For Indian International Student: Certain Queries.....

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>What i provide below is the letter to the admission officer of purdue university i had sent. I want all international applicants help and sincere reply to the queries raised in this letter.</p>

<pre><code> Please comment on each of these questions i have raised to the admission officer. Provide examples, explanations and your extra stuff to help out....
</code></pre>

<p>The same post with different letter in regards to dif university goes off at other threads.. please comment on those questions also... u may also answer in terms of univ.. u know about./..</p>

<p>:):):)PLEEASE :):):)</p>

<p>Before the letter my personal details:
Name: Ankur Modi
Country Of citizenship: India
City: Kolkata ( formerly Calcutta)
Age: 17
DOB: 04/09/1988
Class:12
Graduation Year: 2006
Applying for : Fall 2006
Interested Major : Engineering : Computer eng. or Biomedical
Sat scores :
Verbal: 580 Maths:800 Writing: 620
Combined : 2000
Extrra curriculars: More than what i feel all would call excellent
Finacial aid applicant : Yes (or scholarships also for that matter)</p>

<p>Provide thses answers based not only on purdue but the following university also:
Boston University
Colgate University
Duke University
Dartmouth College
Rice University
Washington University in St. Louis
Illinois Institute of Technology
University Of Texas At Austin
University Of Chicago
University Of pennsylvania
Brown University
University of Southern California
Georgia Institute of Technology
Purdue University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Cornell University
Gettysburg College
University Of Michigan -Ann arbor</p>

<p>Now the letter:</p>

<p>I am an international applicant from India. I willl submit the application for undergraduate admision in the fall 2006 admission cycle.
I have submitted application for purdue university.
I have certain queries as follows:</p>

<p>1) When do i send the remaining documents of my application to the university, since i have read that the admission starts in september. And what would be the idead time to send them.Will i recieve corespondance regarding these remainng documents via email or somethng?? </p>

<p>2) I have been in the West Bengal State Board system of evaluation till std. 10 and gave terminal exam like wise..( Class 10 Boards). The results and general obtained marks , pattern and everything is diffrent with the state board and the nationalised boards such as CBSE and ICSE. So will my academic transcripts recieve consideration for this as well.?? </p>

<p>3) I will be applying to other college and university as well but purdue remains my 1st preference .However paying the application fees may present hardship at present due to overwhelming no. of other applications also. I have already got a fee waiver certificate from my school principal stating the hardship and other dependants in family. Can i attach the waiver and get the applcation fees waied off. What are the relavent details , please give me more information? </p>

<p>4) As per the UNiv.policy need based fin-aid is almost nill for international begining students in 1st year. does this mean that a student with financial constraints and very satisfactory academic performance in 1st yr of college may be given aid for 2nd year onwards. If aid is available after 1st year, ,could you please elucidate on the details and tell me stats of how much can a student expect. ?? </p>

<p>5) The only scholarship valid for International students is The Academic Success Award, but very little info is present on thw website about it. Is it that most people above the stipulated sat score there and School marks or grades get the scholarship. What is general tend of scores of people who actually get that scholarship at Purdue.Also since finance being my most major barier for extremely high funding and college admision , could you just throw more light on this scholarship and any other scholarship available for int. students.??</p>

<p>6)What are the most majors factor for admission in the university and sholarship for int. Students.? I have got a low score of 580 in Crtical Reading (New Sat) but a gud score in Maths-800 with writing score of 620 . I am thus giving the toefll exam with high chances of better performance (above 275). Will that affect my application and scholarship aplication or consideration. Also please comment upon my scores...too (my intended field is Engineering - comp.1st and Science-Mol. Biology.2nd)
6) I understand that purdue is unable to offer aid to international students but certain international students nevertheless get financial help from the univ. upto 75% of total expenses/yr ( less in some cases) . Is that based on some other factors as well. BEsides other scholarships and on campus jobs .. what does one expect? </p>

<p>I will be highly thankful and grateful if you could assist me on these questions iwththeir respective answers. I understand that there may be some questions objectionate on my part and some avoidable on your part. I take no hesistation in expecting less prompt reply on those. But please comment upon each query i raised, ,as its very important for my application has already been submitted online. </p>

<p>With Due Respect And Regards,</p>

<p>Ankur Modi</p>

<p>Anticipating replies from the international community at collegeconfidential .com</p>

2

<p>These are the other set of queries regarding grades and school stuff. Answer any question you feel you can be comprehensive in..</p>

<p>certain queries regarding the secondary and high school transcripts that are to be sent with the application.</p>

