Nationality: Indian (Male)
College List:
Amherst (ED), Skidmore, Harvard, Columbia, Drexel, Duke, Emory, Trinity, Williams,Wesleyan.
Bottom line: My College list has schools with generous financial aid rewards for undergrad (More suggestions are welcome on the college list)
Family Income: <25000$ (More like <10000$)
SAT:
Haven't taken them yet. Am scoring around 1410 on practice tests. Plan on getting at least 1500+
GPA and Grades:
Class 9: 94% (Class Rank - 1)
Class 10: 94% (This exam was taken by 1 million students in the state and my State Rank is 2)
Class 11: 85% (Shifted to a new school which has a tougher grading system. I am still Class Rank 1)
Class 12: Not Appeared
ECs:
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TEDx Speaker (Spoke on “How I overcame my stammering problem to become a champion speaker”. I’ve been stammering ever since I learnt to talk and 5 years back, I couldn’t even pronounce my name properly. I overcame this without any therapy but by using PUBLIC SPEAKING!)
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Attended a summer school at Oxford University on a FULL scholarship.
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Recipient of the “Trustee Scholarship” at my school which covers my tuition at high school for Class 11 and 12th. It is solely based on merit and only 2 students were awarded this in the whole school.
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National Public Speaking Champion
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Blogger at Fight Stammer (Where I write about my experience with stammering - www.fightstammer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■ )
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Youngest Delegate across India to be selected for the Harvard US India Initiative Conference in Mumbai (India’s biggest youth conference). Also the youngest on the Organizing Committee of the Conference for next year.
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Intern at my Dad’s law office. Basically, my dad is not educated in an English Speaking School. So when it comes to drafting the legal documents, I am the head of that department. I spend 5 hours every week at his office (I am doing this for the last 3 years). He is a taxation lawyer and so I’ve attended a national tax conference with him. And I also try to help him with his Accounting stuff - It was basically due to this reason that I took up Accounting as a subject in school despite the fact that I don’t like it. Also taken a MOOC on Law of Contracts on EdX to gain insights about my dad’s work.
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National Skating Champion
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Invited for two conferences on Indian Legal Education organized by a consortium of 5 law schools in India. (It is an invite only event that has no application process for it)
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Some Common Volunteering Work: Tree Plantation, Feeding at orphanages, Charity Marathons etc.
I don’t know whether I should include this or not:
I speak 4 languages, Was ranked 5th at National Math Olympiad and 1st in state (But in Class 8). Also, I won a few state and national awards in painting before high school, Awarded “Best Entrepreneur” by a Business School whose summer school I went to in 9th Class. And awarded “Student of the Year”. (I am also the Valedictorian)
Letter Of Rec:
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English and Lit Teacher: He has very less experience of writing a Rec but he considers me as the most inspiring student he’s ever come across. I’ll probably ask him to read some online articles about writing LORs. I am sure that it’s going to be a 10/10 rec.
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Social Science Teacher: 10/10 -KickAss Rec! Couldn’t ask for a better one.
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School Principal: 10/10 She says “In the 50 years of the history of this school, we’ve seen only a handful of students as dedicated, hard working and motivated as Abhi”.
Recs are going to be strongest part of my app.
My major is going to be either Political Science or Economics. And I actually love Amherst so much that I would choose Amherst over any school in the world.
I’m not big on Chance threads (sorry) but in reading this I thought I’d mention that it’s unclear if you are a US student or international. The difference matters for admissions.
I am an Indian student so I am an international
Gotcha, I read “Indian” as ethnicity not nationality. FWIW you seem like someone with a wide variety of accomplishments. Good luck!
In my honest opinion, I don’t see why you would be rejected by Amherst. However, with some of the other schools on your list, specifically the Ivies, no one can accurately predict your chance of admission. I wish you luck through the admissions process. Chance me back: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19884445#Comment_19884445
@DreamToRedeem Thank you so much. I know that the Ivies are not for me. The only reason I am applying there is that If I get in, I would get HUGE financial aid. I know I am not that good for Ivies but you never know about them. Who knows, luck might favour me. thanks again for chancing me 
Generally speaking, at elite universities and colleges, US students already start out with low odds of acceptance. Being an international student makes those odds even tougher. That said, it’s not all doom and gloom on your list.
Amherst (ED) - Low reach/high match
Harvard - High reach
Williams - Reach
Columbia - Reach
Duke - Reach
Wesleyan - Low reach/high match
Emory - