One final chance me post, will chance back

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics: International student(from India). Male. Not applied for fin aid(though I need it, I haven’t applied for it because of some reasons)

Intended Major: Math

Schools applied: MIT, CMU(MCS), Cornell(CAS), UC Berkeley(L&S), UCLA, NYU(CAS), and Stony brook.

Academics:
ACT: 32 Composite + 34 Writing
SAT II: 800 M2, 700 Physics
School Academics: 91% in 10th grade, ~95% in 11th grade, and 93% in 12th grade.(I was told that my school grades convert to a 4.0 gpa)
Class Rank: 2/320

Coursework: My school doesn’t offer any APs. I took the most challenging courses available to me.

A little info about my school: it’s a really competitive school known for sending a quite a few students to top schools every year

Awards/Honors:

  1. Intel ISEF semifinalist(Selected for the team selection stage for my country’s Intel ISEF team)
  2. Merit based scholarship(from a national level exam) for pursuing further studies in 11th and 12th grades.
  3. Lots of less important stuff(Best in the subject in school x3, Overall achievement(for ranking in the top 1% in school), best basketball player in school etc.)

ECs:

  1. Research in Math under a PhD student from MIT. Proved a relatively longstanding and important conjecture. Paper selected for ISEF semifinals(my country’s Intel ISEF team selection stage)
  2. Research in Math under a Godel Prize winner. Made substantial progress toward solving a relatively longstanding and important conjecture.
  3. Research in Math under a Prof who used to head the undergrad research at MIT. Worked toward proving an important conjecture.
  4. Student Govt.: Vice Head Boy of the school for 2 years(2nd highest position in student council). House captain in school for 1 year(3rd highest position in student council). Elected to both the positions after a school wide campaign.
  5. Sports: Played Soccer and Basketball for my school’s varsity team. Captained both the teams for 1 year. Represented school at various district and city level competitions. Played soccer for over 5 years and basketball for 3 years.
  6. Volunteer Work: volunteered at an organisation to teach computer science to children from underpriviledged backgrounds. Volunteered for over 100 hours.
  7. Clubs: President of the school’s math club. The math club was responsible for producing two RMO qualifiers(akin to AIME). Member of the CS club.
  8. Did a lot of competitive programming(but didn’t do anything that great in it)

Essays and Recs:
Teacher recs: I think the teacher recs would be pretty strong because the teachers knew me well
External recs: I have two recs, both from my research mentors. One guy did his undergrad at Harvard and PhD at MIT. He was also a mentor at two of the most prestigious summer programs on the planet(RSI and PRIMES). My other mentor is an influential tenured professor at a really prestigious university, he also won the Godel Prize. Both of my mentors told me that they would write pretty strong recommendations based on my research work.
Essays: I was told by my seniors who read my essays that they were pretty great. Throughout my essays I have conveyed information about how I struggled to get research opportunities, my interest in math and research, and how a competitive and academically great environment would help me.

Some additional info:
My research was pretty important(read grad/phd level research. I was told this by my mentors), so I’m confident about my math skills. I’m also an ORM, so I think that it will act against me. I have also conveyed how I come from a background where I have to fight for opportunities blah blah blah in my essays. I cold emailed profs like nuts for research opportunities. I am the first author on all the papers

Main concern: low ACT score, lack of diverse or interesting ECs, and ORM.

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Hey! So I think you have great ECs, pretty strong academics and though 32 ain’t really a bombastic score, it won’t hinder your chances a lot. What ‘might’ hurt is a 700 in Physics. But I’ve seen people get into rigorous math courses with a 710 or something so I don’t really think it’ll be a deal breaker. Your research is definitely the strong point here and if you’ve properly cashed in on it (which I’m pretty sure you have), I think you have a great shot at CMU, Cornell, UC Berkeley and others except MIT. MIT is obviously a high reach for anyone, especially Indian STEM applicants.

Good luck!

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@ms3108 thanks a lot

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It’s pointless. Just wait

5

Yes, nothing we say can change anything you do.

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Bumpity bump bump

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Well, you certainly appear to be well-lopsided but none of us are in a position to be able to comment on the quality of your math research and it all boils down to that. We have only what you tell us. If Adcoms are interested in you they will probably turn to their math department for some guidance. Some schools have a math “flag” that gets triggered by certain criteria. Don’t know if you woukd get one though. I would have thought that you would be interested in a school like Princeton given their generous financial aid and world-renowned math dept. Also, did you not apply early anywhere?

Good luck!

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@Falcon1 thanks for commenting. What does a “math flag” mean? I was definitely interested in Princeton and Harvard – both schools have great math departments – but with a 32, I thought that there would be no chance of me getting in. I took a shot at Cornell because last year cornell took a lot of people(comparatively) from my country. Both of my mentors told me that my work is kind of like grad level work(if that helps). Of course I understand that it finally depends on what the adcoms think. I had taken the ACT in december, so I couldn’t apply anywhere early.

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If your app is tagged with a math flag, it automatically gets sent to math department for review. As I said, no one can assess your chances. You can bump this to your heart’s content but you won’t get a reliable answer for the better schools on your list. You just need to be patient.

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None of your scores will throw you out of the running. Your ECs are pretty solid as well. I would be shocked if you did not get into NYU(CAS), and Stony brook. The other schools on your list are reaches for everyone though so its a toss up. Your ACT is on the lower side for MIT. The research is a big plus though. Best of Luck!

11

MIT is a far reach but I think you definitely have a good shot at the other schools. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into NYU or UCLA!
MIT Math scores are crazy high.

Chance me? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1865701-low-sat-decent-gpa-amazing-ecs-what-schools-should-i-look-at.html#latest

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@ballerina11 thanks for commenting. @Komz1304 thanks for commenting. I’ll chance you back

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Bumpity bump bump

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Has anything changed since your chances threads in January?

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@thumper1 yeah, I got a couple of more awards/honors.

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Try to have a lot more community service and a little bit of variety in your ECs. Also, the fact that you did not take any APs is perfectly substituted by your research and (i hope) the courses that you chose throughout high school.

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Update?