Chance an International for CS Reach Schools! [IBDP predicted 777776]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

Gender: Male
Indian citizen but living in Europe (Czechia) (did HS in Czechia and some of MS in Czechia), Applying for Fall 2024
Hooks: None

Intended Major: Computer Science

Academics

IB Diploma (HL: Math AA, Physics, Chemistry, SL: English Lang Lit, French, Economics) (44/45 Predicted Grades expected, 777776 with the 6 in IB English Lang & Lit SL)

Self Studied AP Calculus BC Freshman Year and took the exam (5/5)

Self Studied AP Physics C Mech in sophomore year (5/5), also self studied AP Physics C E&M sophomore year (4/5)

Sophomore Year did Multivariable Calculus from John Hopkins CTY Online

Yet to take SAT, but can get 1550+ after preparing based on practice tests

Awards

AMC 12 (First Place School, school-level so prolly won’t include in app)

AIME Qualifier

USACO Silver

Canadian Math Contest (10th grade, 1st place school, Top 1% globally)

Google Certified TensorFlow (software library for AI and Data Science) Developer

Represented this small European country at the FIRST Global Challenge Geneva Switzerland 2022 (Robotics challenge)

Will represent Czechia again in FIRST Global Challenge Singapore 2023 (highly likely but not confirmed)

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

Sci-Tech Challenge Czechia by ExxonMobil and Junior Achievement: 1st Place

Full Paid trip to Brussels for European Sci-Tech Challenge by ExxonMobil and Junior Achievement

Extracurriculars

Gave a TEDx talk on Artificial Intelligence and Creativity (about 12k views rn)

Did Robotics throughout High School, took part in a VEX robotics competition where many European schools competed

Cross Country running in 10th grade

Tutored high schoolers math in my high school as a volunteer

Tutored our school’s middle school MathCounts team

Run a computer science club in school where I help students with any problems they have with computer science

Wrote some articles on Machine Learning on Medium.com (about 2k views in total)

Financial Constraints: Can Full Pay if needed

Safeties & Matches: All in Europe (So only chance me for the schools below)
Reaches: UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon
Even More Reachy Reaches: MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Caltech

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You look like a strong candidate. Since you already have safeties and matches, and don’t need aid*, go shoot your shot at these reaches.

CMU likes full pay international students so I think you have your best chance there. But it’s not a school that suits everybody, so do your research. If you love the school and are willing to commit, applying ED will boost your chances.

(* - make sure you can show funds for all 4 years. You’ll need to do this to get your visa)

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Thank you so much for the info!

How would you say are my chances for each of the 6 schools?

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The acceptance rate at all these schools is in the low single digits for international applicants. So unfortunately, it’s very hard to predict your chances more accurately.

I think you may get a slight boost from applying REA to Stanford or Harvard, but I don’t have reliable data to back that up. If you do apply REA and don’t get in, you have the option of applying ED2 to CMU.

I’m tagging @hebegebe who may be able to comment on your chances at MIT and Harvard.

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@BearNo21, you have accomplished a great deal and should be proud.

But as you specifically asked to be chanced for HMS and CalTech, I am letting you know that a lot of exceptional international applicants get turned down at those colleges.

The admit rate for international students at Harvard and MIT is less than half their overall admit rate. The international students that do get admitted tend to be scary smart compared to the domestic students at Harvard and MIT.

To put it in perspective, MIT accepts about 120 international students each year. Each country has 6 students on their IMO team, and so many of those apply from all over the world that MIT can only accept about half of them. And we haven’t even started to consider other accomplishments that these colleges like.

Since you have a good set of safeties and matches, I agree with @DadOfJerseyGirl that it’s fine to try for the reaches. Just know the odds going in.

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As you know, the acceptance rates for these schools are very very low…perhaps in the single digits for international students. You are a strong applicant, so go for it. You could be one of those accepted.

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Thanks for the kind words!

Yep, I have come to terms with the fact that the applicant pools for the HMS colleges are very competitive. I am wondering though where exactly I stand in that applicant pool, am I at the bottom of the competitive pool, in the middle, slightly above average, or at the top end of the applicant pool (top end being people who have a fair shot of getting admitted).

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There is no way for us to answer this question for your application year. Every year has a different applicant pool. Plus…if you don’t get accepted (or do) you will never know why. Most of these schools do holistic admissions reviews. They are trying to craft an entering freshman class.

Just apply and see. There is no way to accurately predict admissions at schools with admissions rates in the single digits.

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UC Berkeley’s 2022 admit rates are as follows:
CS was 2.9%. For 2023, it was 2.3%
EECS was 4.5%. For 2023, I have not found specific data. College of Engineering as a whole had a 6.6% acceptance rate.

There is no way to chance with such low admit rates other than to say you are definitely qualified and competitive but so are many of the applicants which were not admitted.

Best of luck.

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For these schools, and CS in particular, the process is highly unpredictable in the absence of an absolute hook. You qualify for all, without an absolute hook.

Your strategy is correct to aim high, since it costs the same to attend the best. Certain schools on your list have a genuine higher admit rate, so you mathematically have a higher probability, but the differences are not large. If time allows, your absolute best bet would be to add perfectly suitable schools to your list, such as Cornell, JHU, UCLA etc

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