<p>I am an Indian student currently in my junior year at High School. I am interested in applying to a few US universities, but I am pretty much totally dependent on financial aid (Family Income< USD 20000).
GPA- 4.0 ( A grade in every subject till now)
Leadership- Senior Minister in school
Academics- National Scholar( among top 1000), awarded by Government
EC- National Level quizzer( won quite a few national level competitions),National level Semifinalist in Spell Bee, Finished 2 official exams in Indian Classical Music, Play table tennis (and secured 3rd in national level TT competition conducted by an educational organisation my school is a part of),participated in quite a few debates and essay competitons
Social work- None :(
SAT & SAT subjects- Yet to be taken</p>
<p>I am interested in pursuing Chemical Engineering/Chemistry/Material Science & Engineering at
1) Cornell
2) University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign</p>
<p>I have a few questions
1) How high do I need to score in SAT?
2) Am I on the right track?
3) Could you suggest some more universities where I stand a chance?
3) Will the lack of social work affect my chances? I have quite a valid reason for leadership skills though ( have changed schools).
Thanks in advance</p>
<p>1) There’s no set score, but you want to get something above 2050 at the very least (or more ideally 2150+) to be competitive for schools like Cornell.
2) You’re fine, but try to really show colleges your love for your intended major through your ECs. For example, do research in Chemistry or partake in chem competitions etc.</p>
<p>3) You need to look for universities that offer A LOT of financial aid to international applicants but are still pretty good in your field of interest. UIUC, or even Cornell aren’t exactly the best for this. I think Amherst College is a very good example of a school you should be looking to apply to, along with Williams and a few others…</p>
<p>4) I believe yes (but i’m just a high school student so don’t take my word for it), it would definitely help if you were to, for example, join an NGO, or teach at a local government school (not too difficult to arrange in India).</p>
<p>As far as I know, neither Amherst nor Williams have a engineering programm. There are not many enginnering schools which offer aid to internationals You should look at Harvey Mudd, Lafayette, Boston University or Union College, and of course the big ones like MIT, Stanford, Harvard etc. But for that you should improve your social work.</p>
<p>I know Amherst doesn’t really have an engineering program/dept. But they do have science/math degrees which go to engineering grad schools from there. Obviously this isn’t as easy as going to an actual engineering school for your undergrad studies, and it does cutoff opportunities to work in an engineering field until you graduate from grad school, but I thought it might be a viable option considering his income bracket and the fact that it is VERY difficult to get into a good engineering school like MIT as an international student even without a need for aid.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Not yet decided whether I will be going into an engineering school or a pure science one.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell has Tata Scholarships exclusively for Indians. ( Got a senior who is studying in Cornell with the scholarship)</p></li>
<li><p>I guess I need to be getting into a need-blind university. Is Cornell one? Wikipedia says - it is, to some extent.</p></li>
</ol>