<p>This is bhanu here from India. I will be applying to US Universities next year for fall 2009. This year I will be appearing in various engineering entrance exams in my country. </p>
<p>For those who are not from India let me tell something about these exams. The scores from these objective exminations are used by various institutes to fill up their seats. Questions are asked from physics, chemistry and mathematics and are of 11th and 12th grade standard. Getting a good rank means a better college. However its pretty difficult as the number of applicants(usually above 100,000) far outnumber good colleges. So getting a good rank, somewhere under 2000 is considered very good.</p>
<p>What I wanted to know is whether getting a good rank in these examinations will help me in making a good application for US Universities or not. I mean can I mention my performance in these exams under my academic achievements ( if i score good). Will it help me in gaining an edge over others from my country during the admission process???</p>
<p>You wouldn’t have ANY of your entrance exam results during the time you will be filling out applications, which is sometime in September through December. So the question of writing it in your application doesn’t arise, considering that your entrance exam results would start pouring in from May at best, a month after most US colleges send their decisions. </p>
<p>But it’s possible to do it if you’re a year dropper. Even then, I would suggest you don’t go about it. In your academic achievements section, mention your Olympiads, NTSE and the likes (if applicable). I don’t see why a college would be interested in knowing which colleges you had made it to in the previous year. Quite contrarily, it might go on to show that you don’t have many academic accolades.</p>
<p>Don’t mention it even if you ranked #1 in an Entrance exam, however “tough” it may be. Why in the name of Smokin’ Joes would a college be interested in knowing which other colleges you made it to?</p>
<p>I disagree. I think you can use it and should use it. After all, every college realises that you’ll be applying to other places, and if you’re within the top 1-2% of a nationally conducted exam, its an achievement.</p>
<p>I applied after a gap year, so I used my JEE rank.</p>
<p>I agree with Abhinav. My cousin was preparing for jee and got in with, but didn’t get a good rank (in 3000’s). He wanted to major in comp.science, so he applied that fall to U.S. universities with his Jee rank and got accepted to U.T. Austin with just a 1200 sat score. (out of 1600 that is)</p>
<p>After re-reading this thread I would like to clarify my opinion:</p>
<p>If the exams are standardized exams given throughout the country, like SAT IIs or A-levels, then you are supposed to report them.
If we are talking about some college-specific entrance exam (like the entrance exams for Oxford), then don’t report them.</p>
<p>I don’t see why they would be interested in knowing which other colleges you made it to, especially when they aren’t sure of the standards of the exam. Mention stuff like National Olympiads which have inferable standards. </p>
<p>A college entrance exam isn’t as convincing as an Olympiad. Moreover, it shows that the only academic achievement you have came after your secior year.</p>
<p>All Adcoms round the world know about JEE (you gotta trust me on this!).</p>
<p>So if you get a bad SAT score (say around 1900) and not VERY good school grades (say 80% CBSE XII)…BUT, you get a rank of around 100 on the JEE you have a decent shot for MIT (maybe for the spring sem or the next fall)!!</p>
<p>I know that there will be LOADS n LOADS of people denying this…but this is the TRUTH. </p>
<p>IIT-JEE is IIT-JEE. nothing comparable (both in terms of competition and curriculum) exists as of now! </p>
<p>I’m assuming you made that up minutes before you posted.</p>
<p>MIT isn’t looking for high schoolers who did NOTHING in school save preparing for an entrance exams. Low SATs and Low school results can NEVER be compensated for by an entrance exam result.</p>
<p>Studying for 12 hours a day in high school and indulging in no ECs might get you into IIT, but not into MIT.</p>
<p>I will be applying for fall 2009 and the entrance exams in which i will be appearing will have their (i dont think their shud be used here) results out by May - June 2008. So i will have the results in my hand while applying to US Universities. and yes u are dead right… i dont have many academic achievements(in fact very few) and in ECs i am nearly zero. But I can assure u one thing that these exams I am talking about are atleast five times as tough as SAT and pretty competitive as i told earlier…in fact i dont find SAT Math challenging at all. and i think most of the people here will agree with me.</p>
<p>“”“”“Don’t mention it even if you ranked #1 in an Entrance exam, however “tough” it may be. Why in the name of Smokin’ Joes would a college be interested in knowing which other colleges you made it to?
A college entrance exam isn’t as convincing as an Olympiad. Moreover, it shows that the only academic achievement you have came after your secior year.”“”“”"</p>
<p>I am not convinced by this point. Is a rank one of a standardized entrance exam worse than being ranked somewhere in 100s in an olympiad??? </p>
<p>I agree that MIT may not give a damn to one’s performance in such exams but i don think other not so big names will not pay attention. </p>
<p>and yes i will be appearing for SAT in october this year which means after my senior year and all those entrance exams. so will the admissions official not consider my SAT scores as they have come after senior year??</p>
<p>Looks like there’s been a lot of talking since I was last here.</p>
<p>So, I got a 1075 in the JEE and I’m going to Carnegie Mellon University, its where I always wanted to go, so I applied ED and got in, never been one for the Ivy craze.</p>
<p>@barlum - The JEE is a hybrid between standardized and specific, it caters to an elite set of institutions.</p>
<p>@gouchicago - There’s no harm in using the score. If a college doesn’t care, let them throw it out of the window, if they do care it only helps. Of course, olympiads make more sense universally, but an additional achievement in an exam more people take than any olympiad in India can do no harm.</p>
<p>Sure, it may become less relevant if we’re talking MIT or CalTech, but like Shreya said, at a place like UT Austin, it can turn the tide completely if the adcom happens to know what the JEE is all about, its even possible an adcom at one of the top school knows about the exam. Moreover, if adcoms say they care about even the smaller things you do in your daily routine, why would they not bother to notice that you were in the top 0.5% in what is widely regarded as the most competitive exam at our level in the country.</p>
<p>Lastly, what makes you think that getting a decent rank in the JEE requires 12 hours of study a day. I wasn’t even interested in the JEE and got by on 3 hours a day. Its never about the time spent at the desk, its about how well you use it.</p>
<p>Depending on whose ratings you’re looking at and the criteria, UT Austin is a top 10 school. For one thing, my MIT interviewer knew what the JEE was and he was interested in how I fared in it.</p>
<p>Surprised??? u should not be as quite a lot of IITians go to MIT for graduate studies. in fact it is pretty ignorant of anyone who feels IIT isnt good enough to be known at MIT. Its ranked 57th in the world although its grants are nothing when compared to that of MIT.</p>