<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT/ACT: 420 CR 780 M 350 W(Mis-Grided I think)
[</em>] SAT IIs: 770 M Level 1, 800 M Level 2, 660 Physics
[<em>] IBT : Took in 14th of Dec (Hoping more than 80)
[</em>] GPA (w/uw): Use 100% percent system, Average score of all grade were 95.5%
[<em>] Rank/Percentile (# out of #) or %: Doesn't rank, but in top 10
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Good
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Good
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Good
[<em>] Major EC's: Maths, Informatics
[</em>] Work experience: Worked as an announcement advertiser for 6 months(Working on Photoshop, Coreldraw, ArtCam et cetera)
[/ul] Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: Mongolia
[</em>] School Type: Private School
[<em>] Ethnicity: Mongolian
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Income Bracket: low
[</em>] Financial aid?: Yes
[li] Intended Major: Computer science, Engineering</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Awards[ul]
[<em>] International: IOI 2006 Bronze, USACO Gold Division
[</em>] Online: Ranked in TOP 1000 on Peking University's ACM Online Judge System
[<em>] National: Silver from the National Informatics Olympiad, Qualified to the National Mathematics Olympiad, Gold medal from Atal Bihari Vajpain's Olympiad
[</em>] Regional: Gold medal from City's Mathematics Olympiad, also a lot of Informatics and mathematcs medals</p>
<p>[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[<em>] Activities: One of the first member of Mongolian Science Club "Tesseract", also work as a moderator of club's science discussion forum. Moreover, contributed to hold Online Contest of my country.
[</em>] Talent: Learned guitar by myself and was taught from virtuoso guitarists
[/ul]</p>
<p>I really interested in Computer Science and want to learn in good schools such as MIT, Yale, Caltech etc. But my CR and Writing score are low even though i have much aspiration to learn in them. I heard they doesn't consider Writing score much; also my Financial situation also hampers my chance.</p>
<p>If you guys were me, what would you do? Would you give up or struggle?</p>
<p>I am applying for : </p>
<p>MIT
Cornell
Yale
Northwestern
Caltech
Georgetown
Dartmouth College
Williams College
Swarthmore College</p>
<p>Which school should i eliminate? or which school should i add?</p>
<p>i think your a solid applicant for most colleges in America…a 1200/1600 is a good ways above the national average…and a 1550/2400 is right around there…your grades are definitely your strong point as you maintain a solid A average…HOWEVER…you really need to consider which schools to apply to based on your personal stats…not on what colleges are ranked highest..those schools you are applying to are GREAT schools..but I have to be the bearer of bad news..although SAT test scores are not the only thing they look at…your SAT scores aren’t even close to getting you into these schools..not even if your George Bush’s daughter(well..that might be the only exception)…most kids who get into these schools who weren’t recruited athletes or such score AT LEAST 1400/1600…and a 2100/2400…what i think you should do is…look for some second tier schools that don’t focus much on the writing section of the SAT…like University of Maryland or Virginia Polytechnic Institute..where your score will be competitive..and you will likely get in if you stress the fact that you have super math scores across the board and a really good grade average..but just aren’t so hot with english…I personally would try to retake the SAT if AT ALL possible..and see if you can get a better score…but if you can’t retake…you simply just have to forget those “top-25” schools…and remember the fact that there are hundreds of other good schools in America that you WILL get into…</p>
<p>With such low scores in Critical Reading and Writing, I wonder how you would be able to handle classes taught in English (I am assuming your native language was not English). Your sentences have many grammatical errors, so you probably did not know much of the grammar in the Writing SAT section.</p>
<p>@cooldude1990: The Critical Reading and Writing sections are each below the national average of about 500, but the Mathematics score is way above the national average. Also, I am not sure if we should use the US national average for international applicants.</p>
<p>When you are applying to the best colleges and universities in the United States, you do not want “average scores” for these highly competitive schools.</p>
<p>Wow, talk about an unbalanced applicant: 420 CR 780 M 350 W(Mis-Grided I think). I absolutely agree with cooldude. Those scores put you firmly out of range for every school on your list. I am not even sure how much of a serious glance the rest of your application is going to get with the adcom sees a 1550/2400.</p>
<p>But WAIT.. I just realized you went to the IOI and got a Bronze? Wow, so you’re an Olympiad medalist. That makes a HUGE difference. Schools like MIT and Caltech may forgive your low SAT scores because you are an good programmer with an Olympiad medal under your belt. Every school on your list is still a big REACH and your country’s (Mongolia?) team is probably not as selective as China’s or Russia’s (and you didn’t get a silver/gold), but that is a plus right there.</p>
<p>Retake the SAT and don’t mis-grid this time. Getting into the 600s in CR and W will increase your chances immensely, considering your nationality.</p>
<p>Thank you guys;i really look forward for MIT, because they don’t consider SAT I scores. I think i can understand the classes if i learn in one of them. I won’t take SAT again, because my family wants me to go school by Fall 2008, and i already graduated from my high school in 2006. I would really appreciate if you guys give me a school list which i should apply and which school i should eliminate from my list.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the SAT I is both required and considered. However, if this applicant were to take the TOEFL, I think that score would be considered over the SAT I CR and W. But he should check the school website to be sure.</p>
<p>I think you really need to take the SATs again and really study for Writing and CR, especially CR. </p>
<p>Your math score and your SAT IIs are really good and I can see why you’re applying to schools like MIT and Caltech. But unless, your other scores are good, they probably won’t even consider it because 350s and 420s are very low for them as they reject applicants who have much higher than that.</p>
<p>Also you definitely need some safety schools as all of the schools on your list are difficult to get into.</p>
<p>Repeat, I would really appreciate if you guys give me safety-match a school list where i should apply and which school i should eliminate from my list.</p>
<p>i agree with coodude, the way your W and CR drag ur scores down decreases ur chances substantially… that IOI bronze looks good and some schools may even overlook ur W and CRs…</p>
<p>OK. All, how about this
MIT (doesn’t consider SAT score)
Cornell (writing doesn’t matter)
Caltech (maybe IOI will waive bad English score)
Williams College
Drexel</p>
<p>Stop saying MIT doesn’t consider SAT scores. Of course they do consider SAT scores! When people say they do not consider them much, that means, for example, that if you have a Writing/Critical Reading score of 650-700, that will not hurt you as much at MIT as at Harvard or Yale. For ANY section score below 600, ALL top universities, including MIT, will care A LOT. Your SAT scores will hurt you very much for MIT.</p>