Hi! I am an international applicant to these programs. I would love to hear what you have to say.
Ethnicity: Asian(Indian)
Household income: high enough to not need aid.
SAT: My January SAT went great! I will be sending SSP my SAT scores after I get them. YSP does not ask for SAT scores.
Marks: around 90% (Grading is very rigorous at my school and I have valid reasons for a bit of a decline in my grades)
SAT 2: None taken
APs: Not offered at my school.
Relevant ECs:
- Research: I carried out a research project last summer. It got published in a peer-reviewed journal and I am the lead author. I did not receive any mentorship during the course of the project. I had to do everything myself.
- I have taken part in a lot of competitive examinations ranging from the Indian equivalent of the AIME to other examinations where I have performed exceptionally well (T-50 nationally).
- I have used my coding skills to build A LOT of video-games. I uploaded them to Github and sent them the link.
Essays: I found them interesting. Plus a lot of those essays are from the MIT app. I wrote them as if I were writing the actual application to MIT. They turned out well.
Additional Skills:
Python, C++, Javascript, LaTeX - Proficient. MATLAB - Amateur.
Thank you for your time!
Oh, and I’ve taken every rigorous course offered at my school. I have also finished the calculus course offered at my school
Hi wee one,
Your school sounds very different from the normal IB schools in Mumbai considering you’re from Mumbai. Or you just love this city a lot. ANYWAY.
Personally, Summer Programs are not the best unless you’re doing something like Camp Bizsmart. Rightly put by a professor at IIT who has a son studying at my school, it is just people trying to pay huge sums of money to keep a college running when its classrooms are empty. Most of the time, the real college professors do not even take classes during SSPs. Its usually quite expensive and adds very little value if you’re doing it for college purposes. Buuut if you’re super keen on learning and stuff, go ahead. :3
ECs: Do you have any more? They’re very focused on what you want to do, that’s good… But diversity is great too. Probably a little more to your personality than career oriented ECs? Competitive exams don’t really count under extra curricular activities IMO, but nothing else you’ve done for CAS and stuff if you’re an IB kid or sports/arts?
Rest of the stuff: From what you’re saying, you have a great shot. Summer schools aren’t nearly as selective as college and if you hit a basic benchmark, I see nothing stopping you. GPA is ~ 4.0 if you’re using the American system of an A being above 90 and so on. I’d really, really push you to do internships. Go work with a startup, develop something cool and just get more meaty stuff to get your hands on. :3 I chose not to go to summer school but intern in the Middle East for the same reason.
Good luck!
I do not know a lot about Summer Programs, but I think that they are not competitive like admissions. That’s why if you did well at the SAT, they will accept you 
Why? Scores weren’t as per expectations?
@jazzdancer2102 I’m sorry but I did not understand what you meant to say by ‘Scores weren’t as per expectations.’
You said bump, that’s why I asked