Chance me for getting admits to any Ivy, MIT, CalTech and maybe some other good universities, UChicago, UC Berkeley etc.
I will be starting twelfth grade in a few months and plan on taking the Math 2 and Chemistry SAT Subject tests this summer. Any suggestions/ advice is also welcome
British born, Indian citizen
Lived in Singapore and USA
Financial Aid: Required
SAT I 2230, first attempt
CR- 800
Math-720
Writing-710
Essay - 10
NTSE scholar
shortlisted for KVPY (SA stream)
Top 20 international rank International English Olympiad
Extracurriculars
Head Girl (twice, Junior+Senior school, 2500 students)
Quizzing: participated and won several state level quizzes
Photography: pursued as a hobby, no awards, member of school club
Model United Nations: member of school secretariat, participated and chaired several committees
Blogging: pursued as hobby, 1500++ hits in 4 months
Social initiative in school against vandalism as part of Leaders’ Club
Times NIE Student of the Year Award
HDFC Meritus Scholar (Rs. 25,000)
Some miscellaneous debates, art, IT competitions
Interested majors
Mathematics
Economics
International Relations
Chemistry
Not seeing any passion there with anything. Hoping you just forget to list some things. Think about what you do outside what you listed. Volunteering? Leadership? Projects? Collaborated somewhere or helped others?
Volunteering, Leadership
Undertook initiative in school to curb vandalism as a part of Leaders Club
Voluteered for polio vaccination program
Interned at local TV channel
Test Score is not everything but just for your reference…by Business Insider August 2014. 1. Cal Tec 2300 2. Harvard 2260 3. Princeton 2255 3. Yale 2255 3. U. Chicago 2255 6. MIT 2235 7. Washington U. St. Louis 2220 8. Columbia 2215 8. Vanderbilt 2215 10. Franklin Olin 2214 11. Stanford 2210 12. Northwestern 2200
13. Harvey Mudd 2195 13. Pomona 2195 15. Dartmouth 2190 16. Duke 2185 16. U. Penn 2185 18. Rice 2180 19. Williams 2175 20. Tufts 2170 Good Luck!!
You have great educational things. Good test scores, great GPA, classes, head girl, etc. but I don’t really de a story, I don’t seen what you are passionate about or how you spend you time.
However I’ll try
Yale/ Stanford/ MIT/ Harvard/ Princeton/Dartmouth : high reach
Duke/brown/northwestern: mid reach
Cornell/ wash U St. Louis/UCB/ U Chicago: low reach/ high match
NYU/pomona: match
I’m assuming you are international? You won’t qualify for much in financial aid. Can you afford $60K+ per year? That’s the kinds of costs you are looking at per year.
@auntbea - Some of the schools the OP mentioned provide full aid to internationals, so your advice is off the mark. I agree thought that it will be a long shot for her to get into any of these schools, based on the information she has presented.
@BldrDad: she’s listed MIT-aid chance if she is one of the tippy toppy students-not happening.
UChicago-chance of aid, if tippy top student.
Caltech-Aid is quirky and has maybe 5 international scholarships total for the 2400 SAT kids. The rest are need based monies based on what the university thinks the need is.
Berkeley is a California taxpayer publicly funded school-no financial aid.
Another poster listed other schools, not the OP.
So which ones am I off the mark if she doesn’t have the top scores?
@auntbea - She said “Any Ivy” which includes Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, all of which are need blind and meet full need for all accepted international applicants. MIT offers aid to all accepted internationals, not just top students.
I wouldn’t say it’s impossible for her to get into these schools - from what I understand, the Indian grading scale differs greatly from the US scale, and 10 CGPA/94% in 11th grade are actually HYPSM-level marks. Her quick list of ECs doesn’t sound hugely impressive, but these schools are accepting students with potential, not handing out awards to students with the best HS ECs.
@theheisenberg‌ - In my opinion, you might have a chance at the top schools. Put a lot of effort into learning how to best present yourself in your applications - you need to stand out.
Some quick feedback:
take the SAT again if you think you can improve
take the ACT with writing
take 2 SAT subject tests (Math level 2 and the science of your choice)
spend some time on the International Students forum here - there’s some useful information to be found if you dig deeply enough.
Be realistic - the top US colleges accept very few students from India. This means you cannot expect to apply to just top colleges if you want to study in the USA. There are a lot of colleges that give aid to internationals, even if they are not need blind. Do your research.
How much can you pay per year? That is a very critical question.
As a fellow foreign student, I advise you that you look for various range of schools, not just prestigious ones. There ARE schools who may be willing to give some good merit scholarships
You have some good stats. Don’t listen to people who say your GPA isn’t good enough, they think the whole world works with the same grading system. I’m in the french system in which a 17/20 is amazing, but it would translate in a 3,4/4.0 which is bad for americans.
