Chances At Ivies!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Im an International student:</p>

<p>Indian national, permanent resident of Norway, Living in Korea right now, attended International school since age 3.</p>

<p>SAT: 1350 (690 M, 660V) - first sitting of October 9th
taking SAT IIs in Dec in Physics, Math IIC and Writing</p>

<p>rank 1/80 in a competitive private school</p>

<p>I skipped 10th grade due to high scores in 9th Grade, now im a senior</p>

<p>9th grade: GPA: 3.93 (unweighted)
11th: 4.0 (unweighted)
12th (so far: 4.70/4.78, weighted) - 3.94/4.00 unweighted</p>

<p>I maximised educational opportunities in 9th, 11th and 12th grade</p>

<p>9th grade: A's in all subjects</p>

<p>10th grade: (skipped)</p>

<p>11th grade:
Pre-calculus: 96
Honours English 11/12: 100
Honours Physics 12: 100
Algebra II: 97
PE/Art/Music: 95 avg
Psychology: 98
U.S Government: 99</p>

<p>I took the most challenging courses offered till 12th grade in the Juniour year, No APs offered.</p>

<p>12th (so far)</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB - 96
AP Literature - 98
AP Statistics - 97
AP Physics B - 98
Economics - 96
Chemistry - 95
Newspaper/Journalism - 100</p>

<p>I took the school limit of 3 APs and took an online course of AP Physics to be able to total to 4 APs. Maximised Opportunities here.</p>

<hr>

<p>Extra Curriculars and Awards</p>

<p>9th - Varsity Soccer (letter)
11th - (school didnt have any sports teams)
12th - Varsity Cross country and Varsity Soccer (letters)</p>

<p>9th - Editors Choice Award - Poetry.com
11th - Editors Choice Award - Poetry.com
12th - (none as yet)</p>

<p>9th - Games club, sports club, Computer Club, poetry.com
11th - Games club, sports club, Soccer Club, poetry.com
12th- Orphanage Club, MUN, school Debate Team, Computer programming club, Environment Committee, Lettering in Drama, Poetry.com</p>

<p>Honours Roll: throughout 9th grade, 11th grade and now so far in 12th</p>

<hr>

<p>Research</p>

<p>11th - Publishing college level thesis on Third Culture Kids and Global Citizenship</p>

<p>11th - Publishing an economics research paper on the benefits of Outsourcing</p>

<hr>

<p>In my college application im talking about the ability of me as international student and Third Culture Kid to be able to integrate into various societies. I studied in non-religious schools, and now i'm in a large private international christian school, but I'm very confortable even though im Hindu. </p>

<p>Would being international be really a benefit?</p>

<p>How are my scores and what are my chances at the following Ivies? </p>

<p>btw. Im also the coach for JV soccer and Im the student member for the School Wide Action Plan for WASC accreditation in the school </p>

<p>My list:</p>

<p>CMU dept:SCS</p>

<p>UPenn</p>

<p>GATech</p>

<p>MIT ----- (i know...its soooo much a reach)</p>

<p>Cornell ----- I really like that place</p>

<p>UC Berkeley</p>

<p>Caltech</p>

<p>Stanford (changed my mind to regular decision) -- I hope to get a recomendation from Robert Laughlin ex-professor of stanford and Nobel lauereate. Iv got to know him pretty well personally - hes the president of a uni here in korea. </p>

<p>do my parents qualifications really count? I hope it does because my dad is VP of Samsung, and a PhD, my mom's a university professor and a PhD as well. </p>

<p>==========================================</p>

<p>Any advice??????????</p>

2

<p>Nope. NO chance. Try to get in on your own merits and not rely on your parents' PhD status. Sheesh, give me a break.</p>

3

<p>chance at GAtech</p>

4

<p>You have tremendous competition from tons of Asians applying to ivy schools. Give a try but think about applying to lower rated schools and schools that don't have a lot of Asian internationals applying. Try to raise the SAT score.</p>

5

<p>ahimsa48....sorry to say but that was TOTALLY retarded what u said just there. I asked IF parent's qualifications make a difference, not that I want to get in BASED on them....</p>

