Chance Me

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Those olympiads are in fact the ‘fake’ ones he’s referring to. They are organised by SOF which is just an org that uses the name ‘olympiad’. The olympiads that SOF organises, and this includes the ‘international math olympiad’ are actually only held in India and Singapore. The ‘real’ Olympiads are the ones as follows:</p>

<p>The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO, since 1959; not held in 1980)
The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO, since 1967; not held in 1973, 1978, 1980)
The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO, since 1968; not held in 1971)
The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI, since 1989)
The International Biology Olympiad (IBO, since 1990)
The International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO, since 1993)
The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO, since 1996)
The International Geography Olympiad (IGeO, since 1996)
The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL, since 2003)
The International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO, since 2004)
The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA, since 2007)
The International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO, since 2007)</p>

<p>from here: [International</a> Science Olympiad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Science_Olympiad]International”>International Science Olympiad - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>These are pretty much the only olympiads US colleges will really consider. </p>

<p>Almost every kid who got into MIT for undergrad from india won a medal at one of these olympiads. So it is highly unlikely (~0% chance) that you will get in without those or without some awesome extracurricular like a revolutionary invention.</p>

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<p>Did I hear my name being called for revolutionary invention(Just kidding:))</p>

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<p>Okay so if these “olympiads” donot count; I dont have anything in my ECs! What do i do now? What should i do to build my ECs because without good ECs i highly doubt that i would get into top universities</p>

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<p>Are a 2300 SAT with 3.8 unweighted GPA and 7 AP’s good enough for Stanford, MIT,Berkeley, and Caltech electrical engineering?</p>

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<p>One simple answer::NO
nothing is GOOD ENOUGH!!:)</p>

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<p>quiverfox can you advice me a bit here?</p>

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<p>Well you could try participating in these olympiads next year (the first round is already done for all of them this year as far as i know). You won’t be able to know if you made it to the international round in time for college apps but writing that you made it to the nationals also helps i think. Other than that, just do stuff that you like doing. For example, I like making games and hence, I’m involved in setting up an international game jam in my city for the first time (as in it’s the first time this jam is being held in my city. It’s been around for a few years now). I like algorithm programming along with games and hence made it to the nationals of the IOI (which are going to be held at the end of this week… I’m pretty nervous). I also enjoy playing guitar and community service and thus teach guitar to orphans every week. If you look deep enough, you WILL find things that you find interesting that can also help on your college app. I would definitely advise against doing things for the sake of your college app. You will not be as motivated and are likely to drop out.</p>

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<p>Ya…My passion is gadgets and gizmos…whenever i get time i spend it in doing stuff like making videos for my youtube channel, write on my blog/page,rooting/customizing my phone etc…but this is my hobby…i dont think this will make it to an EC</p>

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<p>So think hard about how you can do that. Or maybe try things related to it like making apps or programming.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your advice but according to you to which universities can i make it?</p>

<p>PS i dont get much tym to develop ECs now due to my IIT classes</p>

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<p>lol i don’t really know. I’m still in 11th too so i really don’t. If I had to make a guess though, since you have really good grades, and assuming you get good SAT scores, you’d probably get into Purdue, GAtech, UCLA, UT Austin and the like. And these are really good unis.</p>

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<p>Ok thanks! Lets hope for the best! I will still applies to the ivies though</p>

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<p>^^ I understand your life bro:) I went through the same story for the last 1 year(the toughest time of my life:)) But thats because I did not know I was going to be going abroad till 2012.!!
Try and do your best in 12th grade. Make it as rigorous as possible and get a very good SAT score, I only managed a 2050:( But I guess Im fine with it xD
Work on what you have now. You never know=D</p>

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<p>plz tell me u hv some safeties. i had the same stats frm 9th-11th but 12th grade is really hard. in 10th grade my list was - the ivy league, mit, caltech, stanford. now its more realistic (also im not applying for science anymore) best of luck tho! and <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1447554-chance-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1447554-chance-me.html&lt;/a&gt; back? :)</p>

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<p>Thanks quiverfox and all the best to you! hope you get into the univeesity of your choice</p>

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<p>guptashvm is correct in pointing out the real Olympiads I was talking about. Congratulations if you’ve made it to IOI Nationals btw! That’s pretty insane.</p>

<p>From what I can tell you, and this applies to most Indians applying to college in the US - we are an over-represented group. To add to that, if you’re asking them to fund you, you better be really really outstanding. </p>

<p>I’m going to talk about CS focussed schools, because that is an area I know about.
If you don’t need aid, most of you “techies” with good high school grades and a 2200+ SAT score, a decent list of focussed extracurriculars, and placing within the top 5 of your high school, especially if your high school regularly sends kids abroad, will make one or more of the following, usually -
Cornell, Berkeley, CMU, some lower Ivies.</p>

<p>You can be not as good, with a lower SAT score and make the following -
UT Austin, GTech</p>

<p>You can be alive and healthy and have a 1800+ SAT score and make -
Purdue</p>

<p>In order to make the following schools, students generally have 2300+ SAT I scores, near perfect or perfect SAT IIs, great ECs, have done something or a lot of the things on a national level (and not just some competition labelled ‘national’ -
Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale (they’re not all great for CS, but whatever)</p>

<p>If you’ve gotten a gold medal at an International Olympiad, have no doubts you’ll place in the top 100 of IIT, or (in some very rare extreme cases) have actually had a **** hard life -
MIT</p>

<p>That’s what I’ve seen from the 2-3 years of Indian kids getting into college. </p>

<p>If you ask for aid, the game changes. For MIT/Harvard/Yale/Princeton, it doesn’t change. Stanford, you’re 99% not making. Berkeley, UT, GTech, Purdue, CMU don’t give aid to internationals. Cornell becomes significantly tougher. That’s all from my end. I think you can judge where you fall.</p>