Demographics: Indian Male, Upper Middle Class, No Finaid required (as long as the Uni is worth it)
Major: Mainly Math and CS, except in colleges where I another program interests me more than the aforementioned. For e.g. UPenn- M&T, Princeton- Operations Research and Fin. Engineering, Cornell- Info Science
Education
ICSE 8th Ranked School Nationally [subbed for actual school name]
99.2% ICSE
IB 2nd Ranked School Nationally
Current GPA: 42/42
[4 HLs- MAA, Economics, Physics, CS] [SLs-Hindi, English]
Standardized Tests
Received a score of 36/36
SAT Subject Tests
800/800 in Chemistry
800/800 in Mathematics Level II
Advanced Placement Exams
5 in AP Statistics
5 in AP English Language and Composition
5 in AP Computer Science A
Academic Awards and Honours
National
ICSE
Ranked 4th nationally among 2,00,000 students
Scored 100/100 in Computer Science
Scored 100/100 in English Literature
Scored 100/100 in Hindi
Scored 100/100 in Geography
Class Rank (2018-2019, 2019-2020)
Ranked 2nd in the class of 2020
Highest Scorer- Mathematics, Hindi
International
AIME Qualifier
Ranked among the top 5% internationally
Certificate of Distinction and Intl. Honour Roll
CEMC Fermat
CEMC Hypatia
CEMC Euclid
SIMOC Qualifier with All India Rank-10 out of 18.000 Participants
Global Rank 9 in SIMOC
Infinity 2020
Part of the 3-member team which ranked 1st among 150 teams internationally
AP Scholar Award
Leadership
Founder of the Financial Literacy Club
Current School
Mentor
FRC Team
Mentored the school FRC team on the programming aspect leading them to the Qualcomm innovation challenge semi-finals. Used my Java skills to teach my peers programming from scratch covering algorithms along the way.
Technology & Outreach
Vidya Vijay Portal
A portal which links Indian students to scholarships based on their financial, demographic and academic details.
Saraswati Drive
Saraswati Drive was my initiative in order to impart financial literacy and sound budgeting practices to the women of low-income families. This idea came to my mind after my awareness campaign in the Dharavi slums when I noticed that it was the women of the household who were sober and sane as opposed to their husbands, many of whom suffered from alcoholism. They were highly concerned about the financial welfare of their family but lacked the tools which would allow them to effectively achieve it. It was then that I decided to start the Saraswati Drive so that any women wouldn’t be obstructed from securing their family’s future for the simple lack of accessibility, so that no child had to undergo cyclical abuse and no more men like the aforementioned abusers were products of financial illiteracy. In order to build on this I have also built a portal which guides women to Governmental and Non-Governmental schemes
Project ///*//StreetRevival (*-> My locality, name starts from ‘S’)
In June 2020, the Covid cases in India were decreasing for the first time and the 3-month lockdown was finally lifted by the GOI. A lot of street food vendors had been adversely impacted by this lockdown and were on the verge of bankruptcy, to make matters worse the people in my locality, Sion, were too scared about Covid to buy anything from them. In order to provide them with reassurance, help the vendors and protect the health of the community I recruited 3 of my friends and decided to create a website where we would post daily updates on the precautions being taken by the vendors and would mention if anything was absent. This initiative helped many of the 24-28 vendors in my locality, allowing them to remain in Mumbai which, otherwise, they’d have to leave because of the lack of funds.
The Compounding Interest Podcast
A biweekly podcast centered around Finance
Finance, Machine Learning and Algorithms
Financial Advice Intern at 221B Analytics
Developed Machine Learning Models to match students with ideal institutions and scholarships according to their Finances
Mentored students entering the International Baccalaureate Program and Applying to Colleges
Development and Content Intern at Cube Wealth
Developed 5 Calculators and the relevant algorithms for the Cube Wealth App, under Stanford Alumni Satyen Kothari
Worked on Search Engine Optimization and driving up traffic after continuous Google Algorithm Updates
Researched for, edited and uploaded blogs
Project EquiTweet
Project EquiTweet is a Twitter Bot which live streams Tweets mentioning the user mentioned keywords (company name or stock symbol) and performs sentiment analysis using machine learning to measure the public sentiment towards the stock. This is especially important considering the retail penetration of the Indian Stock Market is growing consistently and market sentiment will start playing an increased role in the market, especially with short term investments and securities such as derivatives.
