engineering internship in an mnc
school government president
certified in calculus and algebra by an organization
certified by advanced level in nikon school of photography
volunteered in an orphanage
work experience as a tutor for 3 years
volunteered in river flooded regions in india
Great Letters of recommendations will be available from teachers of physics and maths as they love me
A letter of recommendation from a native american engineer
You have already posted this in the chances forum and have been told that you cannot be accepted to Harvard for engineering. If you apply to Harvard, you will be in the same applicant pool as everyone else, and early action stats are easily found - you don’t need our help to do that.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that the higher EA acceptance rates means you have a good chance if you apply SCEA - Harvard does not accept on stats alone, and unless you can prove you are an interesting applicant, your chances remain minimal.
I think what a lot of people don’t understand about Harvard SCEA is that it is one of the most (if not the most) competetive applicant pools in the world other than medical school, law school, etc. Tons of great applicants are deferred, so no one really has a great chance.
You sound like a wonderful candidate, as will the vast majority of students who are rejected. Recommendations and essays will probably determine the outcome, and we are not the people reading those. So, sure you have a chance SCEA. How much of a chance, is anyone’s guess.
SAT Subject Tests are optional, so it shouldn’t be a problem. What IS going to a problem is being an international student. You need to realize that Harvard only admits about 170 to 190 international students per year – and about half of that number come from Canada, Great Britain, Australia and China. So your chances as an international student are not the same as the chances for a US Citizen.
^^ EdX offers a certificate of completion, but no grades. As such, Admissions has no way of knowing how you did relative to everyone else who took the course. So. while EdX courses are worthwhile, they provide no help in the applications process and IMHO are less helpful than taking a course at your local college and getting an A : https://www.edx.org/verified-certificate
I still don’t think you get it, as you seem to be grasping at straws looking for anything that will give you an edge. Nothing you do outside of school will really help you in Admissions, as colleges are academic institutions and look to your teachers to help them decide if you have what it takes to succeed at their college
Unless your teachers comment that you are one of the top students they’ve had in their career, that you constantly have your hand raised with thoughtful comments, that you lead classroom discussions, that your writing exceeds the strictures of assignments, that you are respected by your teachers and peers, that you will be remembered for years to come because of your warmth, humanity and humor – than all rest, including 6 months in a technological firm, is for naught. And even then, if you are a foreign applicant, much depends on the competition from the rest of your fellow countrymen. It’s a crapshoot . . . and you’re not getting that fact!
^^ That’s correct. All applicants apply to Harvard as liberal arts majors and do not have decide upon a concentration or major until their sophomore year.
And, as more than 60% of college students switch their major at least once during their 4 years of school, Admissions cannot use a student’s “intended major” or “interest” as a recruiting tool, as more often than not, students graduate with a different major than the one they wrote down on the Common Application.
You can view the profiles of Harvard accepted students from this year’s SCEA decision thread (above). As you can see, students with almost identical stats are both deferred and accepted. That’s because we not seeing 80% of what the Admissions Office sees. We are not seeing the essays, teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), interview report, or high school profile which is a rubric for the school’s grading policy, AP policy, EC’s offered and how well the student did in relation to their peers. Those are the things that differentiates one high performing student from another, not someone’s stats or profile. Unfortunately, only an Admissions Officer gets to view 100% of what is in a student’s file. So, what you see on the SCEA decision thread is the best glimpse of what an accepted student looks like.