<p>Hello,
I am an international applicant from India.
I am applying to the following colleges:
Yale
UPenn
UMich
UW Madison
UC Berkeley
MIT
University of Chicago</p>
<p>I have completed my 9th and 10th from India's Central Board of Secondary education
with a cumulative GPA of 9.8/10.0. That is in the top 8% all over India.
Then, I shifted to Maharashtra State Board in an integrated program (integrated programs are for students pursuing all india level entrance exams for universities. These programs are among coaching classes and dummy colleges. We dont go to college, we only go to coaching classes and we have our attendance marked at our college).
Maharashtra state board is one of the 30 state boards of India. Due to my integrated approach, I only concentrated on my studies to crack the entrance exams and hence i scored 66% in my 11th standard while the school topper was a whopping 92%. </p>
<p>SATs- 1st attempt 2360; 800,800,760
ACT composite- 35
TOEFL-113
SAT IIs:
Physics- 800
Chemistry- 800
Math Level I- 800</p>
<p>ECs and community service:
-Grade 5 Trinity Guildhall certified Piano Performer.
-Grade 5 Trinity Guildhall certificate for Music Theory.
-Grade 4 Indian Classical Vocal Music
-Captain of Hockey team for 4 years. Played in several CBSE tournaments and internationally too.
- TT all India level tournaments.
- Several tennis tournaments- winner and runners up (from the age of 6)
- Several All India and international Phy, chem, bio, IT, Math olympiads with olympiad ranks below 100 (from grade 4 onwards)<br>
- Participated in fundraisers for National Association for the Blind.
- Participated in a classical concert arranged for paraplegics.
-Participated in a charitable drive for eyecare for over a year.
-A times of India young editor for the sports section.
- Participated and won 2nd prize in the famous all Asia- Cadbury Bournvita Quiz contest aired on national television.
- Member of student government for 2 years as a prefect.</p>
<p>Family Background:
Parents both ophthalmologists.
Earning WELL above 200,000$ a year.
My grandparents (dad's parents) are Hindu (sindhi) refugees from Sindh, pakistan after the partition of India in 1947. Sindhis are a minority community in India.
My mom is a Maharashtrian brahmin.</p>
<p>The only thing irking me is my 11th scores, but can the admissions officers really know about some STATE board in India?
CBSE is quite well known because a lot of Indian students apply from CBSE.</p>
<p>What chance do i have?</p>
<p>your scores and extracurriculars are great
but with a lot of this schools (except Umich and U of wisconsin) they are crapshoots for everyone!
you have a better chance than most. still reaches though :p</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>^thanks for chancing me.
I know those colleges are reach :.
But should i go ahead and apply to those or choose more safer colleges and try to get in there?</p>
<p>Why not apply both? Your parents are making well over 200K, surely the cost of apps isn’t an issue…</p>
<p>Yeah, i can afford the college.
So an average american high school student applies to how many colleges?
I have about 20 colleges on my list actually, so i should get it down right? or should i apply to 20? 
Also, even though i dont need the money, seeing that the rupee is falling, my parent’s worth gets lesser. So can i get a scholarship or something?</p>
<p>guys… come on give me some more opinions please!!!</p>
<p>Apply to 7-8 if you intend on both india and abroad, else 15ish…</p>
<p>Apply to all your dream schools though…whatever anybody says…because u will enjoy all the anxiety and tension, apps related to it, whether they accept or deny you. Also, choose your match and safety schools well.
For example if you are(I am betting on it :P) applying as an engineering major, you forgot UIUC which is awesome, then UCLA or Purdue as a safety ( actually all those where they look mostly at Stats and not essays)…
I can tell you to apply to Stanford too…though I AM going to go to Berkeley… :D</p>
<p>Haha… you guessed wrong… I am an AIPMT student… I shall be joining for Economics… so you mean to say i should apply to colleges which i want to be a part of? and not which seems rational to do?</p>
<p>Anybody else chance me please?</p>
<p>I guess so… Its always worked for me …</p>
<p>All your choices but two are ’ crapshoots ’ or ’ wild cards’. in other teems they do not count in your tally. for these schools your odds are probably one in five qhich isb better than most but still too low. as a full pay you have excellent odds at Wisconsin and good odds at Michigan. Being full pay will definitely help at.ublic flagships. look into their honors.college and if some merit aid were to help check out if honors colleges have scholarships attached. To diversify your list include schools such as Penn State , Indiana , etc</p>
<p>Yale- High Reach
UPenn-Reach- Probably accepted
UMich-Match- Most likely in
UW Madison- Match- Most likely in
UC Berkeley- Match- Most likely in
MIT- High reach, even with your amazing SAT score and grades. Most people applying are just as competitive
University of Chicago- Reach- Most likely in</p>
<p>You should REALLY consider applying to other colleges as well. Northwestern, NYU, Brown, Georgetown, and Cornell are also matches for you. Safeties you could add: Northeastern, Boston C, USC, Emory, Vanderbilt, Babson. Reaches you could add: Harvard, Columbia, Duke, CalTech.</p>
<p>Are my chances better at smaller and lower ranked ivies like UPenn, Cornell and brown?
or are the odds same throughout all 8 colleges?</p>
<p>“smaller and lower ranked ivies” are an invention by teenagers with too much time on their hands.
Roughly all schools with under 20% admission are unpredictable and therefore you should have at least 3-4 schools where your odds are better. If you’re admitted to several of your top schools then you’ll have the delightful task of choosing between these highly ranked colleges, but you don’t want to find yourself in the situation that befalls countless top students, that is, wait listed or rejected everywhere and forced to attend community college when they could have attended a top school. A delightful dilemma is better than having your hand forced.
Essentially, your stats will be similar to about 50% applicants at all the schools you listed except Michigan and Wisconsin.
Those two are matches for you, in fact Wisconsin probably is a virtual safety and for Michigan the fact you’re full pay would likely push you into the admit pile.
But do you want to have as your only choice Michigan or Wisconsin?
Some of your picks can be completed: why UCB but not UCLA and UC-SD?
Why MIT and not Georgia Tech or Cal Poly (as a safety)?
Why UChicago but not Northwestern? What about UVA or Emory?
Why not include Claremont McKenna, Colgate, and other top schools for economics and recruiters?
You should look into more schools, essentially.
Once again, even if your odds are good, they’re 1 in 5 at best for most of the schools, so if you happen to be admitted to all, good for you, but if you’re not, you want to have schools you’ll be happy to attend rather than “made” to attend.</p>
<p>thank you for your views… i shall definitely look into my list of colleges</p>