I’m an international student. I wasn’t accepted to any university for fall 2015. I had applied for computer science or engineering to these universities : UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Georgia Tech, UVA, and U Mich. Here are my stats.
SAT : 1900
GPA : 3.8
SAT 2’s : Math-700 and Physics-650
Decent extra curriculars, essays and LOR’s.
No AP’s as high school didn’t offer any.
So it’s pretty clear due to my ordinary app, I was going to get rejected by most of the universities. But didn’t expect all. Surely my stats are the weakest part of my application. So this is now what I’ve decided to do.
In my gap year, improve my test scores significantly, do more extra-curriculars, research stuff, some internships and few AP’s.
I’ll be re-applying to all these universities(most of them early) with some safeties and some Ivy league ones.
So do you people think that I’m on the right track? Please help me out with this, any advice will be appreciated.
Frankly, you should have applied to a wider variety (i.e. less selective) of colleges. If you want CS or Engineering – very few Ivies should be on your list. Like many internationals, you fail to see the value of the many, many US colleges that would serve you well. May I also suggest these: Rose Hulman, Purdue, UIUC, RIT, RPI, . Are you a full pay student? That will factor mightily as well. Reapplying may reduce your chances, yes.
You are applying to some of the most selective colleges in the country, which would be difficult even if your scores increase significantly. I can say right now that colleges aren’t terribly impressed when a 19-20 year-old scores well on the standardized tests. Go ahead, take the gap year, re-take the SAT, but remember that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Do not expect different results if you continue applying to colleges and programs where your chances of admission are slim to none, and please don’t keep bumping threads asking people to tell you otherwise.
Reapplying to the same schools does not seem to be that worthwhile – why would you think that your chances would be any better?
If you do decide to take a gap year and apply again, target a less selective set of schools, and be sure to include some safeties that you know you will be admitted to and can afford.
I’ve seen mixed advice on whether it makes sense to reapply to schools that rejected your application. Don’t assume that schools will accept you the second time around.
Your scores and grades are low for the Ivies – given that you are international, I think it would be a waste of the application fee to apply to an Ivy.
Remember that a “gap year” is really only 9 months – less, since you’ll be in school for the next 3 months. That gives you just 6 months to do something that will “strengthen your profile.” That’s tough - you had 3+ years to shape your profile, what could you do in 6 months that would be so amazing that your application would look better?
Don’t waste your time applying to the same schools again or their peers like Rice and Vanderbilt; you won’t be admitted with those stats. Look at the schools listed by @T26E4, omitting UIUC (#5 in CS = not happening) and maybe adding Iowa State, Colorado School of Mines, New Mexico Tech, and a few less-selective state flagship schools. Some of these are still accepting applications for 2015-2016.