<p>Male, India, 17, applying for Physics in the following :
Cornell, Princeton,Swarthmore, Williams, Harvey Mudd, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue,Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>SAT I : 2040, gave a retest, might be able to push it up to 2100 but no more.
SAT II : Giving in November (Maths and Physics), get 800 on my mocks, lets see what I get in my mains.</p>
<p>EC : I have participated/won in 3 gaming competitions, 2 physics model building competitions,a theatre competition, a maths quiz, am a member of my school's Computer, Maths and English clubs, the Student Council, House Captain. Have also been an academic prize winner for 10 years in my school.
For Community Service, I spent 2 years in the National Blind School and an institute of education for the Disabled here.</p>
<p>Oh and i'll be requiring as much financial aid as possible, rest will be covered through student loans.
Thanks !</p>
<p>Are your grades good?</p>
<p>Not objectively, no. In our school the grading is such that very few cross the 70% mark, and i’m normally in the higher sixties. But as mentioned above, I HAVE been an academic prize winner for a long time.</p>
<p>Also part of my school’s Geography Club, and Africa Club (our school has relations with some African schools)</p>
<p>You will do fine and certainly get in a good school. The only issue I see is your financial need. In this economy, it will be tough to get lots of financial aid when domestic students are scrambling to get funds. Better prepare well for the financial part you will have a lot of competition at those schools. You may however, get more financial aid opportunities at smaller less well known schools that want to have successful alumni. Look at them too!</p>
<p>Thanks OsakaDad. Any suggestions to these less well known schools that are willing to give financial aid?</p>
<p>Also, without aid, do I have a chance at any of my reach colleges?</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are low for the Ivies. If your competitions were at the national level then there may be a chance. What is your ranking. The folks I have heard who got FA from the top colleges (from india) had almost perfect SAT/SaT II scores and national level accomplishments and were the top 1% (top ranked actually) in their schools.</p>
<p>I think good chances at Purdue though not sure of FA there.</p>
<p>Nope not national level. Also we don’t have a ranking system here, but i’m definitely not in the top 1%, maybe top 10%. </p>
<p>I know the Ivies are almost 0% chance for me, but I was expecting that. What about HMC and the likes? Any chance there? And Carnegie?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Dreamlord , if you need financial l why not try Cooper union too ?? Becuase as somebody said , economy is down and hence financial aid is basically a big issue …, anyway all the best … Hope u get into ur fav school … Ur score is not bad at all …so concentrate on Subject tests</p>