<p>1) In india, we follow terminal exam system ,meaning we have major exams at the end of grade 10 and 12. Since grade 12 results wont be available , i will send the grade 10 results and my final school year class 10 results. Do i need to send other documents in this regard also. </p>

<p>2)Since these documents do not directly translate into the US gpa system, so how will my application be assessed for scholarship and other factors. Also my class 10 marksheet gives results from 9 different subjects.. without any aggregate percentage system or grades. These are Physics Sciences, Maths, Life Science, Hindi 1, Hindi 2 (native language) , English, History , Geography, Additional 9th. i will but be applying for the engineering program so will all these marks be taken in consideration or only the relavent ones will be accounted for. Ex. Only the science Group in the results with language marks.
3) will the absence of any system of cumulative percent aggregate affect the transcript. For scholarship , the requirements are in Gpa , so how does an indian marking system compare with the requirements and what is teh general expectations of marks ( in indian system) in subjects or total by purdue university. </p>

<p>4)There are various state and nationalised boards in india for grade 10 terminal exam. These have their own policy and system of evaluation. The marks obtained are therefore not directly corelated in these boards. I have given my grade 10 exam under the West Bengal Board Of Secondary Education, which varies greatly from the CBSE and ICSE .The grading system being tougher here, marking varies and does not fall commensurate with CBSE or ICSE counterparts. Will the difference in board given due consideration in admission and SCHOLARSHIP process owing to the difference in quality and evaluation. </p>

<p>5) Our school doent calculate class rank at present nor were we given one at the terminal exam at class 10. However at the last final internal assessment year in the school, we were ranked throughout. So will that rank suffice for the class rank requirements or some other substitute is needed. </p>

<p>6)LASTLY, should i send a official converted copy of my grade 10 terminal exam results to you made by the high school on a scale of A-F based on information from the American Council and its resources .Will it help in any way. Or may be a gpa conversion done by the school itself. also , what percentage from an indian student do u expect combined with good sat score to recieve a scholarship ( grade10 ). This one may be tentative. </p>

<p>7) In case of international students with credentials in different format and education in drastically different manner than in us, how do you make the scholarship decisions. What are the key factors in scholarship selection and grant alongwith the SAT. </p>

<p>I sincerely hope that you will answer all my queries. Please respond to each one of them, no matter how succint your replies may be . I want to get all the doubts cleared and queries answered thus hoping that you wont dissappoint me. </p>

<p>Keep replying....</p>

<p>Ankur Modi</p>

3

<p>No Comments. Too many questions!</p>

<p>You should have toned down on the details and forwarded straight questions with straight answers.</p>

<p>Most of your questions can be answered by the admission council of the respective college.</p>

4

<p>"1. When do i send the remaining documents of my application to the university(?)
(, since i have read that the admission starts in september. And )
2. what would be the idead time to send them.
3. Will i recieve corespondance regarding these remainng documents via email or somethng??"</p>

<p>1 & 2. If the application dates are on, send them as soon as possible.</p>

<ol>
<li>It depends on college. But if you are applying online, you get an instant response!</li>
</ol>

<p>.</p>

5

<p>i suggest you not put this much specific information on a public forum such this...</p>

6

<ol>
<li><p>You can send your documents any time before the application deadline (deadlines are usually postmark deadlines not receipt ones but you should check with the schools.)</p></li>
<li><p>Ah the travails of Madhyamik. Your transcripts will definitely be evaluated by the adcoms but I don't think US Universities areas well acquainted with this board as they are with CBSE/ICSE. And also the West Bengal board really is extremely erratic. Ask your principal/relavant school authority to send a clear explanation of the marking system along with your transcripts to your colleges.</p></li>
<li><p>Just send in the fee waiver to all your colleges. If you don't hear anything from them, it means theyve waived your fees.</p></li>
<li><p>No Idea</p></li>
<li><p>No Idea</p></li>
<li><p>High school GPA and rank, SAT and SAT II scores, Extracurricular activities and essays are all important. Applying for financial aid will count against you at all the schools you've mentioned.</p></li>
</ol>

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<ol>
<li>Send in all internal assesment records (school exam scores in Classes 9-12)</li>
</ol>

<p>2)All subjects will be taken into consideration. </p>

<p>3) No idea.</p>

<p>4)West Bengal Board? Like I said before that's pretty unfortunate seeing what the marking's like. Get your school to explain it to the colleges. I don't know how Purdue speciafically will react to it.</p>

