Chance an international student for lower Ivies and UCLA/UCB!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics :

Indian
Male
International Student
School : Private school in India
Income : < $20,000 (Don't qualify for any aid in India, such is the middle class drudgery)
Hooks : a) : Grandparents and parents were driven out of homeland by militants in the early 90s, settled almost 1900 miles away in a remote village. Moved to the city a year before I was born. Have been homeless a few times since. Excelling at academics in such a household. b) : (Sort of) Low income

Intended major(s) : Computer Science or
Mathematics or Econ (unsure about Econ, just an option I’ve kept open)

Academics

SAT 1 : 1990/2400 ( 700M, 710W, 580R lol) ( Retaking a few times before applying, should get to around 1500/1600 )
SAT 2 : Math Level 2 : 790 , Physics : 770 , Chemistry : 740
Class Rank : School doesnt offer but it should be 6th or 7th out of 81
Coursework : Indian Standard 12 (CBSE) - English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science No APs offered
UW/W GPA: School doesnt offer/calculate
Academic Awards:
    National merit certificate for 10/10 CGPA in Class 10( CBSE Indian Standard 10 )
    93% in Indian Standard 12(CBSE) final exams, with 95% in average in core subjects (Phy,Chem,Math)
    Dozens of distinctions and high distinctions in IAIS exams (International Assessment for Indian School) conducted by Macmillan and UNSWGlobal Australia.
    High Distinction in ANCQ ( Australian National Chemistry Quiz ) ( they also did mention the top % of students I was in, but I dont remember that right now. I was in the single digits for sure )
    (Not sure if this counts) Selected to National level of the Spelling Bee competition held in 2008. Couldnt attend due to financial reasons
    Report card has been filled with A1's and A2's for the last 12 years ( For reference : A1 : 91-100 range, A2 : 81-90 range). Very few B's along the way.

Extracurriculars:

Computer Club president for 2 years
School's waste management head for 1 year
House captain for 1 year (Student Govt)
School secretary for 1 year (Student Govt)
Extensive animal rescue work (>150 hours) with an NGO (Been bitten dozens of times lol)
Part of drive to makeover the dirtiest spots in the city. Did dirty work, literally. ( To get an idea of what I'm talking about, visit here fb.me/bengalururising
Summer work experience at a local veterinarian
Summer work experience working at a power tools manufacturing factory. Operated a CNC Machine
Loads of other minor things, none particularly mention-worthy

Misc

Strong letters of recommendation from school principal and teachers.

Going to submit a portfolio of my school projects/research work (Includes: 3xComputer Science projects, 1x Game created by in C++, 9xPhysics research project reports, 3 of which have been performed and certified by the Indian Institute of Science, 8xChemistry research project reports )

Schools :
ED Cornell
EA Caltech
UCLA UCB
RD: Dartmouth ,Princeton, Brown, Duke, GATech + a few UK colleges (Imperial College, University College etc)

Comments:

What do you think? Am I being too optimistic and overestimating myself? Should I aim lower? Should I try a bit higher? You’re welcome to criticize and comment. Sorry about the formatting, I’m new here

2

bump

3

I’d say you’re pretty good for GATech. The rest I’m not so sure. Be careful with the ED and EA policies.

4

Since you need financial aid, UC’s and GTech are out.
Your odds at all other schools are about 1%.your academics make the cut so it’ll depend on your essays, recs, and EC 's.
Your financial need will hurt you at schools like Duke, Brown, and Dartmouth.
Buy a Fiske Guide or Princeton Review 's best colleges and start reading. Your list is all over the place and doesnt’t take 'fit’into account at all - I’m guessing you have no idea what that is, so start reading.
For math, apply to Northwestern, Williams, HarveyMudd, Pomona, and flagship universities with automatic scholarships.
For economics, Hamilton, Colgate, Colby, Middlebury.

5

Forget the UC’s and any other PUBLIC universities which do not offer aid (need-based nor merit-based) to int’l students.

The term “lower Ivies” is beyond stupid; don’t use it. All the ivies are ridiculously difficult to get into, especially for students from India. You are competing against THOUSANDS of your countrymen for a limited number of slots allocated to Indian students.

There’s no harm in applying ED to a super-selective school, but just make sure it gives aid to int’ls. You should expand your list to include slightly lower ranked good schools that are known for giving generous merit scholarships. Check with each school’s website to see if it gives aid to int’l students. I recall a post by an Indian int’l student who received very generous aid from WPI.

6

UCLA and UCB won’t give you any financial aid. They don’t provide aid to international students.

Honestly, you definitely need to add more match schools. Every school on that list is a reach. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were rejected from all of them (not because you’re a bad applicant but because of how competitive the process has become). Consider applying to schools like Texas A&M, UConn, MSU, OSU etc.

^ Not sure if those schools provide aid to internationals!

