I live in Saudi Arabia(grade 10th)
but the thing is that here in Saudi Arabia you have no oppurtunities at all.
No Olympiads and no chance of doing any research .
Talking about extra-curriculars I am good in sports
play all kinds of sports and am pretty good at it
so if I have very good SAT scores and with all these extra-curriculars , do I have a chance of getting into MIT?
Assuming that I score 90% above in my 10,11,12th grade board results.
My writing this so that I can improve on my application as I have around 2 years to prepare .
Will I be considered as a weak applicant due to lack of EC’S? Help me please
Hate to burst your bubble buddy but you seem to me as an all rounder … The thing is ivies only look out for kids who have a huge spike in their application. You have 2 more years , if you want to make it too MIT you will have to do something crazy and innovative that no other kid in Saudi Arabia has ever done before . Marks and sat scores are considered as close to nothing in today’s competitive admission pool .
There is nothing you can do in Saudi arabia that is crazy especially if you are a non-citizen.
BTW with this profile which schools would accept me ?Stanford,UCB?
Look for opportunities.
Are you a boy or a girl?
Are you a Saudi citizen?
Do your parents support your idea of studying abroad?
What ways do you have to distinguish yourself that aren’t dangerous?
I am a boy and not a saudi citizen u can’t get saudi citizenship. Distinguish myself from what?
@Brainszee What can you do that distinguishes yourself from the potentially hundreds of applicants from your country to these top schools? Admission is a fair bit more selective internationally, and financial aid may be harder to come by, especially for state universities such as UCB where you would be paying OOS tuition.
financial aid is not a problem. I don’t need any financial aid. And my country means India or Saudi Arabia?
Both, but most likely India which is one of the most competitive pools.
what about stanford or bekeley
or harvard?
@Brainszee If you say so – although this means you’d probably be paying $60k per year for state schools like UCB (tuition, housing, food, insurance, travel, other expenses).
Its appears like you’re fairly undecided at where you’d like to study, but that’s okay. However be advised that these are all very selective schools, and you should have a backup plan in case you get rejected or if a certain school doesn’t work out otherwise.
do I have a good chance at these schools?
NO ONE has a good chance. You must prepare to be rejected even if you are extraordinary - like, become nationally famous for something, or infamous in Saudi Arabia for what is considered good elsewhere but bad there (like defending gay rights for example), except that last option is extremely dangerous and probably not a good idea in a dictatorship with tight control over all communications. You can win academic prizes. Or perhaps your parents may agree on sending you to boarding school in the UK.
As an international from a highly competitive pool, your odds are likely 1-5% (5% really at best).
You need to buy a Fiske guide and start reading to identify normal safeties, matches, and reaches. THAT is the real work.