Chances at some top STEM schools? (MIT, Harvey Mudd, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Class of 2015
Ethnicity: Hispanic/Latino
US Citizen: No</p>

<p>Objective:
[ul]
[<em>]SAT I (breakdown): Not submitting
[</em>]ACT (breakdown): 35 C [36-36-31-35]
[<em>]SAT II (place score in parentheses): Math II (800), Physics (800)
[</em>]Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
[<em>]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/80 (really small HS)
[</em>]AP (place score in parentheses): Calc AB (5), Physics B (5), US History (5), Psychology (5), Statistics (5), European History (5), World History (4)
[<em>]IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
[</em>]Senior Year Course Load: AP US Gov, AP Spanish Lit, AP Eng Lit, AP Bio, AP Art History, College Writing, Philosophy
[li]Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Got selected to be a Chair at THIMUN (largest MUN conference in the world).[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Subjective:
[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Debate Club (President, several best-delegate awards at local debates), Science Club (Founder/President), Programming Club (Vice President).
[</em>]Job/Work Experience: Internship at a Civil Engineering company
[<em>]Volunteer/Community Service: 150+ Hours total for Techo Para Mi Pais (building houses for the poor), volunteered at my school's summer camp, volunteered at a professional golf tournament as a scorer/assistant, beach cleanups, and other miscellaneous activities
[</em>]Summer Activities: Internship mentioned previously and summer camp volunteer work mentioned above.
[<em>]Essays: I haven't written them yet, but I consider myself to be a great writer and I've already got a really good topic to write about (projected 8 or 9/10)
[</em>]Teacher Recommendations: Science/Math recommendation from my Pre-Calc/Calc AB/Physics B teacher (10/10), recommendation from my Spanish teacher for 3 years (9/10)
[li]Additional Rec: recommendation from my MUN director (8/10) [/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Other
[ul]
[<em>]Country (if international applicant): Panama
[</em>]School Type: small private school
[<em>]Ethnicity: Hispanic/Latino
[</em>]Gender: Male
[li]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Colleges I'm applying to
[ul]
[<em>]Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[</em>]Harvey Mudd College
[<em>]Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
[</em>]Vanderbilt University
[<em>]Georgia Institute of Technology
[</em>]University of Notre Dame
[<em>]University of Southern California
[</em>]Worcester Polytechnic Institute
[/ul]</p>

<p>Any comments or advice are welcome. I'll chance back. :)</p>

2

<p>bumping</p>

3

<p>shameless bump again</p>

4

<p>You are obviously very smart, and your test scores are near perfect. You also seem very involved. To add on, you have a hook: urm. These schools are super tough to get into, and I don’t know much about admissions as I too am in your position and currently thinking about applications, but it seems as though you’d have as good a chance as any. </p>

5

<p>MIT is a crapshoot for everybody(unless you win a nobel prize/cure cancer)…I’ve seen people winning olympiad medals getting rejected whereas people with mediocre achievements getting in. For GA tech and HM I think you have a good chance…dont know about the rest…sorry</p>

<p>I would be great if you reciprocate-
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1665159-chance-an-international-will-do-the-same-back.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1665159-chance-an-international-will-do-the-same-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Be sure you get someone knowledgeable about the US admissions system to review your essays. Can’t tell you the number of students I have seen who think they have killer essays who… don’t.</p>

<p>What is your financial situation? Of your list of colleges, only MIT is both need blind and meets need where international students are concerned. I believe Mudd, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and USC will meet need (their definition of need) if you are accepted, but are need aware for international students in their acceptance decisions (harder to get in if you need financial aid). And for the other three they seem to be both need-aware (so harder to get in) and do not meet need (so you likely would have a gap between offered financial aid and what your family could probably pay). </p>

7

<p>@intparent‌
MIT is need-blind, meaning if I can get in I’ll get financial aid. Harvey Mudd is need-aware but meets 100% of demonstrated need, makes it harder to get in (which is why I consider it a high-reach school) but in the event that I do get in I’ll be able to attend. Rose-Hulman, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, USC, and Georgia Tech offer varying degrees of Merit-based scholarships for Internationals, I’m confident I’ll get admitted but getting the scholarship needed for some of them is sort of a reach. For example, my friend (whose stats are below mine) got 20,000 in financial aid from Notre Dame. WPI’s merit scholarships and Texas A&M’s (which I didn’t mention above) merit and need based aid are very attainable, imo. </p>

8

<p>$20,000 of merit aid from Notre Dame still means you have to come up with over $35,000/year yourself. Texas A&M is a public university, probably would not give much need based aid to an international student (not positive, but I doubt it, I know UT-Austin doesn’t). You might get merit there, but maybe not enough to offset the high OOS cost.</p>

9

<p>@intparent‌
Yeah you are right actually. I don’t know where I got the idea that Texas A&M gave much aid to internationals. They do have the International Student Financial Aid Application (ISFAA) but I highly doubt they give any significant amount in aid. Searching for colleges with aid for internationals is so frustrating…</p>