High school - Moderately competitive (Ranked 9th in Zonal rankings for South-India)
Not legacy, US citizen
Male, First generation student
Intended Major(s)
Aerospace Engineering (1st Pref)
Astronomy/Astrophysics (2nd Pref)
UW GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
UW GPA (percentage) - 98.0/100 (Equivalent to a 4.0 in american scale)
Weighted GPA - Not applicable
Rank - Not officially announced (Counselor did mention that the previous year (Junior grade) I came 1/180)
Test Scores - SAT-1500 (790-Math, 710-E R&W)
Coursework
CBSE Curriculum - most popular coursework
Chose Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths, and English (Considered comparatively the toughest)
Awards
Have received Subject toppers, all-rounder awards consecutively since 8th grade (School recognized awards, Given to those who top each subject and to those who take most extracurriculars while at the same time get the maximum scores respectively)
International Math Olympiad, National Science Olympiad (Organised by SOF, India) - Got 1st rank 3 times, the most recent being this year (1st out of 128 this year in school), and got an international rank, the highest of them being 215.
National Mathematics Talent Contest - Conducted by the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India - Top 10 percentile Nationally (1 of 2 from school)
National Science Conference recognition (NCSC) - Went to the finals of the National Round.
District level competitions - 3 appearances - 2 Awards (1st and 3rd)
Won several MUN conferences (Best delegates and overall best delegation), Have been in the Executive board (Chairperson/Vice-Chairperson) four times.
All India Karate Championships (ā ā ā ā -Ryu) - 1st in Kata (Category-Brown belts) and 3rd in Kumite (Category-+75 Kgs)
Extracurriculars
Have been practicing competitive Karate for 11 years, currently having a black belt
Founder and the Chief Instructor to the Astronomy Club of the school and a member of the Astronomy club of Chennai (Capital city of Tamilnadu, a state in India)
Founder and manager of a blog that focuses on Astronomy, called āAstrophileā
IT head of the Energy Club - A club that focuses on conserving energy in the neighborhoods of the school, by building solar panels (in the school), conducting rallies, and competitions that promote energy efficiency - Got recognized by Times NIE, a students magazine/Newspaper
Pro-MUNner, have attended 14 MUNs and have been awarded in all of them but one; a director of the MUN club
Worked with NGOs under the Tamilnadu Differently-abled Federation Charitable Trust, leading one of their projects
Worked with an ISRO scientist, research emphasizing aerospace technology, in specific plasma propulsion
Presented many projects on district and national level science conferences (NCSC) along with my teammate, being awarded in the former and getting honorable mentions in the latter.
Got selected for the CCIR (Cambridge Centre for International Research) Future Scholars Program (1 of 5 to be offered a position at Dr. Owen Griffithsā Mathematical Logic research programme), which is one of the most selective research programs and was even awarded the CCIR Merit Scholarship which is received by only 30% of the accepted applicants
1st place in the junior division of a National Level Quiz conducted by VIT
National Level Spell Bee - Top 10 percentile (Conducted by Spell Bee International)
Got selected for the YUVIKA program conducted by ISRO for 9th graders, was 1 of the 5 OCI candidates who got selected from the whole country (It was later canceled due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic)
1/8 out of 128 students (Including college students, and school going students) to complete a molecular biology course offered by IIT-Bombay.
Essays/LORs/Other
Essays
Common App essay (7/10)
Stanford specific essays (9/10)
MIT specifc essays (8/10)
Umich specific essays (8.5/10)
Georgia Tech specified essays (8.5/10)
LORs
Physics teacher - Conveyed what she had to, along with her experience as my guide to all my science conferences
Maths teacher (Head of Department) - Adding onto the previous comment, she delved more into my personal character
So do you have an actual question, or is this just a ālook at meā thread? You have 3 great acceptances already, so (as long as you can afford them) everything else is icing and cherries on top.
I just wanted to be chanced for the listed universities. Yes, I got into 3 universities, but I wanted to know about the rest as Stanford is still my dream school and so is MIT. I listed the other universities as the template told me to. Sorry if it looked like I was boasting but I really tried not to.
I say this with kindness, b/c I know the wait is hard: nobody on this forum can tell you more than you already know: you are a credible candidate, as are the vast majority of the 95% of applicants who will be rejected.
Does your school think that you are competitive for the TaTa scholarship at Cornell?
Thanks for the reply! I just didnāt feel right, hence I had to ask for my chance at these schools. I do understand your view nevertheless, thank you!
I guess it is only for Indian students (Indian citizens), but I am an american citizen though I live here in India.
You have done everything that you can with the things you can control- but now you donāt have any control, and that doesnāt feel right to anybody!
So, distract yourself: do something physical. Do something for somebody else. if you like probability games, figure out how many rejection letters you are likely to get (Iāll give you a start: try 5*). Figure out your odds of getting into UMd RD (my bet is that they are not 100%, even though your stats are great, b/c they take so many students early, and the Engineering school acceptance rate is something like 10%). But really my recommendation is to put it out of your head as much as possible for another month.
*why 5? all of my birthdate is divisible by 5 & I have always been partial to it as a number
Theyāre VERY different experiences. Be careful about dreaming about the name and nothing else.
That said, your career prospects in AE will be similar among all of the schools on your list. So, congrats! If you donāt get into MIT or Stanford itās not that big of a deal.
Is it not too late for chance-me? You missed out some good schools CU-Boulder, A&M, UT-Austin to name fewā¦
At this point, I assume you know that most state univ. donāt give much finaid. So, you should have had Boston Univ, Tufts, etc to make college more affordable. Its bit late for anything new now.
So, just focus on your 12th grade and have a stellar senior year performance.
Congrats on three wonderful acceptances! I wouldnāt worry another minute about the reach schools. You already are in to three amazing schools!
Note, if you applied RD to UMD, OSU, and PSU, those all become much more difficult admits because most of the class is filled in EA. I wouldnāt count any of those school as safeties in the RD round, especially UMD.
Thank you so much! I have applied for financial aid at every single university. So I hope it would at least make it more affordable than it actually is (despite federal grant and university grants not summing upto a lot)
Also, my parents havenāt done their ugs in any country. Their highest education qualification is High school for one and a high school equivalent for another.
I didnāt know that about UMD. Iāll just hope for the best.
I do like Stanford for the experience, whereas MIT is more of a fondness because of its āelitenessā, which I realize is not the best way to like a university.
I did consider applying to these universities, but I didnāt correlate much with their likeness. About boston university and tufts donāt explicitly offer aerospace; they only have Mechanical E.
I would be able to afford almost each of these universities except Umich. I have anyways sent a financial aid request to all the schools I applied to, as a result expect affordability to be covered.