Chances for Top Universities - International Student

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone!
I’m an International student that is currently doing his senior year in the US.
I would like to apply to some US colleges for physics.

Objective :

  • ACT Composite: 32
  • SAT subject : Math II (780) , Physics (750)
  • Senior Year Course Load : AP Physics , AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics + Honors
  • UW GPA : 3.85
  • W GPA : 4.6 -Rank : N/A

Foreign Country Stats (Grade 9-11):

  • Overall ranking : top 10%
  • Scientific Subjects Ranking : 2/1000

Furthermore, my “old” High School is considered one of the best and hard of my city.

Extracurriculars and Activities :

  • 50+ hours Community Service and Charity
  • Won a National Basketball Tournament in my country.
  • Done a lot of projects and research in my country's high school.
  • Attend a 4 week summer course in Oxford University:
    1. 2 weeks of "intense" Theoretical Physics
    2. 2 weeks of Differential equations and advanced calculus.
  • Certificate of Online Boston University course about systems of differential equations.
  • Peer Tutoring in both my foreign country high school and here in the US.
  • President of a language Club.

** Others **

  • Huge passion for physics and math. Self studied a lot of college-level topics. I'll point that in the application and I'll show my passion to them.
  • Beautiful Essays
  • REALLY STRONG Recommendation letters

Chance me at :

Early Decision

  • Cornell University
    Early Action
  • MIT
    Regular Decision
  • Princeton
  • Stanford
  • Caltech
  • U Chicago
  • Georgia Tech
  • John Hopkins
  • Boston University
  • U Michigan
  • U Penn
  • U Winsconsin

thx!

2

-Your ACT score is just within range of the average scores that these schools want (and your subject test scores too)
-EC’s are good and so are your academics. However, they won’t really stand out among the large numbers of applicants applying to these schools.

-For Chances:
-Stanford- automatic reach based on acceptance rate (~5%), don’t count on it
-Boston U- definitely in
-Caltech, MIT- low acceptance rates, but they might like your stats
-UPenn. Princeton, JHU, UChicago, Cornell- see above, you’re definitely getting into at least one of these schools
-UWisconsin and UMich- definitely in
-Georgia Tech- not too sure, but I think you have a good chance

-***Keep some safety schools on your application list just in case you get rejected from the schools you listed above.

-Hope this helps and good luck applying!

3

Thank you so much! It helps me a lot
other opinion are welcome too!

4

Unfortunately I disagree with the above poster’s opinion. The point is, you have a 32 ACT and demonstrate a passion for STEM. Well so do thousands of other applicants to those schools, and most of them have better stats than you. You are an international student, which puts you at a disadvantage in the application process (most likely):

Cornell - Waitlist (You’ll be accepted if you get really really lucky)
MIT - Reject
Princeton - Reject
Stanford - Reject
Caltech - Reject
UChicago - Reject
Georgia Tech - Waitlist (maybe accept but could easily be rejected)
Johns Hopkins - Reject
BU - Accept (most likely)
UMichigan - Reject (you would be accept if you were instate)
UPenn - Reject
UWisconsin - Accept

5

Thank you, very appreciate it.
Well I see some different opinions… Anyone else?

6

A few observations based on cold, hard, statistics.

-At most of the schools on your list, a 32 ACT is closer to the 25th percentile than the 75th percentile.
-While the SAT II scores aren’t shabby, your math score is slightly below the 90th percentile (nearly 10% of test takers get 800 on math II) and the physics score is around the 80th percentile (again, nearly 10% get 800). These scores show you’re qualified in ways a 700 or less wouldn’t, but don’t help much.
-Your GPA will be slightly below-average, though not enough that it’ll play a big role in universities’ decisions.

In short, your stats consist of a slightly below-average GPA (most applicants have 3.9+), a similarly unremarkable ACT, and average SAT II scores. Your senior-year course load may or may not be rigorous in your school’s context, but it doesn’t stand out in a good or bad way at a glance. You start the process with one strike against you because these schools have so many applicants with near-perfect stats.

