplemental Essays

One of the supplemental essays I wrote was about minions. The supplemental question that I answered was "Celebrate your nerdy side.” I love minions, thus I wrote about how minions have a deeper meaning within them. Lots of people just view minions as funny or ridiculous, but one thing we can learn from them is their value of loyalty and community. I wrote that Bob teaches me about compassion, Kevin inspires me to take on leadership, and Stuart embodies adventurousness. I think that it helped me to include it in the essay because Dartmouth is a very outdoorsy college. 

Scholarship and Financial Aid

I received generous financial aid, nearly a full ride. They allowed me to have employment as well to cover the cost.

For Dartmouth specifically, they only require you to submit the CSS profile to get financial aid. But before getting accepted, they emailed me and asked me for extra documents, such as my parents' business tax reports and other financial documents.

Application Timeline

I prepared since ninth grade because I knew that I wanted to get into a good college. Throughout high school, I focused on trying to explore my interests, building my extracurriculars, and maintaining my academics. I think having a story is very important as you want to present yourself in the most unique way possible and the most authentic way possible. I started my college essays around August of my senior year and finished them in early October.

One thing I did differently with my application was that I tried to make as many updates to my applications as possible to demonstrate interest. I sent Dartmouth an additional recommendation letter from a UN ambassador and emailed them updates regarding activities. Admissions officers are human, and even if a college says they don’t consider demonstrated interest, staying engaged helps them remember you. Maximizing every opportunity, no matter how small, can make a difference.

Resources and Personal Advice

For resources I used, I would highly recommend @borderless.so, @tineocollegeprep, and @limmytalks on TikTok, along with Reddit to familiarize myself with previously accepted profiles. 

However, sometimes it might be discouraging due to the insane stats and extracurriculars we often see. I found it helpful to focus on learning from them rather than comparing them. Admissions officers evaluate applicants within an applicant's context. For example, I’m from Indonesia, so I was compared with other students from Indonesia, not the U.S. Therefore, it’s important to focus on maximizing the resources around you.

Another advice that not many people give is to focus on understanding the school that you want to get into and try to understand what they're looking for. For example, Dartmouth in particular is looking for people who highly value community and the outdoors. If you don’t align with their profile, it could reduce your chances.

Finally, take care of your physical and mental health. No matter if you get accepted to your dream school or not, know that everything happens for a reason. Anything is possible if you work towards it!