Im a rising senior and i wanted your help to find the best college for me:
So here are my stats:
Asian(Indian) , Gpa- 3.0
Ecs-
National level badminton player twice
GOld medal in Inter JC
Organized a fundraiser for stray dogs which raised around !7000 usd
Course of Science of well being by Yale University
Course on Epidemics by Penn State
Course on Science of Exercise by University of Colorado
Uploads blogs based on these courses on my blog website
Few national online quiz
Intended major - Life sciences
Youre help will be really appreciated cuz im Clueless…
Are you in India or the US?
i was supposed to give SAT/Act on May 2020 but…
The first thing that I wonder is what your budget is.
The second question that comes to mind is whether you have calculated or converted your GPA correctly.
A GPA of 3.0 would put you just about average for all high school students in the US. The majority of high school graduates in the US do go to college or university. However, only roughly a third ever graduate with a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. To me that implies that in the US someone who has an almost exactly average GPA among all high school graduates probably only belongs in university at all if they have some reason to expect to do better than they did in high school.
How do your actual grades compare with other students in your high school?
Here in india we have a percentage system so if i convert my percentage using indian standard percent to gpa i have a 4.0 gpa but if i directly convert my % into gpa i get a 3.0…i dont know which is the correct one and about budget its around 50-55k usd for the whole program.
So that is $12-13k per year? That will hardly cover international travel and health insurance. You are looking for full ride (Tuition, room and board) which is very very hard to get for US applicants and even more difficult for overseas students. Especially without absolutely top of the range stats and ECs.
I hope you are also looking in India? I would get your UG degree there and then look to the US for graduate school.
Also - even if you got your UG degree in the US, you would be required to return to India after graduating.
So I typed a lengthy comment that was tagged for moderation. I will be more brief here so hopefully will not be tagged.
Google for “3.0 colleges” and “prepscholar” and they will list schools that accept students with 3.0 average, breaking them down into reach, match, safety.
You might want to try for example U of Maine Orono as they have funding for international students and even some ABET-accredited engineering and computer science.
“i dont know which is the correct one”
I think that the main thing to focus on is how your GPA compares with others in your high school. If you are in the top 5% of your high school universities here in the US will know this. If you are approximately average in your high school then again universities in the US will know this. They will look at your actual grades. Also, there are quite a few students from India who apply to universities in North America so admissions here gets used to the grading scales used in India. This does not mean that every admissions officer in the US knows your grade scale. It means that every university in the US has some admissions officers who do.
“Intended major - Life sciences”
What do you intend to do with this? Are you intending to go to medical school? Are you interested in majoring in biology and going into research?
As others have mentioned your budget will also be a challenge. There are a small handful of universities in the US that full need based financial aid to international students. They are all very highly competitive for admissions.
Ive seen that prepscholar list of colleges and im applying to only those by common app…and also including my dorm,food etc my budget is around 70000 usd
Is that per year? Because that is $17.5k per year which may just about cover room and board at most colleges. You’ll therefore need a full tuition scholarship, which are a bit easier to get for those with very top range stats. Plus travel, health insurance and spending money.
But you still haven’t figured out what your actual GPA is so hard to give advice. That needs to be your starting point, otherwise you are just applying blind.
According to my predicted percentage my grade is A- which in usa is 2.7 gpa but in indian terms its 3.7…im really confused by this gpa conversion!
Please state clearly.
How much can your family afford to pay per YEAR?
If it’s $70,000 per YEAR, you should be able to find a college to attend.
If it isn’t, and that number is your total for four whole years you are going to be extremely limited in where you can apply. You must then be among the very best of the best of all applicants to a college which awards full tuition to international students. There aren’t a lot which will do that.
Figure out the money first.
An A- is a 3.7 in the US. Does your school or system give letter grades?
“im really confused by this gpa conversion”
Do not try to convert GPA.
Try to find out how your grades compare to others in your high school.
The different grading scales used worldwide are very different and cannot be directly compared to each other. Way back when I was in high school, the top student in the high school has an average of about 91%. The number two student had an average of 89.9%. They went to ETH Zurich and MIT, both as international students. These grades would probably not put a student in the top 10% in the high school where we live now, and would not get a person into ETHZ or MIT, but that does not matter. What matters is how your grades compare with others who are in the same system.