Here’s my college list: MIT, CMU(Mellon College of Sciences), Cornell(College of Arts and Sciences), UC Berkeley(L&S), UCLA, NYU(College of Arts and Sciences), and Stony Brook.
I have applied as a prospective mathematics major.
Academics:
ACT: 32 composite + 34 writing
SAT II: Math L2 800, Physics 700
10th grade: 91% (Top 10%)
11th grade: 95% (Rank 2/320)
12 grade: 93% (Rank 2/320)
I haven’t taken APs because my school doesn’t offer any AP classes and because I couldn’t afford taking the AP exams.
I have also taken the most rigorous coursework available to me.
Awards/Honors:
- Selected for my country’s Intel ISEF team selection stage for Intel ISEF 2016.
- Award for being the student with the highest score in Mathematics in 11th grade
- Award for being the bestbasketball player in the school
- Award for highest overall score in 11th grade
ECs:
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Research in math under a PhD student at MIT who was also a mentor at RSI and MIT-PRIMES. I solved a relatively significant 6 year old math problem, and I partially solved another relatively significant 6 year old math problem. Research selected for Intel ISEF team selection stage.
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Researched in mathematics under a Godel Prize winner. Solved a 6 year old conjecture from my mentor’s paper.
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Researching in mathematics under an ex-MIT prof, who also used to head the undergrad research at MIT. Working toward proving a new result in a field of math.
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Started the school mathematics club. Currently serve as president. Helped students prepare for math olympiad. Responsible for producing two regional math olympiad qualifiers(akin to AIME).
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Member of the school computer club. Helped students prepare for the informatics olympiad.
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Represented and captained my school soccer varsity team at district and inter-school level competitions.
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Represented and captained my school basketball varsity team at district and inter-school level competitions.
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Volunteered at an organisation to teach computer programming to children. Volunteered for over 100 hours.
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Elected as the Vice Head Boy(2nd highest position in the student council) of my school. Also held other leadership positions.
Some other things: self learned a lot of advanced math topics.
Some important things: My essays were great(this is what people who reviewed my essays told me. I got my essays reviewed from friends who were studying at top schools), I would rate my essays (8)/10. My teachers also know me really well, so my teacher recs would have also been great. I have two external recommendations from my research mentors(One from the PhD student at MIT, and another from the Godel Prize winner), so they would be great, I guess.
I worked really hard for getting research opportunities: I emailed over 400 professors, requesting them to mentor me, etc, and I have conveyed this in my essays. In my essays, I have conveyed how I am persevering, ambitious, curious, willing to take risks, and some other stuff. I also talked about how my background shaped me as a person.
NOTE: My family income is <$30k, and my family can afford only ~$6-8k. If I don’t get aid, I’ll have to take loans.