Is my list adequate? Should I add more safety schools? Chance me too.

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hello,

I am a female highschool senior from India, studying under the National Curriculum CBSE. I have scored a 1420(780-Math and 240-English) in my SAT and a 6/7/7 on my SAT Essay and a 760 in SAT Chemistry. I’ll be taking SAT Math 2 and SAT Physics on October 1st and I am awaiting for my TOEFL score result which is due next week.

Academics:
I have a CGPA of 9.2/10 in 9th(freshmen) year and 9.6/10 in 10th(sophomore). I had received a total 78.4% in my 11th grade and ranked 14th in school. Along with that, I have been a finalist in a state level science exam and received scores of 95.35/100 in Science proficiency test and 78.04/100 in English proficiency test.
(Apparently, we don’t have things like honors or APs)

I have been working as a part time teaching assistant for over an year at a Lab started by IIT Bombay alumni which focuses on teaching grade school students about science with experimentation and middle school students about electronics. Along with that, I have done a summer internship at Robosapiens Technology, attended courses on Solar Cells and Entrepreneurship offered by the Government of India and attended a course on ‘Swarm Robotics’ at IIT Bombay.

I have made my own solar powered cycles and contributed to my community by making and installing a solar based bio-digestor in my housing society.

I completed a course on Globalisation by University of Texas at Austin with a 79% and a Geometry course by school yourself with a 95%. Currently, I am doing a course on Pre-University Calculus offered by Delft Institute of technology. These courses were/are being mainly taken for interest in a topic or exam prep.

Leadership:
I am the house captain of one of the four houses at my school(If you are not familiar with it… refer to Harry Potter) and the Director of a committee in the first inter-school MUN ever being held in my district.

Along with all these, I also have awards from inter-school drama competitions and given several dance performances(both contemporary and classical dances). I was the editor of my school magazine and have won prizes at story writing competitions. My hobbies include playing basketball, watching anime and tinkering with the learning kits at my workplace.

I wish to apply for a major in Computer Engineering and have an alternate major of Computer Science.

Well, now that we are over the TL;DR phase, I just wanted to see what do you think my university selection and my chances of getting in:

  1. GeorgiaTech(applying early)
  2. John Hopkins
  3. Carnegie Mellon
  4. University of Pennsylvania
  5. University of California Berkeley
  6. Cornell University
  7. University of Texas, Austin
  8. UCLA
  9. University of Washington, Seattle
  10. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  11. Purdue University <— Safety
  12. Rochester Institute of Technology <— Safety
  13. UCSD <— Safety
  14. Virginia Polytechnic University <----Safety

I am really not sure about whether my safety schools are actually safe or not. ._.
Please help this poor and desperate soul with your godly opinion. Onegai!

P.S: I have met with the International Admission Officer of Rochester Institute of Technology at an educational fair at my city and had a nice talk with her. She was happy with my SAT score, took my resume and said she looked she forward to my application. This is a good sign, RIGHT? RIGHT RIGHT?

2

Oh nice, another anime watcher applying for a computer-related major from India this year.
First off, your profile seems relatively solid for the schools you’re applying to so I’d say your current safeties are more than sufficient to guarantee a few acceptances.
If your essays are great then I can certainly see you getting into some of your higher colleges too, despite your scores being average for those colleges. Make sure to get 800s on M2 and PH, they’re piss easy.

3

@kons99

I like how you pointed out the anime watching part first. xD

As far as the SAT subjects are concerned, I have been scoring 800 in Math 2 practice sheets, consistently, having little trouble with Physics, as my score ranges from 740-770.

Do you have any tips for SAT Physics?

4
  1. GeorgiaTech(applying early)
  2. John Hopkins
  3. Carnegie Mellon
  4. University of Pennsylvania
  5. Cornell University

=====> reaches due to selectivity/acceptance rate

  1. University of California Berkeley

  2. University of Texas, Austin

  3. UCLA

  4. University of Washington, Seattle

  5. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
    ===> matches to low reaches due to acceptance rate

  6. Purdue University <— Safety

  7. Rochester Institute of Technology <— Safety

  8. UCSD <— MATCH

  9. Virginia Polytechnic University <---- MATCH

Look into URochester, UMass Amherst, UWisconsin, Cal Poly SLO, Penn State

5

@MYOS1634 ThanQ very much.

