Inputs appreciated. Will chance back if required

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hey! I’m an international student from India applying to colleges in the US this year (currently a senior). I would like to know what my ‘chances’ of acceptance are at the following universities:

UPenn M&T program (ED), MIT (EA), UC Berkeley, UCLA and Georgia Tech (EA). Another alternative is Harvard (SCEA/RD). Of course, there are other schools, but for now, I would like to know your views for these colleges. Please let me know which one should I choose to apply to early.

I’ll keep this short. Let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything. Intended major: Fin/CS at UPenn, CS/Eco/Math at MIT, CS/Applied Math/Eco at Harvard. Nothing below is predicted and everything listed is 100% legit.

Profile:

  • SAT score: 2200 (710/720/770 - 11)
  • Taking the ACT in a few weeks
  • Subject test: 800 (M2). Taking Physics in October
  • Grades: 90%+ throughout with a massive upward trend. My school is notorious for its rigorous curriculum. I’m ranked 1/360 something.

ECs:
-Research: I have carried out research in pure math and in CS. All of them (4 in all) are either sent for publication or are already published. These are pretty important as some of them dealt with conjectures that had earlier remained unproven for over 5 years. Got recs from my mentors. I have entered the ISEF competition this year.

-Community Service: Started a non profit with my friends to provide basic CS education to underprivileged children. Present in 14 cities and taught over 3000 children. Serve as COO and also personally attend to teaching in my hometown.

-Founded a company a few months back. Although we don’t have our product out on the market yet, I have employed 16 people currently. Received funding (although nothing major). Serve as CEO and also work as an iOS developer. Learnt iOS development specifically for it

-Activities in current school school: Head boy (its basically like the president of the student body), Computer Club - president, Math club - member, MUN club - member, Best speaker - debate competition, member of organising committee for our school’s annual festival, Basketball - varsity captain

-Activities in older school: Soccer team varsity captain, basketball team varsity captain, school house captain.

Awards/Exams:
-RMO qualifier (akin to the AIME in India)
-National Cyber Olympiad - 3rd in state and 36th in the country
-A bunch of other silly awards.

I DO NOT NEED FINANCIAL AID AT ALL!

So my main concern is where to apply early. Harvard is sort of a dream for me, but the M&T program is really hard to not like for a person like me. My parents are telling me to apply to UPenn M&T early because they feel that it will suit me better. But I’m not sure because I have never visited both of the places and I most probably won’t any time soon.

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No one?

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I think you have dodged the greatest concern for international students which is the financial aid, so that is a huge plus. Here is the thing about M&T. It actually seems for once to be a good fit for someone on here. You seem to present a background that works with that. But M&T only admits 1-2% of applicants making it actually more selective than Harvard. I think you don’t have a good chance at either RD, so pick the one that suits you best (i.e. that you want to go to more). You do unfortunately fall into the Asian Male International Anti-hook category. I would really add some safeties as internationals have a lower chance of getting accepted at nearly all universities and the fact is that none of your schools are guaranteed for you.

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@jarrett211 Thank you for replying. I’m aware of the facts that M&T is ridiculously hard to get into and that I stand a very small chance of getting accepted to most of the universities in the US. Would you happen to know how many M&T admits are through ED or a source that might offer more insight into it?

EDIT: I do have safeties. It is just that I wanted opinions on the aforementioned colleges only.

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I visited UPenn and Wharton, and from what I just read, if there was ever a perfect candidate for the MT prgram its you. The only thing that would be a hinderence is that you are an international student. I think that your list is very reasonable considering all of your accomplishments but you do need more safeties and likelys. All the big name schools are a crapshoot to get into.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1806476-please-chance-me-for-cornell-engineering-and-other-ivies-i-will-chance-back.html#latest

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Bump

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Dudes…

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More would be admitted through ED than RD. That’s all I could tell you. I would go for it if I were you.