<p>5) Send in any rank that your school gave you.</p>

<p>6) Don't know</p>

<p>7) Don't know</p>

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<p>hey ankur </p>

<p>random answers to ur queries - send the documents as specified by the school website but for purdue send them as soon as they start takign applications because it has rolling admissions so u might want to get into the scholarship game early.Iif you have been given a rank ( any rank ) that would suffice too. If you are within the top 5 % or 2 % of your class or whatever accdg to you then tell your principal to mention it on ur transcript i guess. And if you want seperate consideration of your circumstances ragarding ur edcational system ( state boards) be sure to include a detailed description of the state board system in a sheet of paper and sent it along with your transcript ( most colleges require it anyway ) they will consider you on par with other international ( cbse students too ) otherwise. </p>

<p>Regarding your scholarship question almost every ad com wants to see how you fared against other students in your school and almost all of them look at sat scores . SO class rank and Sat scores serve as their benchmarks . </p>

<p>btw almost ALL your questions would be answered by the schools' website and if you email the ad rep for your college you are bound to get your answes immediately.</p>

9

<p>Your replies are in real sense very intriguing and informative.. but there still are queries left unanswreed,... lets see and wait for other ppl who have the info to post........ it. And thank you for replying. ..l</p>

<p>One thing i am confused is what to write in the letter explaining the West bengal madhyamik board marking. what should it contain...</p>

<p>Also since i am already in purdue game... do share any special info u have about the university....... remaning. i am in the workout... </p>

<p>Keep Replying
:):):):)******:):):):)</p>

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<p>Please.......guys and gals...... help me on this.....</p>

<p>ANSWER ANYTHING YOU FEEL LIKE...... BUT DO..PLZ......</p>

<p>aNKUR</p>

11

<p>dude ....so many questions....u have been researching....
i will answer randomly...i picked questions that looked like vaguely familiar territory....
-ok i think i can answer one question pretty confidently. I know a senior who is now in Embry Riddle doing Aerospace eng. he was a CBSE student, took his SAT but did not submit his Grade 12 results as at the time of application they were not available. Im doing A level - and i will apply before i even write my exams: my school will predict grades for me and send those instead. </p>

<p>-Yea, Get a GPA worked out by your HS couselor...Grades A-F for all subjects for senior years of high school would be good.</p>

<p>(You really do have too many questions....)</p>

<p>-To say where you rank: use latest HS ranking, if its not good enuf: dont fret. they consider ranking in terms of top 5 %. top 10% e.t.c</p>

<p>-as for scholarships:Apply, show them ur bank statements, they'll take care of the rest and ensure u dont have to eat cheap bran the rest of your life</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
Yea, Get a GPA worked out by your HS couselorp

[/quote]

No!! Don't do that. Just attach a transcript (ie with your grades n subject or whatever your school does) with all your forms and leave your GPA blank or put N/A.</p>

<p>Even though your school doesn't rank just ask your counsellor/principal if he/she can calculate and enter your exact rank or atleast provide a rough estimate (like top 1%, or top 10% etc.). If they don't agree, don't worry - universities are getting used to the fact that many schools do not rank.</p>

<p>Another thing about application waivers. I was on some 2-3 mailing lists for NWU and some other state schools and they sent me emails stating that if I finish my application on the 1st of Dec then my app is free so I did that and saved a couple of bucks :D</p>

<p>I'll add more info later ...</p>

13

<p>just out of curiousity: I'm got my GPA worked out - u are saying that I shouldnt have? why?</p>

14

<p>For A-levels you need a GPA, but for CBSE and other Indian state boards it isn't necessary and all colleges understand Indian schools pretty well so it won't be a problem.</p>

15

<p>co'mmon can be better than that</p>

16

<p>Smartmind:
I am in ISC board. My transcript is of the converted grades. I will be sending it. Have talked to the adcomms and they don't have a problem.
If you want yours to be converted is your wish.</p>

17

<p>i have got the conversions also done... vampiro. btw how did u do the conversions. means on what format or scale.... could u just tell me how did u convert. i did on a relative scale of CBSE</p>

18

<p>Vampiro, should CBSE students also get their marks converted? WHats the formula? And will the Universities require the original Internal Marks card? Wont it be OK if one will send them the attested & converted marks card only?</p>

19

<p>No way. u shud not attempt to convert......
CBSE is one board( moreover isc also ) that the adcomm are pretty familiar with..... they know all the rules and marking... Your marks card issued by CBSE wil be valid only..</p>

<p>Keep in mind that adcomm wil recieve abt 50% applicant from CBSE.. u attempting to change or convert could be a negative image as others wil compete against u ...
For CBSE the only thing i suggest is to get the best possible grades...
Hope this helps...
Ankur</p>

20

<p>Fyi, from the cornell app I read, it was listed that they recommend that the students be in high Division I in Indian schools which is a mininum of 70% and above.</p>