Unweighted HS GPA: 3.85/4.0 (Perfect Grades from 10-12th)
Class Rank: School does not rank
ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (800R | 740M)
Coursework IGCSE (9-10) IBDP Curriculum (11-12)
IGCSE: 6A*, 2A:
Math Extended, Economics, Business Management, English LitLang, Hindi, Physics.
IBDP Y1: 41/42
HLs: Economics, Business Management, Computer Science, Hindi
SLs: Math AA, English
Awards
Conrad Semifinalist
KWHS Regional Finalist
International Education Certificate (Distinction) on Transcript
Fellow at University
Extracurriculars
Founded a Social Service targeting financial literacy in a niche sector with high impact and success. The service is funded by my stock market investments.
Part of the biggest publication collaboration between the top 3 India Schools. Role: Senior Editor
Internship at an International Mutual Fund. Researched and data crunched to provide analysis on a specific investment type. Research was vetted and proved as accurate and correct.
Boy in Charge for the school investment club. Taught over 100+ students investment analysis and personal finance. Held multiple seminars.
Worked on applications of nudge theory and economic biases on choice architecture and how real life applications can be utilized.
Hosted a successful podcast on financial events and economic concepts. Received over 10,000 listens and was mildly successful.
Attended the Wharton LBW Program
TEDx talk on same topic as my social service.
Editor-In-Chief and co-founder of School Finance Magazine.
Second Internship at another smaller mutual fund company.
Managed personal portfolio of Rs. 4,00,000. I started with 25,000 and grew it with internship stipend, dividend stocks and other ventures to a overall corpus of Rs. 4,00,000.
Essays/LORs/Other
Essays: 9/10 Well written, and reviewed by a professional service
Recommendations: 10/10 Teachers knew exactly what to talk about
Cost Constraints / Budget
I am able to afford any school
Schools
Safety
Not looking for any as I’m international, and would rather study locally if I get placed badly.
Match
NYU Stern
Berkeley Haas (Now 4 year)
Reach
CMU Tepper
Cornell Dyson
UPenn Wharton
Please suggest a few more, I still have a year to go for admissions, so I am open to advice and help on changes I can make for my profile. Thanks for reading.
One suggestion would be to refine the match. Right now there is not much difference between match and reach in your list. Berkeley is not a direct admit to Haas.
Maybe consider villanova or boston and if interested they can be a more reasonable match.
I will be taking a gap year, working on my NPO, and mostly doing a job for some experience before college. I have some free time, so I was wondering what I could do to better my app otherwise…
As an international from a very well represented country IMO you should consider NYU - Stern and Berkeley - Haas (you need to apply to Haas after freshman year at UCB) as reach schools. IU - Kelley, WashU - Olin, USC - Marshall, UMichigan - Ross, Notre Dame - Mendoza are a few other top schools.
If you would be equally happy studying economics (which is a very different course of study as compared to attending an undergraduate b-school) you can look into some of the excellent LACs as well.
Agree that you can apply to those US colleges you would love to attend knowing that you have good options in your home country.
FWIW being a full pay international from a well represented country is not a hook (although it is helpful that you won’t need aid).
Likewise, Stern has an admit rate of 7%. It’s not a match for anyone, even if your SAT scores are in the same range as those who are admitted. I think all the schools listed in the first post are reaches.
OP, can you be more specific about what you consider a “bad placement”?
I’d say either /both are worth looking into.
Fordham’s Gabelli is probably worth a look too. OP should have a decent chance of admission there imo.
UCB currently has direct admit business for some small special programs (MET and GMP). But most business majors are currently through competitive secondary admission.
The OP was referring to the new 4-year undergraduate program starting in August 2024. Not sure if they are expanding existing programs like GMP/MET/BSBA or creating a new one.
However, this direct frosh admission for general business majors (i.e. not the existing small special programs) begins for fall 2024 frosh, so this year’s applicants for fall 2023 will still be looking at the old method.