Hello everyone! I have a really hard time choosing which university to apply early to, but i narrowed down my choices pretty much to Dartmouth and Cornell. Cornell is need-blind, but doesn’t guarantee to meet full need, Dartmouth is need-aware, which can hurt my chances significantly, but guarantees to meet full need.
Stats:
Demographics: Male, Caucasian (Azerbaijan, southwest Asia), sophomore (or junior, 10th grade, we have a 11-grade system), middle class (need at least 70-80% financial aid). Both parents graduated at local universities (Father – Bachelor’s deg., Mother – Master’s deg.). Uncle graduated from Harvard Kennedy School (MBA).
Major(s): Computer Science, Mathematics
Academics:
SAT: 1540
TOEFL: 109
SAT II:
Math: 800
Physics: 780
School: one of the best state schools
Class rank: we don’t have class ranks in our school, but i think i can ask about one from my counsellor. Top 5% for sure.
GPA (unweighed): 4.0/4.0
Coursework (next year included) [important notice #1]: Precalc, Trigonometry, Calculus, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Russian, Literature, Mother Language, German, English, History, Social Sciences, Economy, Geography, basic Biology, etc.
Rec. Letters: 9/10 Math Teacher (who is also my homeroom teacher), 9/10 Russian & Literature Teacher. Letters show my active role in educational process, creativeness, dedication & hard-working. Awesome relationship with (almost) every teacher.
Sports (minor): 3 years Aikido, 1 year Tae Kwon Do practise
Extracurriculars: [important notice #2]
Game Development and Programming, all by myself (Web Development (freelance), Game Development (releasing a multiplayer online game in a month), plan to do some projects in Computer Graphics, AI, Neural Networks).
Competitive Programming (dark green on CodeForces), planning to dedicate a lot of time to the upper-pink tier, Republic Informatics Olympiad finalist (was 10 points (out of 800) short of bronze medal), Republic Math Olympiad finalist.
Student Government. School Parliament Vice-Speaker. Organized school sports events, cancer/AIDS awareness days, prom parties, etc.
With these stats and my financial situation, where are my chances higher?
Important notice: This is the most intense and interesting to me curriculum offered, it is very STEM-heavy (by my country’s standards).
Important notice #2: As you see, i have no experience in volunteering or community work, or even something school-related, because there are absolutely no opportunities for all this in our country. All of my extracurriculars are deeply interesting to me and reflect who i am.
Thank you so much!