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Your ECs are very, very strong. Good for you! Your SAT is on the low end, but I don’t think it would hurt you much. I would recommend EDing to Penn if you want in on M&T as they reserve about half their spots for ED students. It’s much harder to get in M&T during RD. Good luck :slight_smile:

Chance me : http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1807174-chances-at-hypsm-ivy-league-for-computer-science.html#latest

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@DyrannosaurusRex Is that true? Do they actually reserve half the spots for ED admits? I’m taking the ACT next week and I have been averaging 35 on the practice tests. Hopefully it turns out to be better than my SAT 1 score.

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My Penn tour guide said they reserve most of the M&T spots for ED students so they highly recommend applying early for a spot in M&T. I can’t find the exact statistics online however…

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More opinions? Also, opinions on M&T ED vs Harvard SCEA? I prefer Harvard a bit more, but not so much as to get overly attached to it.

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I am not qualified enough to take part in “chancing” others, but I would like to ask you a question. I was at Intel ISEF in May this year, and I won 1st place and Best in Category. You say that you entered ISEF this year, but the only other Indian (from India, that is) who was there was a freshman.

Are you talking about ISEF in MAY 2016? If so, do you know that the process of getting selected is very competitive and that you cannot state that you are attending unless you are selected? Apologies if I seem like I am being too harsh.

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@saladass, you have a strong background, especially your research/entrepreneurship. M&T, MIT (you can do a minor in business) and Stanford (not on your list - I’m not sure why) all seem like better fits than Harvard. You should be aware that the average SAT score at M&T is about a 2310.

Given your background and focus, I’d go with the M&T ED + MIT EA route. You can always apply RD to Stanford, Berekely (and Harvard, if you are really keen on it, though I’m really not sure why it fits your interests) if not admitted to one of those 2 schools.

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@TopologyisFun I’m talking about ISEF 2016. Yes, I know that getting there is really hard, but considering the kind of math projects India sends, I think I stand a really good shot at getting there. My research deals with an important conjecture in XYZ that had previously remained unsolved for more than 5 years. It has some further implications too. Not to sound cocky, but I think that I stand a really good chance at making it to the ISEF next year. With regards to the statement in the original post, I wanted to write that I’m going to be taking part in the competitions leading to ISEF this year, but I guess that the current statement is a bit ambiguous. Apologies for the same.

@renaissancedad Thank you for replying. I did not know that the average SAT score was 2310, but I’m taking the ACT next week and I have been averaging 35 on the practice tests that I have taken till now. Stanford is on my list, but the universities mentioned in my post are the ones I’m considering for early admissions process. I think that I’m going to stick MIT + M&T for early admissions.

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Good plan - I was not suggesting otherwise.

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@saladass That’s great if you make it to ISEF! (Though the guy who represented India in math was really great, so you may have some competition there! :o) ). Also, if you’re applying to colleges in November, going to ISEF in 2016 doesn’t make a difference on your application; your decisions would have come out long before then. (If it’s OK with you, could you send me a PM on the subject of your project; I’m simply curious)? You can alternatively figure out my identity by recalling that I won Best in Category in Math this year, and find my email address on Google. But that is a slightly longer route!)

I’m also applying to MIT EA; good luck!

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Also: did you qualify to the INMO from the RMO, or did you simply take the RMO (notice that one is more prestigious than the other)? I did pretty well in the RMO when I took it (I was 12), but I did not score high enough to make it to the INMO (but I was close).

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@TopologyisFun I qualified for the INMO. Cutoffs in my region were surprisingly low this year (I’m not that good in competitive math). One guy got a perfect score, but he went on to represent India too :-p The rest of scores were pretty low considering the past performance of our state in the competitions leading to the IMO as well as the IMO.

I’ll PM you the details. The pre-prints aren’t online yet but I’ll put them up by the end of this month.

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@saladass Great, qualifying for the INMO is a good thing. (I’m not good at competitive math either.)