Awards
Local city chess champion
American math olympiad silver medal
hummingbird science olympiad zonal topper
national-level video making competition winner
Extracurriculars
• Have a physics blog with 100k+ views and 50+ articles and 500+ site subscribers
• Research in astrophysics. Working with a UPenn grad student and we are analysing the satellite trails in the astronomical images
• Published in top science magazines and websites and was paid too. I also write for a science website www.cosmobc.com
• Senior physics editor at young scientist journal. I had to review the research papers submitted and fact-check them. Joined them as a junior editor and then got promoted.
• Conducted a week-long workshop on quantum entanglement and superposition with the hack club, many people joined.
• Did a lot of tutoring. Tutored IGCSE students and helped them get A and A*
• Volunteered at a hospital
• Did a project where we taught uneducated people how to read and write
• then some filler things like stem and chess club president and my school’s house’s captain
Essays/LORs/Other Writing about my passion for physics and how it developed and why
Cost Constraints / Budget Belong to a really poor family (less than 30k dollars per year) so will need full ride
Schools
I will ED to Williams and EDII to UChicago most probably but I wanted to know do I stand a chance? I know I have asked this question so many times for different colleges but I think I will ed to Williams for sure and ED II to UChicago so please bear with me for the last time. ALso please tell me if my decision is right or if you have another suggestions then please that too is welcome.
No one here can tell you whether your decision is ‘right’.
The most likely scenario is that you are not accepted to any US school with a full ride.
Dartmouth, being need blind for internationals, which you were sure was your first choice school a few threads ago, is probably, and arguably, a better choice than Williams or Chicago.
The other schools that are need blind for internationals (and meet full need) are H, Y, P, MIT, and Amherst. So Amherst probably a better choice than Williams. Does the Chicago core curriculum appeal to you?
Out of all the students, only 10% of the undergrad students get into Amherst by the ed thing. So I wont really be at a disadvantage if i apply there rd. Williams has 32% ed acceptance rate and 72% of the intl students get aid with the average aid being 60k so I feel they are generous with aid and it’s located in a village area so the night sky is very clear thus making it much easier to conduct astronomical research. Dartmouth has ed acceptance rate of around 20% which will plunge even more since a lot of people will ed there this year. I am not really sure about Chicago since I know I won’t get in. I want to ED 2 to a more normal school like U Chicago but I am not sure about it so I will have to think about that.
In one of your other threads you indicated your family can contribute $10k, but you never answered the question of if that was each year or over four years.
That is an important distinction because even if you do end up with a full ride, that will not cover all costs to attend a US school… travel, health insurance, personal expenses, etc. will be your responsibility and could easily be $7k-$10k per year. Some of that could be offset with work study. But many of those expenses must be paid up front. Additionally you will have to prove an ability to pay as part of your student visa process. I’m not as versed in this area as others, but would you please address your financial plan so others can advise if it’s realistic?
You have opened a ton of “chance me” threads – all for extremely competitive colleges. The answer will be the same. The odds of getting into a hyper-competitive college with a full ride as an international student from an extremely well represented country are slim. Absolutely apply and give it your all – you have a good profile. But be prepared to attend college in your home country in the event things don’t work out.
That is mostly because recruited athletes apply ED, and once you remove the recruited athletes, admission rates are around 17%. QuestBridge students are also counted in the ED admissions, but it’s not clear which QB finalists are counted as applicants. What’s certain is that QB finalists are accepted at a higher rate than the average rate for Williams.
In short, acceptance rates for unhooked individuals who apply ED Is far lower than 32%. While it’s still higher than the RD acceptance rate, it’s not clear that this is the result of some “ED bump”, because ED applicants tend to be students who are, on average, higher achievers than RD applicants, or because these applicants tend to be better fitting to this college.
This is pretty unspecific. Have you done a virtual admissions session yet? You should be doing virtual programming at all the schools that you are researching.
If Williams appeals to you, here are some other schools that may also appeal to you. Only Dartmouth is need blind and meets full need for internationals. The others are need aware for internationals (like Williams), and not all meet full need for all students.
Dartmouth
St Lawrence
Grinnell
Hobart
Colby
Carleton
Middlebury
Colby
U Rochester
Hamilton
Colgate
I don’t understand why U Chicago is on your list. Does the core curriculum appeal to you? Are you excited to write their essays? It is quite different than other schools you have mentioned. It’s definitely a ‘fit’ school.
Agreed. And don’t forget applicants who attended Williams’ fly-in program (only for domestic students)…they also have a better than average admission rate too.
I am not sure how many unhooked spots there are for non-URM international students who have high financial need at a school like Williams…my sense is it’s low, maybe single digit low (absolute number, not acceptance rate).
Thankyouuu so much. I have not done a virtual admissions session but I have talked to their students (a very close online friend of mine attends there as a physics major too) and I have looked at their virtual college tour and asked questions on their subreddit and everything. Thankyouu for the list, I will surely consider these schools.
The main reason why I chose UChicago is because of their core curriculum. I might sound like a stem guy from my EC but I would love to gain knowledge in other fields too. Like my A levels consist of Physics, chemistry, math and economics. People either only take 4 stem subs or 4 humanities but I really love both the disciplines thus I chose these two. And their essays sound really fun. I am genuinely excited to write their supplement essays. Also, they are one of the best for physics and in top 5 for the physics grad programmes so they have a lot of research resource too.
You can study all of these fields at a college with a flexible curriculum too, of course. Actually, you might be better positioned to study them at a breadth and depth of your choosing in the absence of extensive requirements, of which some may be of lesser interest. If you were to attend a college with an essentially open curriculum (e.g., Amherst, Hamilton and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Grinnell) you could take virtually all of your courses in areas of your choosing, for example.
That makes sense but UChicago is the only ed school with a lot of research resources for physics so that was one of the reasons. I will surely apply to hamilton, Amherst and I really like the open curriculum but I also do not have a problem with a core curriculum. You are actually right and UChicago might not be the right school for me but I really love it, it has a lot of resources for physics but I think I should research more. My counsellor suggested John Hopkins, Vanderbilt and Pomona for ED2.
This site from U.S. News includes colleges across a range of types with notable undergraduate research opportunities: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs. Resources specifically for physics research at these schools will vary, but may, for example, include access to lasers, optical spectroscopy, a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, nuclear counting instruments, solar systems, extensive computing facilities and an astronomical observatory.
If you would like extensive access to a nuclear research reactor, look into Reed.