Nationality: Indian
Income: <$20000
Residence: New Delhi, India
Scores:
SAT Reasoning : 2400
ACT Composite: 36 (Writing 11)
SAT II : Mathematics Level 2 800
Physics 800
Chemistry 800
No APs
Grades and Rank at school:
Junior Year - 93% India system
Senior Half Semester - 94% India system
Predicted Leaving Examination Percentage - >97%
Rank - 2/700
Achievements : President - Regional Scientific Society and School Science Society
Editor-in-chief at a few local English literary magazines (bound to not reveal)
Senior Executive at a social initiatives and technology company
Member - National Youth Science Society (through KVPY)
National Merit Awardee
Science Talent Search Scholar
Social Media Campaigner and Representative at a few NGOs
Bronze Medal - International Earth Science Olympiad and International Chemistry Olympiad
Attended National Orientation Camp for building Team India for the International Astronomy Olympiad
International Physics Olympiad hopeful
President - School Council
Representative to UNESCO
Accredited to UNESCO, UNICEF ESD Program
No individual research work, no patents.
Middle Class Indian family. Interested in Engineering and Mathematics in general. Specific Interests - EECS
Want to develop AI and incorporate Machine Learning to Biological mapping and disease diagnostics.
@Denouement, although your stats look good, the problem that you have is that you are an international student and your countrymen from India all have similar ACADEMIC activities. You are competing with hundreds of thousands of your countrymen for a seat. There are VERY limited seats at these schools: I.e. Caltech only has 200 seats per year and most of those are reserved for domestic students.
Plus, all of the schools constantly tell us that they don’t want “robots”: students who look like they never stepped out of the classroom. Stanford especially described that they didn’t want students who were “books” because they have plenty of those, and what would there be left to teach someone who knows it all?
Stretch your wings and apply to some of the non-elites for better odds.
OP, I agree with aunt bea, BUT, you’ll have to do research to find those very few US colleges that offer FA to International applicants- there are NOT very many.
applying to ANY US college that does not offer FA to you would be a waste of time.
Thank You @“aunt bea”. Actually, I’m actually more of an outwardly person, though a bit reserved at times. I have valuable experiences outside the classroom and am less known for my academic achievements. I considered it a bit rude for you to have given the “robots” association and so I confirm to you that I am not one or if at all you acquiesce in I’m a sensible, more humanly robot who understands psychologies and engages myriad thought processes before taking any actions. Thank You for this edge of critique! I am obliged!
What according to you is the strongest part?
Because I need to decide and mention only a few at a time in the applications and so don’t want to miss on these small portions
@Denouement I just want to confirm, because something doesn’t seem quite right to me.
In the period 2012-2015, there have been a total of two ICO bronze medalists from India (both in 2014).
In that same period, there have been a handful of IESO bronze medalists from India, but I couldn’t find the name of a person who had both.
I could be wrong in my thinking, but something seems sketchy to me. Note that in the case of any willful falsification (I’m not necessarily saying you are) can be grounds for automatic rejection, or dismissal from the university.
PS. IPhO hopeful is not an “achievement” in itself.
@Denouement:
Are you asking for someone to “chance you”? E.G. to tell you the probability that you will be admitted to MIT, Standford, or CalTech?
If so, please read through the past threads on this site on this subject, and especially visit the MIT admissions site where one of the MIT admissions officers answers your question.
I have to admit, both @MITer94 and @aunt bea raise questions that cannot be ignored.
Can we please draw ourselves into realising the purpose of my post. i want suggestions order these listings so as to prioritise my reporting. Help @MITer94
@Denouement You’re obviously an exceptional candidate for all the schools. The lack of non-academic activities might hurt you, but still, I wouldn’t be surprised if you get into one (or maybe all) of the universities that you have listed.
There is only one thing that worries me. You say that you want to major in EECS, but from the looks of it, you do not seem to have any solid experience in the same. Do your best to explain why you want to study EECS and why you are passionate about it, because you’re an exceptional candidate, but there are hundreds of other exceptional candidates too. One bad essay may or may not ruin your already good chances.
I thought international candidates weren’t eligible for National Merit awards:
You can’t exaggerate your awards. Being a “hopeful” and saying that you were awarded National Merit reeks of trying to pad your “resume” and doesn’t appear accurate or truthful.
List your actual scores and actual awards. Don’t exaggerate. You have to sign a page, electronically, stating that you are being truthful in your application. If anything is or has been exaggerated, you run the risk of being rescinded and reported to other colleges.
so be SURE to give its complete name on your application- i.e. Indian National Merit Competition…, in order to distinguish it from the National Merit Scholarship Program based in the US.
It is called the NTSE. A success rate of about 0.33% overall with close to 250 reserved spaces. I am a general candidate candidate to be selected among the 750 students from the unreserved category. That makes it about 0.2%. The exam tests Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Civics and Economics. It is prestigious!