Indian Boy - Chance Me (I did a version last year)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey! I took a Gap Year after Graduating from High School and I am now applying to the class of 2025.

Intended Major - Majorly Biomed Engg, with second choice as Computer Science. (Different for some other Unis)

SAT Attempt 1 - 1430 Junior Year December (690R+740M)
SAT Attempt 2 - 1500 Senior Year December (720R + 780M)
TOEFL iBT - 118/120 (29R + 30L +29S + 30W)

No Subject Tests because they got cancelled twice! :frowning: However, from my understanding,most colleges are not accepting those.

GPA: -
Grade 9: 10 on a 10-point scale.
Grade 10: 96.8% (4 A+, one A)
Grade 11: 83.79% (serious personal circumstance explained)
Grade 12: 95.4% (All A+)

Rank - Not reported.

Extra-Curriculars Common App (In Order): -

  1. Founder and Secretary-General TDSMUN (virtual) - (Over 250 ppl from 43 countries and all 6 continents participated.) All the certificates were signed by UNHCR.
  2. TEDx Countdown Talk - I gave a TEDx Talk on Climate Change wherein I presented a social experiment I did for a Brazilian event.
  3. Market Research Internship at a Swiss AI Startup for a targeted press release.
  4. Editorial Board captain - student council leader (department head)
  5. C-Level Executive in an international debate club on Discord. (Participants from 6 continents and over 50 nations.)
  6. Founding member of Tech Club at school.
  7. Content-Writing Internship at a start-up that gave business solutions to corporates.
  8. Family Responsibilities => Taking care of my toddler brother.
  9. Panelist at a reputed corporate event, spoke about sustainability practices in corporates.
  10. Owner of an Intergalactic RP Server. Politics + Science Fiction
    (11. Founding member of a failed start-up that hoped to democratize education in India. Mentioned in many essays but not common app activity list.)

Essays -
Common App Essay - 8/10
Supplementary - 7/10
(Rated by a USC ex-professor, my friend’s father.)

Coursework -
Most demanding. AP/IB/Honors not offered by school (or CBSE, my Board of Education)

Universities:
Harvard
Princeton
UPenn
Cornell
Columbia
Dartmouth
Brown
Yale
Stanford
Duke
NYU
Rice
Emory
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
UChicago - ED II (probably)
Georgia Tech
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UCSD
MIT

LoRs:
Counsellor - 8.5/10
Vice Principal/Math Teacher - 9/10
Social Science Teacher - 9/10

I know most of them are reaches for everyone. I am just worried about if I have a shot at it at all coz of my ECs.

2

Explained doesn’t = excused

First 9 on your list + MIT: No chance as an international applicant where they will receive applications from the best students in your country with records that don’t require explanations or excuses.

NYU: Maybe, If you’re full pay.

Don’t know enough about the others to comment.

3

While I appreciate your response, I feel obligated to clarify that it was not an “excuse”. It was an explanation about a very personal reason that led to my parents’ separation a week before my final exams.

I got accepted into the same program for NYU last year with a lower GPA and worse Extra-Curriculars, so I am fairly confident about that. I also got a $22k scholarship there.

4

How much financial aid do you need?

Do you have US green card or permanent residency? Or are you indian citizen?

Did you apply anywhere in the first early round (EA or ED1)?

I see that you are applying ED2 UChicago. Note that Chicago does not have a biomedical engineering major. The closest is molecular engineering.

5

If financial aid is no concern, then you might have a decent shot at the big public state universities that rely on internationals for $$. Places like UCSD, UIUC and UCLA might be possible.

However if you need a considerable amount of aid, then most of the schools listed above will probably be out of reach. Do you have any backup schools? Or any schools in India that you can attend. You may end up with zero acceptances in the US. Are you okay with that?