GUI-Based Desktop Application
Developed a Java, Python and Java Swing-based portfolio tracking application which employs Machine Learning and Game Theoretic Models, REST APIs, Abstract Data Types, Model-View-Controller Framework and Database Connectivity
Computer Science Research Paper
Research Paper focusing on the prediction of stock prices using Neural Networks (LSTM Model) in association with IIT B Researchers
Economics and Data Science Research Paper
Research Paper exploring the economic feasibility of establishing an electric car charging network in a city, focusing on outcomes such as break-even period and potential profitability.
Education & Design
Project EAT
While at Toybank I realized the importance of toys for growing children and the barrier the cost of quality toys posed to this necessity for a healthy childhood. It is then that I decided to design cost-efficient toys which utilize the minimum material required while still maintaining structural integrity and am now working with Toybank to get them to production line so that we may sell them at cost price. I think this can go a long way in realizing the right of every child to a nurturing childhood. This project was named Project-EAT which stands for Equal Access Toys.
Maker Portfolio
YES Science Fair -Runner Up for Smart Home Working Model
A group of students developed a working prototype for a smart home which utilised IR, Bluetooth, Facial and fingerprint recognition and advanced algorithms in order to develop a smart, secure and energy efficient home. It included, but was not limited to, automated air conditioner temperature changer, smart windows, solar panels and wind-based power generators, automated security systems using facial and fingerprint recognition
Pothole Detector
I used robotics and programming skills in order to create a pothole detector which utilizes Infrared sensors in order to detect depressions on heavily used roads and checks dimensions to determine whether it is a pothole or not and notifies the central device. It had a 86% accuracy and was heavily lauded by senior government officials.
Automated Occupancy Counter and Temperature Conditioner
I developed a human counter to determine the number of individuals in a room at a given time and change the temperature accordingly. THis was done as a measure to help out small restaurants. They would try to compete with their larger counterparts by providing facilities like air conditioning but would be burdened by a huge bill. To address this issue I developed the human counter which communicates via bluetooth with the air conditioner and changes temperature as pre-inputted by the user for different brackets of the number of individuals. This model was actually implemented at a restaurant and allowed them to cut their electricity bill by 19%.
Automated Insecticide Sprayer
There used to be a substantial pest problem in my building due to which we had to get pesticide sprayed on a regular basis. Everytime that the workers would come to our home I would notice how they would have red eyes and coughing. They also always seemed to have inadequate equipment such as a cloth instead of a mask and plastic gloves instead of protective rubber ones. To mitigate this I developed a wall follower which sprays pesticide automatically. In this project I used embedded C, the Arduino board, infrared sensors, gyrometers, bluetooth and IR and touch sensors. 7 local communities have now adapted to this method just in the past year!
Debates, MUNs and Journalism
Debates and MUNs
Best Delegate, [School Name] MUN
Secretary General, [School Name] MUN
Honorable Mention, B. D. Somani MUN
Winner, Yuvagam
Chair, [School Name]
Quora
I write on Quora where I provide content regarding education in India and help students face the national examination at the end of 10th grade taken by every student across the country. I advise students on any problems they face and also describe studying techniques they could implement in challenging areas. My answers have been accepted into spaces with as many as 107,000 followers. I have 80,000 views on answers about India and education with 100+ answer requests. I also write occasionally in the Science column of the Pheonixx Magazine.