Looking at your ECs, admissions counselors generally look for one of two things: a clear focus where you’ve excelled, or 2-3 areas where you’ve been well above-average (meaning you’ve “only” been a state finalist in several ECs). It seems to me that, unless you’re a recruited athlete or the research you’ve been doing is something truly incredible (published/soon to be published in a journal of international renown), your ECs don’t match the former description. Several of your ECs are just classes that you should add to your academics - they won’t count as separate activities.

Your extracurricular activities don’t seem like they’ll move the needle either way. They aren’t good enough that I’d admit you based on them, and they aren’t bad enough that I’d ask “does this person do anything except study?” Just unremarkable.

Unless your expectation that your essays will be beautiful is an opinion expressed by someone qualified (an English teacher, your guidance counselor, etc), I’m not inclined to trust most students’ self-evaluation of essays and recommendations too much.

In short, you have unremarkable numbers (GPA/test scores) and extracurriculars, and there’s also the international student anti-hook: your odds are much lower than those of US citizens or permanent residents. Your chances at most of these schools are below the overall admission rate.

I wouldn’t rely too much on JMS357’s chances. Jarrett211 seems to be closer to the reality, though these schools are random enough that accept/reject predictions for specific schools are a waste of time (or else the most likely answer for almost any of those colleges would have to be “reject,” since nearly all the schools on your list reject 80%+ of applicants). I think if you applied to all of these schools you’d get into at least one or two. Which ones, I can’t say (though BU is likely). Make sure you have an affordable safety school.

7

All the schools you mentioned are either reaches, high-reaches or out of reach. You need lots of match and safety schools.

8

Your real academic record and scores do not substantiate the image you trying to portray of yourself for the elite schools in your list! Having big name math/physics topics here and there with only 2 weeks of studying durations shows anything but shallowness. I consider all those elite schools as reaches for you. (Sorry to be so blunt! That is just the image I got).

9

Thanks to everyone!!. Although I agree with you guys that I am not the strongest of the applicants, I disagree with some of your opinions.
To NotVerySmart: first, thank you, I really liked your post. However, while it is true that my statistics are on average - slightly below average for those school, is true that 50% (or something like that) people admitted in the past years had worst statistics or similar. Don’t you think that?
Second, I said that my essays are beautiful not because I think that but because several English teacher and counselours said that.
To uclaparent9: what? I didn’t say that I just did two weeks here and there. It’s like saying that someone that did one month summer program at Harvard shows anything but shallowness, because he did just 1 month of work.
But anyway, thank you very much guys for all your opinions. Let’s see what will happen, I will hope for the best :slight_smile:
Finger cross!

10

@grimx98 While it is true that a a lot of applicants are admitted with worse stats (although at most of these schools I’d say it’s closer to 25% or 33% than 50%), they tend to be “hooked” applicants - they have something that induces the college to look past below-average scores.

Maybe they’re going to help the Princeton squash team thrash its rivals next year. Maybe they’re a URM (hispanic, black, or - best of all from an admissions standpoint - native american). Perhaps their parents donated $50 million to help build a new library, or maybe their father happens to be the president (Malia Obama could get a 600 on the SAT and still be admitted to most of the above schools) or some similarly influential figure (think senators, fortune 500 CEOs, Middle Eastern monarchs, and the like). Perhaps, like Natalie Portman when she applied, they’re up-and-coming movie stars. The next Yo-Yo Ma would get into most Ivy League schools. Other “hooks” (although these are weak hooks - a boost to your chances rather than near-certain acceptance) include legacy, being the first in your family to attend a college, applying EA or especially ED, and so on.

For mere mortals, who lack any of the above hooks (and especially for international students/asians/students from states like NY or CA, who have an “anti-hook” in the sense that the competition tends to be highly qualified), it takes a GPA and test scores at or near the 75th percentile and impressive extracurricular activities to have odds equal to or greater than the admission rate.

If your english teachers and counselors like your essays, that’s a good sign - when schools have 20,000 applicants who are perfectly qualified in terms of GPA/test scores and have impressive ECs, essays and recommendations are one way for you to stand out.

11

Thank you again, appreciate it. I will definitely try to focus on my talents and passion in my application, and I’ll put the best of me, let’s see if they’ll enjoy it :wink: