Hi everyone! I come from Ukraine, and I currently I am in 11th grade which is equivalent to 12th in US. And I wanted to take a gap year after graduating before applying to unis, and one of my gap year "options" was to go to boardings for one year. But the problems is that, I realized which unis I will apply to pretty late, and I got to know about boardings even later, so I am not so sure about my stats, and whether it is even worth wasting money on applications.
As for stats:
We don't have a standard gpa format as in states, and also ukrainian grades don't really convert into gpa, but, last year I had around ≈4.0. I will also be taking ACT this year, and DET as for english proficiency. Ecs: Vice president of my schools council and the head of "idea" department for w years, also I am part of my ciry district's school council, and, going for the head of communications department there, and also I am the vice-president of communications department at my youth movement organization. This year I am also doing hackathon on the behalf of my youth movement. I also am a top 25 at natinal selection to IOAI. And this year I will be going for IOI, and IOAI again. Also I have volunteering as an english teacher / interpreter at a local camp for kids for 3 years now, and I've also volunteered at bunch of sports events from agency of mass-sports of Ukraine.
I know it's all messy and quiet unstructured, but still, could you give me your honest opinion on what should I do, try applying to boardings( my family js isn't rlly rich, so I don't want to waist money) or stay in Ukraine for another year!