What are my chances of getting into the top 30 universities as an international student? My SAT is 1450 and GPA W 3.9/4 with no class ranking.
My ECs are:
- An internship in Hospital as a computer guy’s assistant for 1.5 years (~500 hours)
- Studying competitive programming for 3 years(winning 1 international and Republican contests)
- Creating a Coursera-like platform with my classmates making courses free for competitive math, coding, physics, chemistry
- Telegram channel with little tips for coding with 700 subscribers
- Teaching 8-9th grades 1 time a week in a school
- Engaged in Student Government as a Minister of Culture.
My essay is about my childhood horrors(afraid of telling my opinion, afraid of people) which were discovered when I overheard the mother who sent her child to an orphanage because I spent much time at my mom’s job. And how I beat all these horrors through my high school.
2 rec. letters from my teachers, 1 from a counselor, and 1 from my employer.
intended majors: CS/Psychology.
Your GPA is in range. Your SAT is low (it leans on the low side for many computer science programs), but fortunately this coming season you will have many test optional choices. International students’ chances at T20 schools are about 3%.
I think you have a long way to go on your research into what colleges want and how you fit that. For example, there is some - but not a lot - of overlap between T30 colleges by general ranking and top 30 computer science programs. On the other hand, the T30 colleges are the most generous with international student aid, while a number of very strong CS programs won’t give a dime to international students. Application fees add up, so you will want to run the net price calculators for each college to make an informed decision.
Also, your essay needs to sell you to the college. Explaining how you overcame adversity is a common theme, but it has to be written so it shows your personal qualities match what each college is looking for. I don’t know your whole story, but basing your essay on a seemingly unfounded childhood fear of being placed for adoption, while possibly very interesting, requires you to be a fairly strong writer to make that work. Explaining some of the challenges you came across in your computer programming may seem more mundane, but they might be more relevant to what you can directly contribute to the college, and you run less risk of coming across as too emotionally fragile to handle a highly difficult course of study where up to 40% of the matriculated students drop to an easier course of study.