What do you think about University of Florida Gainsvilee and Worcestor Polytechnic Institute?

6

I don’t believe UCSD is a match or safety in CS or Computer Engineering. Last year it seemed like GPA’s and test scores needed to be very high (3.9+), and the OP only has a 78% (B-?) in junior year. Cal Poly is similar Some of these schools have much higher threshholds in CS than for other majors. UCI would probably be a match in California. WPI is a good choice because they don’t admit by major, and are quite receptive to international students from what I have seen.

7

^I think OP is CBSE, where a Standard XI Pass = 30% (not the same scale as in the US).

UF would be a match and WPI a safety if you’re full pay.

8

@MYOS1634

Yes, I am in CBSE board.
Alright then.

@belmom
Thank you very much. I think I’ll be sending an application to WPI as well since it offers a co-op program too.

9

I thought I’ll post an UPDATE

TOEFL score - 111
SAT Subjects - Math 2 - 800; Physics - 780

Schools I applied to(I am striking the schools whose results are out):
CWRU, Purdue, RIT, RPI, WPI(EA) , University of Washington Seattle, UC(B, LA, SD , SB), UIUC , Rice, Cornell, GATech(EA), UPenn, CMU, JHU, MIT

My results so far:
Accepted - Purdue, RIT, RPI, WPI
Rejected - GATech, UCSD
Waitlisted - UIUC

10

Any preference in terms of where you’ve been admitted so far?
What about net costdbat each?

11

@MYOS1634 I am waiting for until April 1st, when all the university results will be out. Till that time I am not leaning against any university. I am going to do a detailed analysis of costing and other factors after my boards and well decide. ^^ I will post my final decision here.

I have a 23k scholarship at WPI per annum and 19k scholarship at RIT.
I also got selected for the Global Scholars program at WPI which grants me a one time 5k scholarship for when I decide to study abroad go to one of their global centers.

I got admitted to Udub for Pre-engineering the other day. Very doubtful as to if I’ll go there though. Going undecided is a major risk, not sure if I am going to take.

12

@IamINTP Thanks for the updates!

13

Sthanqk for the updates. :slight_smile:

14

So, results of all the schools I applied to are out, and I decided to give a closure to my thread. So, here’s what happened:

** Accepted **-
1)Purdue University - FYE(Computer Engineering)
2) Rochester Institute of Technology(18k Scholarship p.a.) - Computer Engineering
3) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Computer and Systems Engineering
4) Worcester Polytechnic Institute(EA)(23k scholarship p.a.+5k Global Scholars Program) - Robotics Engineering
5) Case Western Reserve University(20k scholarship p.a.) - Computer Engineering
6) University of Washington, Seattle - Pre-engineering (Denied from Honors School)
7) University of California, Santa Barbara - Computer Engineering(First choice)
8) Carnegie Mellon University - Carnegie Institute of Technology(Submitted Maker Project Portfolio)
-Intended Major - Electrical and Computer Engineering - Computer Engineering

**Waitlisted **
9) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - Computer Engineering(Did not apply for alternate major)

**Rejected **
10) Georgia Institute of Technology(EA) - Computer Engineering
11) University of California - Berkeley - Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
12) University of California - Los Angeles - Computer Science and Engineering
13) University of California - San Diego -
a) Computer Science and Engineering - CE b) Computer Science and Engineering - CS
14) Rice University - Engineering
15) Cornell University - Electrical and Computer Engineering
16) University of Pennsylvania -
a) AI: Computer and Cognitive Science: Artificial Intelligence b) Computer Engineering
17) Johns Hopkins University -
a)Computer Engineering b)Computer Science
18) Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Intended Major Computer Engineering

I know, I applied to a lot of schools. This was because I believed I would not get into any of them. xD
I am 99% sure I am going to commit to Carnegie Mellon University. But, it’'s an uncertain world… I can make no guarantees until I actually enroll.

This is probably the last update that I am making. You can ask me questions.

Signing off,
INTP

15

Congratulations!!!
Are they all affordable?

16

@MYOS1634 ThanQ!!!

From the accepted list, all of them except UCSB and CMU are affordable without loans.

17

Wow :slight_smile: Excellent !