7

Re: hooks
URM, legacy, recruited athlete, 1st generation college.
That’s about it.
Family tragedies aren’t considered “hooks”, being low income isn’t a “hook”. (There are hundreds of thousands of kids who are low income)
A hook is a defined category that the college needs/wants. You don’t get to make-up what a hook is.
If you want to use those issues in your essays, then do so, but don’t call them hooks.

8

You are aiming too high. If you are ranked at ~10% of your class, you would not cut in to schools which ordinarily take only 1-2% within US poll (though your achievements under those living conditions/circumstances are admirable).
Sorry to disappoint you, but you need to attend an school in which you can prevail and remain competitive with other kids … once you get in. I doubt with an SAT of mere 1990 you could compete with other kids with SATs in 2300+ over good grades. You will end up to be the kid who struggles to not get academically disqualified, semester after semester, with a lot of C’s and D’s.
Among your school list only GT may be feasible.

9

Sorry for the brutal truth. But I agree with previous posters. You are simply aiming too high. There are far too many desis who apply from India with higher scores than you, and who are full pay.

There are only a handful of schools which are need blind to international students. You stand a pretty good chance of being rejected across the board.

Add some more schools which are known to give good aid to internationals. There are many liberal arts colleges where you could be admitted and get decent financial aid. Go to the international student forum here and there is a list of colleges which are generous to internationals. A few that I can remember are: Dickinson, Colby, Connecticut, Skidmore, Reed.

Your best chance at success is to pick one of these colleges and then apply ED.

10

@uclaparent9 Haha no on the day I got 1990 on the SAT I was sick as a dog. After getting a 790 in Math Level 2 there’s no way I’m getting 700 on the cheapshit Math in SAT1 :wink:

11

^ Now you sound more like an egoistic kid with, somewhat, bad attitude!

12

I’ll be very blunt about your current situation:

  1. You have no way to pay for public university tuition, therefore they are out.
  2. You don’t even come close to other international applicants in terms of stats, extra-curriculars, and awards.
  3. Not being full-pay and applying to private colleges will hurt your chances as an international applicant.

You are aiming too high. Internationals who get accepted into these types of schools have international-level achievements and enough money to pay for tuition.

“Haha no on the day I got 1990 on the SAT I was sick as a dog. After getting a 790 in Math Level 2 there’s no way I’m getting 700 on the cheapshit Math in SAT1”

Your attitude isn’t the best, either. I really don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t have much of a shot at the majority of the schools on your list.

13

@MYOS1634 Do you really believe OP has any chance for admission for the caliber of schools you were suggesting him in your post#3:

“For math, apply to Northwestern, Williams, HarveyMudd, Pomona, and flagship universities with automatic scholarships” ?

14

Math is a special animal. For that track, it’ll depend on what OP has achieved in math specifically and how he demonstrates that.
HMC and Northwestern are the least likely but they’re among the best for math among those not over -applied by Indian students.
The others are good reaches for the OP, yes, especially the LACs since proportionally fewer Desi students apply. OP’s State may also be a plus, as is the fact he’s not applying for CS or engineering.
OP has a good story and has shown grit. His grades and rankings are superb (and keep in mind this class rank has to be evaluated more like being top 10% at New Trier.)
Due to his subject scores, he’s likely to hit 750+ on the sat math reasoning, and will hopefully gain enough in cr that he’ll reach 680. One or two subject tests outside of science to show versatility and he could apply with his subject scores only, to quite a few universities (Bowdoin, nyu). Even if these are reaches, a 1430 would qualify him for many merit scholarships at flagships that offer them and would ensure he makes the first cut at many highly selective universities, especially those in the Midwest and South, LACs, and other schools that many Indian applicants aren’t automatically applying to.
I second the suggestions in #8 but would recommend adding Temple Honors, UMN tc, Miami Ohio, etc.

15

For someone whose family income falls at the US poverty line for a family of 3, and who is relying on the generosity of a foreign school to gift you generous money to attend, it takes a lot of nerve to refer to anything as “cheapshit”.

16

Can someone chance me please?
Stats:
SAT 1: 1990 CR 550 M 800 W 670 E 6
SAT 2: Will be taking in a few days Math level 1 and 2. Expecting 780+ on both
Class 9: 10/10
Class 10:10/10
Class 11:98.4%
Class 12:94.8%CBSE
Yes, I’m taking a gap year. Will be doing a gap year course at Oxford probably .
Nationality: Indian
Colleges I will be applying to:
Umich
UT Austin
UC Berkeley
Uiuc
UNC Chapel Hill

17

@throwaway007 You are not getting into those schools with those scores and your attitude. Assuming you improve your scores, most of those schools are still high reaches and, even if admitted, you may not receive much aid, if at all.

You will be better off applying to schools that are less competitive and offer FA to internationals, as others have said, and/or apply to schools in your country.

@Mahindar Please do not hijack threads. Start your own thread.

18

Your SAT1 is low for UCB (and possibly for the rest of schools in your list).