Currently a sophomore chance me for hypsm and uchicago

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):1520(770M/750ERW)
ACT (breakdown):n/a
SAT II: Physics(780) US History(760) Math2(780)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA:5.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Comp Sci-5, AP Environmental Science-5, AP Physics C-4, AP Euro-5 Will take more
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): High Honor Roll, Best movie and best director for a movie competition with 50 applicants in our school, won some regional MUN awards as well.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

Compassion Club - Founded the compassion club in our school that follows the Charter For Compassion which was founded by a TED speaker. In this club we lead seminars around all grade levels in our school on pollution and waste management. Used machines that turn waste food into fertilizers in order to maximize waste management. Used that fertilizer to create a garden. Spoke in front of a well known prince as well at a municipality to pitch ideas for waste management in my city.

MUN - Member of MUN. Was president in grade 8. Organized a conference which 9 schools attended. These 9 schools were located all across the Middle East. Also won awards at an MUN conference in Geneva.

Coding Club - Founded the coding club in our school. Have over 50 members, 30 of which are active. I taught them some basic app development on Android. Also taught C+, Java and Python to these members. The club collectively made our school’s website using HTML, CSS and some other languages.

3D Printing Club - Taught many people how to use CAD, Blender and some other applications. We worked on a project to create a large figure of a human body by individually printing out pieces that would go together like legos. Also volunteered on behalf of the Enabling The Future program we printed somewhat working prosthetics for kids. Also worked on designing a template for a kid at a local hospital. This is relatively common in our school district tho.

Fundraising - Every year our school has a senior trip to South Africa. We raised over $10,000 by various fundraisers that we organized. Also collected clothes and toys, ended up with over 5 large boxes.

Community Service Trip to Jordan - Attended many seminars held by influential people in the UN etc. We also had to create an action plan for our school which we did with the help of young Syrian refugees who told us about world issues they thought were important.

Photography - Go out with my dad on weekends to go birdwatching and take pictures on them. Created a blog with a decent following. We have about 500 active users that post frequently and have almost 15,000 unique visits monthly.

Job/Work Experience:

Will get an internship at an accounting firm that one of my dad’s friends owns.

Volunteer/Community service:

Volunteered at the biggest autism center in my region. We worked with assistive technology and visual/sensory stimulation in autism treatments.

Volunteered at a mosque during Ramadan where we gave food to people who couldn’t afford a meal to break their fast.

Summer Activities:

Planning on attending a summer program at Duke or Brown.

Will also send out messages to professors in hopes of getting an RA position.

Essays (rating 1-10, details):

I’m pretty good at essay writing and have some unique experiences that I could probably talk about.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes I will need 30-40k in aid
Intended Major: Economics probably. Also contemplating environmental science and comp sci.
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Saudi Arabia
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Pakistani
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 70k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None that i know of

2

What specifically about the schools you mention appeals to you? Can you distinguish differences among the 6?

Prestige should not ne the answer… so let’s start there.

3

UChicago - I love the quirky nature of the student body. They also have a good internship and research program. I think it’s called metcalf or something. UChicago is also known for their academic rigor and I like challenging myself. I also love the city of chicago and I’ll probably also apply to Loyola Chicago.

Princeton - Once again Princeton is known for their academic rigor. They have a really good research program and I want to minor in a science-y field, something like Physics or environmental science. Students there end up working at world renowned labs like Argonne, CERN, Fermilab etc. They are also very well known for their CS program. New Jersey is also a great place with a large Muslim community which will be pretty great because I’m Muslim.

Yale - The student body is very talented and special. The student body is also very tight knit because of their residential college system. Their campus is also very beautiful with their gothic architecture.

Stanford - Stanford also has an extraordinary student body which I would definitely click with. I am also a very STEM type of person although my main focus in Econ. Stanford has great programs in both majors.

MIT - MIT has the exact major that I want to pursue which is finance. They are very highly ranked in finance. They have one of the best STEM program as well.

Some other universities I like

Columbia - They value international students and diversity a lot which would be beneficial to me as I am a Paki. They have great study abroad programs as well.

UT Austin - They have a great finance program but that’s pretty much all I like about UT Austin.

Northeastern and Drexel - They both have co-ops implemented into the curriculum and that is pretty valuable for finding a great job.

4

It is great that you have that information and can differentiate. As a sophomore you have a long way to go but your scores and grades put you on a path to being a competitive candidate.

Keep up the good workand refine your list as you get closer. Your list is a bit top heavy but you have some kind mpressive numbers. FYI 4/4 and 5/5 should put you in the top1% (not 10% as you list).

Add some safeties and good luck. It will likely come down to LORs and essays.

5

Thanks a lot for your input. Do you have any recommendations as far as ECs go? Only thing I’ve heard from people is to spend a lot of time doing a few amount of things. Would it look bad if I had a lot of different things with a moderate amount of dedication? Any output on that?

As far as safeties go I was thinking of Purdue, Drexel, UT Dallas and Penn State. Do you have any recommendations on matches that are strong in both econ and comp sci?

Once again thanks a lot.

6

Focus on things you care about. People frequent use the word passion but I would say authenticity is key.

AOs have heard, seen and read it all. They want to come away feeling like they l pw and understand the candidate. To the extent you follow your own compass and put a lot of effortamd determination into whatever it is you should be fine.

I know the inclination is to find the secret sauce. The reality is that for the most part one EC isn’t better than another.

7

If you are an international student, be aware that most schools are need aware and it’s very competitive for international students to get financial aid. Note that UT Austin accepts 90% of their incoming class from instate applicants so it’s a reach for anyone not living in TX. State schools (like Purdue) aren’t great about financial aid for international students.

You have good stats that will be competitive at any school but understand the challenges facing international applicants - not only will you be judged against the other applicants from your country, but also the financial aid challenges.

As an aside, saying you need $30-40K in aid is not particularly helpful. What can your family afford to pay per year? Some schools in the US have a COA of $70K plus.

8

My parents can pay around 30k per year. Do you know of any schools that would give a decent amount of aid to international applicants that aren’t very hard to get into?

Thanks

9

With those stats as a US applicant, you’d be in the running. The same chance as any other ORM applicant at those colleges - small chance but possible. As an international applicant who needs aid, you’re either going to need to show international level talent at something or somehow fill an institutional need the college has. You won’t have any control over the second one - you won’t know if a college decided it needed an increased _____ presence that year (the standard trope is that the college marching band needs a tuba player that year so tuba players have increased chance of admission), so don’t worry about it. But you might have some control over the first one. Do you have any skills or talents in which you might show that you’re one of the best in the world at that particular thing? If not, you still have some time. Is there anything where your skill or talent is great but not yet world class level? If so, really focus on developing that over the next few years so it will be ready to roll by admissions time.

10

Just read your post in the other forum about Bs in geometry and algebra 2. One B or even two Bs aren’t fatal, but you might want to be think through how colleges would view you having Bs in courses that directly relate to your intended major. If your only Bs are in math and you’re intending a physics major, colleges like MIT are going to question if that makes sense.

11

Hey,

Thanks for that really helpful response. I don’t plan on majoring in physics, maybe a minor. Would it be worthwhile to mention cricket on my college apps as a skill or talent I’m good at? I’m not particularly accomplished in cricket but I have some decent awards pertaining to cricket, a couple awards in my region and school but not world class level. I could definitely dedicate some time to it.

12

Pretty sure you’re punking me with the cricket question. I like your sense of humor. :slight_smile:

I have a son attending one of the colleges you’re targeting and he has a sense of humor like that as well.