Advice for indian junior (international applicant for 2021)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

Hey guys.

I hadn’t thought of applying to colleges in the US up until recently; and now I’m worried if it’s too late to have an impressive application. Ever since freshman year, I’ve been coaching to get into an engineering college; but now I’m starting to wonder if that’s really what I want. I’m way more interested in pursuing math over engineering and am starting to grow weary of the rigid education system in my country.

→ My stats:

Freshman year : 94%

Sophomore year : 9.8 GPA

Junior year : 98.5% (expected)

Senior year : 98% (expected)

SAT (First attempt) Math-800 , Reading-690, Essay-16/24 .

I’ll probably attempt SAT a second time, expected score: 1540, Essay: 20/24 (Should I write the essay?)

My school doesn’t have AP classes, but I’m self-studying for Calc BC, Stats, and Physics C: Mechanics this year, I’m expecting two fives and a four.

→ ECs:

Voluntary math and english teacher at a local housing for underprivileged children since two years.

Founder and president of my school’s Math and Logic club.

Held a course for senior citizens in my locality to show them how to operate basic technology, general english phrases, and basic math skills over the last summer.

Tutor children in my neighborhood on weekends.

I am also a contributor in a writing blog with over 40,000 members, and am working on a science-fiction story; but I don’t really know if that’ll help my application.

I am planning on basing my commonapp and college application essays on how I plan on making a difference in the education system, and my love for teaching. i do believe that my extracurriculars match with my narrative in the essay; but I am starting to wonder if my application is impressive enough to get into a good college.

I hadn’t thought of the possibility of applying to study abroad, so I mostly focused on my school’s coursework up until junior year.

I plan on applying for a math major and will require financial aid from the university.

So, is my application good enough? What are my chances for getting admission in a university like Rice, Yale or Princeton? Do I stand a chance to be admitted in an Ivy League? What else can I do to make my application better? Do I need any awards for international olympiads, etc.?

I would appreciate replies and advice on this, and what your application looked like if you’re already an admitted international student. Also, hmu if you’re an Indian student student looking to apply to study abroad too.

2

Your stats are good. Getting admitted to the Ivies or equivalents are challenging regardless of your personal stats. For serious contention, pay close attention to your essay. Rejection is guaranteed if your essay is the sort that regurgitates your resume. “I did this and then that and then this great project, etc.” That’s the worst sort of essay. American colleges want to know who you are as a person. What sets you apart inside of you, inside your personality and soul? More successful essays revolve around some event in your life. The essay might show how you changed because of that incident. There are other approaches, but the main point is that in my (somewhat limited) experience, the students who seem mystified that they have high or perfect stats and resumes and yet are rejected across teh board, have written “resume regurgitation” type essays. You will also want to “show interest” at the colleges of your choice. Get on their email list, CLEAR YOUR COOKIES on your computer (because now colleges have software that reads your cookies and learns a lot about you) and look deeply at the schools and majors, the professors, etc. Also consider small LACs that are equivalent to Ivies–Pomona, Grinnell, Williams, Carleton, Swarthmore, and the like.

3

Thanks for the advice !

4

Your extracurriculars are really strong. If you can make your SAT stronger, that would also be good. Don’t be worried about not being impressive enough. I go to a competitive high school in the US, and many kids without national awards or perfect stats get into ivies. Also, during covid, it might even be a good idea to start an online free tutoring service for math to strengthen your application even more. Please chance me on my thread to anyone who sees this!

5

wow that is actually a nice idea !

6

Here’s the thing: no one can really tell you. At this level it’s a crapshoot. I’m from India as well, and I’m most likely going to Rice, unless one of my waitlists work out. I had very good stats (1580 SAT 800/800/790 Subject SAT, 42/45 IB Preicted), and strong ECs.

I got into a good amount of top-level colleges(Rice, Georgia Tech, UCLA, USC(with merit scholarship),Michigan), waitlisted(Caltech, Columbia, Brown, Harvey Mudd, CMU, Berkeley), and rejected(Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Penn, Northwestern, UT Austin). Funnily enough the numbers are pretty close - 5 acceptances, 6 waitlists, 7 rejections among my top choice colleges, got into quite a few safeties as well.

I felt that I was a strong contender for all of them, and this is how the results played out. I’m thrilled to be going to Rice, but I could easily have been rejected from Rice and maybe accepted into Harvey Mudd instead. You’re a strong applicant; I would advise you to start writing your college essays early, hit as many top level schools as possible while not compromising on quality, and make sure to have strong safeties that you would be happy to go to.

A final recommendation would be to ED to a place you really like. I didn’t ED and I kind of regret it, as ED is how you get into places you maybe wouldn’t in RD. If you really like Rice/Brown/Cornell/whatever, or maybe an elite LAC like Harvey Mudd/Swarthmore, consider EDing; it really helps. Northwestern, for example, has a 25% acceptance rate in ED, but only I believe 6% in RD

7

Thank you, that was helpful! I was thinking of applying REA instead of ED, though (financial reasons).

8

Check this out, but I’m reasonably sure that you can withdraw from an ED agreement if the aid they offer is not enough. I don’t think financial reasons should necessarily stop you from applying ED

9

thanks for sharing!

10

Yeah no problem. Feel free to DM me anytime if you have any other questions when applying