My Profile . Any advice and my chances ??

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Hi guys,
I am applying to MIT, CMU, Berkeley, Gtech, Caltech ( All in regular decision ). In other words, I am applying to the top 10 - 15 Colleges in Computer Science undergrad degree.</p>

<p>I passed 12th this June and the following are my percentages for the last four years.
9th : 90 %
10th : 92 %
11th : 84 %
12th : 88 %</p>

<p>Couldn't score well in my 11th and 12th because, well, like any other PCM student I took JEE coaching and hence didn't give boards the uno priority.</p>

<p>Missed the JEE cut-off by 1 mark . Thought of applying to the US universities only after I didn't get through JEE. So, now I've decided to drop from a coaching insti in Delhi and meanwhile I'll give the SAT in Oct, Nov and Dec.</p>

<p>The following is a very brief overview of my academic and EC records :</p>

<p>Acaademic :
School : DPS Jodhpur ( Very good )
Always among the top 5 - 10 in my class.
Took Computer Science elective for 11th and 12th. I absolutely love coding and making programmes ( was the best in CS in my class ) I hope in making CS one of my strengths in the application.</p>

<p>Took part in whatever competition came my way - Olympiads, NSTSE and others ( But then again, to make it to the top colleges mere participation does not help ).</p>

<p>EC:
Played squash throughout 9th, 10th , 11th. Participated in various tournaments across the country, participated in nationals, went upto 4th round in many tournaments ( This is one and the only strength in my EC part ). Again I had to leave this to focus on JEE. In other fields, took part in various plays, drama clubs, public speaking clubs in my school.</p>

<p>Not to sound overconfident but I am not worried about the Essays of my applications, they are definitely gonna be very good for the ADcoms. Recommendations would be great. I WON'T be applying for financial aid.</p>

<p>I have been giving the SAT paractice tests ( Kaplan, Princeton review and others online ) and have been getting around:
M: 800
CR: 730 - 760
W: 750 - 790</p>

<p>So that's how it stands guys. I am preparing for JEE meanwhile and am pretty sure of getting into BITS or NITs if not the IITs next year .</p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated. Would you require more info ?
Thanks.</p>

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<p>Sorry I posted the same thread twice …</p>

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<p>ivycollege, your resume looks good.
Your squashability is a big plus. If you are as good as you claim then you should try to contact coaches. It doesn’t hurt to try.</p>

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<p>Do contact coaches!</p>

<p>Someone was telling me how this guy with really pathetic grades and a SAT score of around 1600/2400 was really good at squash and got into University of Rochester because he contacted the coach and stuff.</p>

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<p>ivycollege, you have much better stats than the person I know who got into Harvard last year because of squashability. I think you need to hurry up - they will decide on athletic recruits early.</p>

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<p>I wish I’d taken up a sport seriously.</p>

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<p>ivycollege, check out [Harvard</a> Athletics Mobile](<a href=“http://www.gocrimson.com/information/recruiting/index]Harvard”>http://www.gocrimson.com/information/recruiting/index)</p>

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<p>To get recruited into something like Harvard, MIT or Caltech you need to the best of the best in your sport. These guys probably make 10 - 20 international recruits and to get recruited from India you have to be among India top 40 - 50.
Another thing is that once you get accepted on athletic basis they expect you to spend more time socializing and winning tournaments than studying for your major.
I want to get accepted in the CS department of a good college. Athletic recruitment may help me get accepted but it would be difficult to get stream of my choice.
The previous year and a half I’ve not touched the racquet ( Blame JEE for this ). But it would not take much time to get back in previous form.
So I’m nowhere in the India rankings due to this big break of 1.5 - 2 years.</p>

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<p>Anyway, I’ll try my best. I am finding out about the Athletic recruitment i.e. if I stand a chance. I just found that I could have a chance in Georgia tech and Berkeley and maybe evenprinceton.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>This is not true. I personally know someone who was starting guard for Stanford football team and majored in Electrical Engineering.</p>

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<p>IvyCollege-Did you get a rank in squash(as in any year would help you as long as its high school)??Also,did you get a rank in any of the olympiands/kvpy,etc?That helps too.
MIT focuses more on Science related EC’s as far as I know and they hold more weight than any other kind of EC.
Im guessing you got into the extended merit list(EML) of IIT entrance(as you said you missed the cut off by 1 mark-im taking that to be the main cut off)?If so,that should give your application a boost!If you were talking about the cut off EML included,then that fact is of no use to the application.
I suggest you look at some A-,B+ colleges too to get some more ‘matches’.
MIT,CalTech are both reaches in my opinion.
Berkeley could be a high match.
Dunno about the others.You should look at Purdue also,like aniruddh said.
Oh and since you’re taking a gap year,it would be good if you can show that you spent your time ‘productively’(meaning EC’s).This is something all the Adcoms suggest.</p>

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<p>“MIT focuses more on Science related EC’s as far as I know and they hold more weight than any other kind of EC.”</p>

<p>Where are you getting this information? That is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from true.</p>

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<p>I read many reliable CC’ers mentioning it.However,it would be good if someone else throws some light on this as well as I am not looking at MIT…the rest of the analysis I did by taking the standard of the HYPSM bracket.</p>

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<p>Yes, I would agree too. That is the impression I got while going through the MIT admissions site.</p>

<p>

Note how they mention math and science, and not history, or geography, or social work.</p>

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<p>Maybe * I* should be thinking of MIT then! Hmm.</p>

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<p>Bubbles im curious what references made you say that though…</p>

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<p>lol maybe because i read mit blogs and theres a mit adcom here and i like reading his posts?</p>

<p>i mean idk, i dont think mit would choose someone with ecs like “sci oly, sci newspaper, tutoring kids in science” over other really valuable ones just because theyre not sci-related?</p>

<p>i know a girl who got into mit with ecs like editor of sci newspaper, madrigals, chorus, musical, etc.
she ended up going to harvard anyway though</p>

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<p>^ MIT would never take anyone with little or no interest demonstrated interest in Math and Science. Evidently, you know nothing about the admissions process.</p>

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<p>lol all right, if you say so, ms. i know everything about mit admissions.</p>

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<p>FYI, I am a guy.
And yes, I know enough to know that MIT doesn’t care for kids not interested in Math and Science. Reading AdCom blogs that say otherwise would be a waste of time.
The amount of BS they tell gullible applicants at times is downright shocking!</p>