Certifications and Courses
Courses
Introduction to the Philosophy of the Mind
Philosophy and the Sciences: Introduction to the Philosophy of Physical Sciences, University of Edinburgh
Extended Essay
Fourier and Laplace transforms calculating the deflection of construction beams under different loading conditions.
Trinity College London-Speech and Drama
Qualified 5 Grades of the Trinity College Examination for Speech and Drama with Distinction
Commonwealth Essay Competition
Received the Bronze Medal in the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition
Intermediate Art Competition
Awarded the ‘A’ Grade by the Government of Maharashtra
*Winner x3-//*// Robotics Competition → Local Competition
4-time winner at the * Robotics Competition with 250+ participants where we were required to develop a project from scratch as displayed and our robots were tested on various criteria by a panel of experienced judges.
Other Community Service
Ran Awareness Campaigns in Several Slum Areas advocating Against Alcoholism
Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, is close to my residence. One of the major problems emerging from Dharavi is alcoholism and its consequences such as domestic and child abuse, cyclical poverty and crime. To combat this, I ran an awareness campaign for 1 week at Dharavi where me and my team set up a camp and held sessions advising slum-dwellers on how to battle alcoholism and advising their partners on how to protect themselves and their children from abuse. We made them aware of the various facilities afforded to them by the Government, especially those which help them break out of the cycle of poverty. This project and my experience in working with the people there culminated in the creation of the ‘Saraswati’(Female Goddess of Wealth) Drive.
Project TweetBot
Developed a Machine-Learning bot which detects suicidal tweets
Through collaboration with 2 mental health organizations and the local suicide hotline - TweetBot has found and saved 81 at risk teenagers and adults in India so far.
LORs
CS Teacher: Really loves me like a father and has openly expressed that he feels that I’m the best student he’s ever had. I’m sure this was a great LOR as he is intimately aware of all my projects as well as Community Service and I made sure to give him a list of pertinent stuff I would be grateful to have expressed in my LOR.
Math Teacher: Good relationship (not as good as CS though). I made sure to give him a list of pertinent stuff I would be grateful to have expressed in my LOR. He’s been writing LORs for several years so I’m sure it’s above a 7.5 at worst.
English Teacher: Almost literally my grandmother, hehe. Really likes my work and has personally expressed that I’m her favourite and best student. We had a lot of conversations inside and outside class which were genuinely deep and meaningful. I made sure to give her a list of pertinent stuff I would be grateful to have expressed in my LOR.
Econ Teacher: Really friend-like relationship. Strongly aware of my passion for Econ since I petitioned to have it as a 4th HL (as opposed to 3 normally)and literally fought to be able to study Econ. I made sure to give her a list of pertinent stuff I would be grateful to have expressed in my LOR.
The LOR stuff usually contained- certain anecdotes (which due to my habit of frequently asking doubts weren’t hard to come by, the usual (academics, std. tests, related ECAs, research papers, internships), certain books I’d read for the class or after an interesting class discussion. I made sure to include my learnings from the various activities and how they helped me in different areas of life.
Women’s NGO: Due to my initiatives to help women escape poverty and abuse in collaboration with the local women’s NGO I was awarded by them and I asked them if I could maybe get a LOR from the supervisor of m projects and they agreed! Still waiting on this, so don’t know it’ll turn out
Counselor & Co-Counselor: We have a great relationship, but she claims that she writes about the stuff no one can even think of. While I’m sure it’s good I’m not sure what exactly she speaks about.
JUST A NOTE: I’M NOT SUBMITTING ALL OF THESE LORs. This is just all I have, they’ll be used as and when required from major to major and college to college.
Essays
I’m writing 2 common app essays and will decide on one later because I like both ideas and the only differentiator will be the way it reads. I’m a fairly good writer.
Concerns
- Schools I’m not even looking at because the trees there are probably better than me: MIT, Stanford, Caltech
- My family, I and my counselor feel like I might have a decent chance at Cornell ED.
- One major question for me is whether or not I should apply to Princeton ( REA) or is it as bad as MIT etc.
Schools
