diana award for ec #1 (idk if this is rlly prestigious)
top X list mainly for ec #1 - fairly prestigious
faang award + magazine feature
woman in tech award lol
hackathon award w/ 250ish participants (? not sure what to put here)
featured in a national newspaper in india
Extracurriculars: (gonna be vague here don’t wanna get doxxed)
women in tech/entrepreneurship 501c3 nonprofit (founder/lead director) - do a bunch of stuff here like hackathons and competitions. we have some media coverage
gender equality club affiliated w/ a UN org (founder and president, regional leadership position) - we have a podcast and magazine and do a lot of other community service events
climate/gender activism think tank @ the un (had a leadership role here)
cs club founder and head of technology in the student council - first student-led club at my school and pretty large. we meet every week and i teach people how to code. also organized some tech competitions at my hs
summer internship and then a continued research internship at a CS T50, research internship at a Canadian uni - assisted w/ projects related to tech + social good
independent research on social sciences published in a high school journal that accepts pretty much everyone lol. mentored by a T10 prof (no LOR)
gavel club (leadership role) and model un
cs internship and projects
random school clubs/initiatives relating to philosophy, activism and policy making
FIRST robotics team (grade 9 and 10) qualified for international round and i mentored kids here
Essays/LORs/Other: i suck at writing lol. my current common app is about women in stem and my journey into activism stemming from discrimination at the robotics club (super cliche ik 4/10 IMO)
Schools: deciding between amherst, duke, or dartmouth for ED. ED2ing to a smaller LAC
RDing to all the T20s and a bunch more but my whole school list is too long
(i’m not sure if i should ED amherst because i got rejected from a2a wo a waiver so maybe they didn’t like my app.)
curious if you guys think i’m aiming too high - please be brutally honest. my stats are kinda mid and i am a bad writer so my essays aren’t gonna be great. i was set on cs in the first 2 years of hs which is why my app is weirdly divided into cs/activism ECs. i’d appreciate any feedback :))
There is another thread right now titled “Chance me for Dartmouth ED” that I suggest you read through. The poster seems eerily similar to you and the advice given there would apply to you.
I will add that for CS or Data science I would not recommend EDing to Dartmouth and looking beyond prestige and looking at the schools with stronger programs.
unfortunately, i cannot afford to attend top CS public schools like Georgia tech or uiuc even if i get in. my only options are LACs and T20s which give aid. what do you think of my chances? like am i being too ambitious? thanks!
(1) You are asking for 20 million rupees from someone else to finance your education. You need a good reason why they should give it to you and not someone else. This will be hard if your writing “sucks”.
(2) 20 million is also the number of Indians yoi are competing against for the few hundred slots at T20’s. It’s not enough to be in the Top 10% countrywide. Or even the Top 1%. You need to be in the top 0.001%.
Look at that in light of “school doesn’t rank”. You need not just be the top half this year, or the top 10% this year, or even the top student this year. You have to be just about the best that your high school has ever produced. You should know whether you are or not, irrespective of formal rankings.
The T20’s are all different. Dartmouth is not Harvard is not MIT is not Brown is not Chicago. Saying you want to go to a T20 is saying you don’t care about these differences. If someone were to ask you out, saying “I want to date one of the 20 prettiest girls in this school, but don’t really care which one” would you be flattered or would you be insulted?
Because you understandably don’t want to reveal enough to make your application identifiable, it’s very hard to make any kind of judgement. Despite the fact that your school doesn’t rank, you must have some sort of idea as to where you place, academically, in comparison to the rest of your classmates.
In general, to be admitted to a top private college/U that gives financial aid to internationals, you need to be one of the very top students in your country, not just your school or region. You need to have achievements that are at the very least, national in level, and more likely, international in level.
Computer science and sociology are offered at virtually any school in the US, so if you’re determined to come here and can only afford 20K/yr, I would consider looking at the cheapest possible public state colleges in the US, that are also in areas with cheap cost of living. Even so, I doubt that it’s possible to swing it for 20K/yr. But more importantly, the need for the type of social activism that you are interested in is far, far greater in India than in the US. Couldn’t you consider going to college in India, and helping to improve life for the millions of women in India who need a better society? India needs your brain power and interest in social activism and social justice far, far more than does the US.
Since “501(c)3” refers to a specific clause in the Internal Revenue Code specific to US tax law, I assume OP either a) is using the term generically for a non-profit she’s founded in her country or b) has indeed formed a 501(c)3 non-profit in the US.
But aside from this technicality, a “women in tech/entrepreneurship 501c3 nonprofit”, which does “a bunch of stuff here like hackathons and competitions” - has been way over done. Nothing really special enough about this to provide an admissions bump.
i understand, but i have some intl awards and newspaper features to “verify” our events. do you think i shouldn’t focus my essays on the women in tech npo? it was my #1 activity throughout highschool and i spent a lot of time on it
OP- the finances come first. For you- and for every other kid in America, or any other kid around the world who wants to study overseas.
What are your affordable options where you are? Do any of them meet your academic needs?
Nail that down.
Then- you can look at some international possibilities. But be aware that you will not get a visa to study in the US with a “maybe/sort of” plan to finance your studies. You either have the money piece locked down or you don’t- and if you don’t, no visa. It’s pretty straightforward.
Aren’t you feeling a little more excited about a “cheap state school” now? Especially if it means studying in the US vs. going to India???
no i’m still not, sorry. i’m mainly concerned abt ED1 because i plan on applying ED2 to a school in the uae which i think i have a solid chance of getting into. i’d prefer going to a prestigious school in America which is why i want to ED1 there, but i’m still trying figure out the school
Not for nothing, but all of my kids attended “cheap” state colleges, even after good merit they still had to take out loans (btw our in state flagship costs about $30,000 a year, out of state without merit runs $50,000+ a year). We are US citizens.
The good news is that you can apply anywhere you want. But you didn’t post on here asking that question. You asked us to “chance you”, and you are unhappy that we are telling you that based on your financial need AND the stats that you’ve posted, your chances aren’t great.
You can continue to protest that we don’t know what we’re talking about, or you can settle down and figure out if you can achieve your goal of getting a college education in the US which your family can afford. But you’ve got solid (not spectacular) stats, high financial need, lots of awards which you claim are “rlly prestigious” or fairly prestigious although none of them are the truly well known global awards… and you’re unhappy that a “chances” thread isn’t turning out the way you’d hoped.
Since you’ve got experience with the Canadian Uni system- why not look there instead of the US?
It used to be students helped little old ladies cross the street. Then they founded non-profits to help little old ladies cross the street. Today its evolved to founding nonprofits that will someday help little old ladies cross the street.
