Help my friend make a college list

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!

I am writing on behalf of my friend who is going to apply to universities this year. Being an international student who has not visited the US before, he needs help on making a final college list. Please suggest around 12 - 15 colleges. Also, he is looking to apply early to a few colleges. Please offer advice on that too.

Here are his stats. Forgive me for not mentioning the specifics so as to protect his anonymity.

Intended Major: Applied Math, Economics, Computer Science (most probably the first 2).
FA: No (but he might apply for aid at the need-blind ones)

SAT score: 2270 (700 - CR, 780 - M, 790 - W) single sitting, second try.
Subject tests: 800 in Math 2, Physics, Chemistry.
Rank: 7/350

Grades: 9th: 84%, 10th: 93%, 11th: 96%, 12th midterms: 95% (on the american GPA scale, it corresponds to a 4.0)
APs aren’t offered at his school so he did not take them.

Awards: National Mathematics Olympiad Qualifier (2nd out of the 3rd stage for our country’s IMO team selection), Google Science Fair Finalist (probable), Top 50 in a semi-major national CS competition, lots of basic awards and stuff, Intel ISEF team (probable), winner of a national science competition (top 50 out of 20,000)

ECs:

  1. Scientific research: 10th - current; one in computer science, three in math and one in bioinformatics. All have been published in high impact journals (I’m talking PNAS level stuff) and he is the first author on all of them. The GSF and ISEF are for the bioinformatics and math ones. He has collaborated with one Godel prize winner for one of the math papers and one MIT postdoc for the other one.
  2. Sports: Soccer, Basketball. 2nd - 10th. Captain of both the teams. He says that it is the most integral part of his application. Although it isn’t his priority, he would like to continue playing these sports at any level and maybe try one or two more.
  3. Clubs: Founder and President of the Computer Club and Math Club.
  4. Internships: 1 paid at the national science institute, one unpaid at MIT (this one wasn’t affiliated to RSI or any such programs)
  5. Other stuff: random programming stuff such as video games, weird stuff with programming.’

School type: Private, 350 kids (not your Eton though)
Financial Status: High enough to not get any aid.
Recs: 1 from his math teacher, the other from his english, one from his Physics teacher. Three from the professors that he has collaborated with.

So the thing that is worrying him is that over the past few years, only people with olympiad medals or people from the elite schools have gotten into top colleges from our country. He will try his best to make a team this year but it will be too late before the results come out.

I would appreciate if you all could help him out as you all did when I applied to college.

Thanks in advance.

2

We really don’t need to know all of his stats to find schools for him. What we need to know are his preferences. What part of the country does he want to be in? In a city or a suburb? How big of a school does he want to go to? Does he care about sports? Greek life? Religious affiliation? Political leanings? Weather? There are thousands of colleges in the US. To find schools he’ll like, he’s going to need to know what he wants.

3

@lalalemma Sorry for not adding those things. Well, as you see, research is very important for him. So a school that allows students to carry out research as early as sophomore year would be nice. As for the country and location part, it does not matter to him. In our country, we have faced harsh winters and hot summers, so any part of the US is fine. The school should not have more than 10K undergrads at any given time.

His preferences are: research opportunities, ease in taking grad level classes. That is it. He does not care much about the location, etc. He is an international student who has never travelled to the US. Also, greek life, religious affiliation and political leaning don’t matter much to him.

I hope that I have answered all your questions.

4

Tell him to make an account and log on and participate in his college search and learn things by reading threads.

5

I agree with BrownParent. The college search in the US is a lot about finding the right fit for you. There are so many schools and they are all really different.

This list might be of interest to him: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs

6

Brown, Duke, Northwestern, NYU, U Michigan, U Rochester, UCLA, U Maryland-CP, U Wisconsin-Madison, Boston U, U Texas-Austin. He might want to relax his 10K undergrad preference because larger research universities will provide strength in math/econ/compsci, research opportunities, and decent admission odds if he is full-pay.

I’m sure he will apply to a couple of the irresistible ultra-elites, but there are several schools that can meet his needs. Having a 2270 SAT and being strong in math and full-pay is not something to worry about, if he broadens his search.

7

Would second the recommendation that the applicant be flexible about the 10K undergrad preference. Large research universities tend to be universities with large, undergraduate student populations. For example–the University of Michigan has something like 26,000 undergrads. Any of the large public, research universities (with some exceptions) will be similar. The research universities with smaller undergrad size tend to be the private universities and tuition will probably be higher than at the public institutions. You didn’t mention whether the applicant is full-pay–I’m assuming the answer is yes.

8

I completely agree with boston university. boston is a great area for international students and is an awesome research facility as well as having a great academic reputation