International Student Chances for Engineering at MIT/Caltech

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi guys!</p>

<p>I'm currently a UK citizen residing in the UK with the dream of reading Engineering at a top US university (namely MIT/Caltech).</p>

<p>Unfortunately, across the old pond, we do things a little differently to the US in regards to university/college applications. Thus, I am posting here today to try and get a local view of my chances, if I were to apply to MIT/Caltech.</p>

<p>Academics:
SAT 1s: (1st Try) 2230 (680 CR/800 M/750 W) - I will do my SAT 2s next year
PSATs: 209 - 98th Percentile
GCSEs: (A UK end of middle school Subject test): 12 A* and an A (Maximum Grade) in Additional Mathematics
International Baccalaureate Predicted Grades: Straights 7s (HL Maths/Phys/Chem, SL Eco/Eng/Fr) + 1 core point prediction (the max my school predicts)</p>

<p>Further Achievements:
10% Academic Scholarship to my current school
Harvard Book Prize Recipient
Gold Maths Challenge (Top 500 in the UK)
Townsend Warner History Challenge (Ranked 23rd in the Country)
Gold AS Physics Challenge (Designed for the top 3% of UK Physicists)
High Bronze Chemistry Olympiad (Despite taking the exam a year in advance)
Gold Biology Olympiad
Former Secretary of my School's Debating Club
School Prefect
Selected & Attended advanced mathematics courses at Greenwich University London as part of the Royal Institution Talent scheme.
Every Wednesday morning, I lead a religious assembly at my school - educating younger students about the religion and its impact on the modern world</p>

<p>Languages:
French (Intermediate-Advanced)/Spanish (Intermediate)/Russian (Basic)/Bengali (Basic)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Every Friday, I volunteer for 3 hours at a local high school to teach mathematics to students 3 or 4 years my younger
Aon Benfield - two weeks
Nomura Investment Bank - one week (won Mock team trade competition & came 2nd in Stock pitch competition among a cohort of 30 very qualified students)
E&Y - a competitive one day insight day
(And, to be completed this summer- one to two week stints at Ramboll/ARUP/Total)</p>

<p>Interests:
Programming - I have made and I am currently making software (on both PCs and Macs)
Current Affairs - I am a member of my school's Debating (+ was former secretary) and Politics club.
Aircraft - I know this may seem sad, but I do enjoy flight simulation and may start to take flying lessons next year.</p>

<p>So that's a bit about me! All I want to know is whether I will have a decent shot at applying to MIT/Caltech (Sorry if I sound arrogant at all - I merely want to show my best achievements to give a more complete picture of myself).</p>

<p>Thanks ever so much!</p>

2

<p>Bumping thread. I would appreciate any response - positive or negative!</p>

3

<p>You have a good chance due to your excellent grades. If you are not really aiming for these universities, perhaps you shouldn’t really waste time on them (especially since applying to Oxbridge is already quite tedious). Your SAT is nice, but might see some further improvement to boost your application.</p>

<p>You are not very well-rounded from what I see, unfortunately. This doesn’t mean much for these engineering schools, though. I believe you have more up your sleeves, but when you apply take note that they want to see quite a lot of extracurricular in order to prove that you are able to handle academics effortlessly with a lot of time to spare to pursue your interests.</p>

<p>Quite a lot of prizes! Good job on that. Though I suspect it’s better for UCAS applications than US applications.</p>

<p>Work experience is nice, but volunteering does not really count as work experience if you’re unpaid (and not an intern).</p>

<p>Both are a reach. MIT will be a high reach due to your international status. But since UK and US are close friends it won’t be that bad. (As compared to Chinese and US). Caltech is extremely hard. They accept around 250 each year if I’m not mistaken. And assuming only 25 of them are international, you are thinking of yourself, competing against 25 other geniuses. I’m not sure if it will be that easy.</p>

4

<p>Thank you ever so much for your reply, Skyrior. This response will be extremely useful for future reference and I appreciate it (finally I have some local opinion about my university application!). With reference do your comment about well-roundedness, what exactly constitutes it? Quite frankly, sport isn’t my fort</p>