6

<p>if anything, the fact that your parents both have doctorates means that more will be expected of you, not less. There will be an assumption that many opportunities were available to you because your family is so highly educated. So your (relatively) low SAT scores will not be impressive to MIT, CalTech, etc. since this is not a case of disadvantaged upbringing. A lot will depend on how effectively you write your essays and if you succeed in bringing your passions to life. Make sure they are highly focused and bring aspects of you out that otherwise might not be apparent just by your grades and stats. Good luck. If you end up at Ga Tech rather than MIT, there is still a lot to love about it! My daughter's best friend chose it over the uberstress of MIT.</p>

7

<p>thanks a lot...that was really helpful. Well the fact that I had to switch schools made me lose out on a lot of opportunities (ie. all schools I attended required students to have attended for more than a year to hold positions in student government, newspaper editors etc.), so will college take these into account or not? Even though my parents are well educated, these things were lacking in my school life, which denied a lot to me...</p>

8

<p>bumpity bumpity bump....</p>

9

<p>don't focus on what was denied (you will sound whiney) but instead focus on the positives. If poetry and publishing your work is your passion then that may be your focus. How you adjusted to your multiple moves and living in different countries could bring out some positives.</p>

10

<p>you may not want to include poetry.com as one of your ecs, i think they give "editor's choice awards" to...everyone?? just so they can sell those poetry books.</p>

11

<p>poetry.com should definitely not be in ur list. It is a big scam.</p>

<p><a href="http://poetrynotcom.tripod.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://poetrynotcom.tripod.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

12

<p>crap!!! thanks for letting me know that...i had no idea. really grateful to u guys for letting me know.</p>

<p>Well with those two gone, can u tell me of my chances?</p>

13

<p>Caltech, MIT and Stanford are super reaches. I never recommend one applies to more than one super reach. Given your background, I would probably pick Stanford.</p>

<p>Cal, Cornell, CMU and Penn are match/reaches. You have a reasonable chance, but not great. </p>

<p>Georgia Tech is a match/safety. </p>

<p>You really need a full proof safety and you'll be set. I would recommend University of Washington-Seattle or Purdue-West Lafaytte for your safeites.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

14

<p>thanks man...that was really constructive. Anybody else who has some good'n decent advice to give me? I really need some...</p>

15

<p>bummmmmmmmmp....so many views...so few replies</p>

16

<p>yeah, gonna have to agree with others, close to no chance what-so-ever at MIT or Caltech with a SAT math of 690. youll probably need a 750+ for either one, and still slim chance.</p>

<p>"Would being international be really a benefit?"
not sure if anyone else answered this, but actually being an international is a lot harder. acceptance rates for internationals is generally lower, and the pool, i assume, is generally stronger. so its in no way a "benefit," more like a tennis ball to the groin.</p>

17

<p>What about michigan?</p>

18

<p>i do noe for a fact a kid last year from my school who got 1400 managed to get it. his only ec was that he has the captain of drum regiment of my school's band. i guess he was lucky</p>

19

<p>you have an extremely extremely slim chance at getting into MIT, stanford, and caltech. i dont want to say zero, but its close. id give you 15% chance max for upenn. youll get into GA tech, and berkeley is a reach. </p>

<p>sorry if thats harsh, but given your low SAT scores (especially math - i agree with kosuke) youll probably end up at GA tech. your ECs are less than impressive, but your research really does stand out.</p>

<p>youre not going to get in to the top-level colleges though. sorry. id take your SATs again, and get at least 1500 to try and balance out your weak ECs a little. youre not going to get into really good schools with your current stats, even though your research and grades are good. you dont have much to show other than academic ability, and even that is compromised by your low SATs.</p>

20

<p>I think Alexandre's assessment was pretty close to the way I feel, though I would not limit the number of super reaches to one, if I could manage to get a solid safety or two that I liked, and could manage my time in getting the applications done well. Those top schools are truly lottery tickets for anyone.</p>

<p>The one problem I see with your application at the moment is the lack of standard test and high school information. The SAT1 is the only standardized test you have taken, and though your score is good, it is not the midrange on some of those schools you have listed. Though you have good grades, unless these colleges are very familiar with your school and hold it in high esteem indicated by high acceptance rates of kids applying from there with your SAT1 and grades, they are going to want to see some independent measure of what kind of education you have received. Most of those schools want SAT2s anyways, so those test scores will be important indicators for you. And the absence of AP test scores does not help you. Again if your school has an outstanding record with test results on the AP, it would help. Otherwise, it is difficult to assesss what that grade on an AP course is worth--how well do you know that material as compared to the applicant pool, many of whom will have top AP scores.</p>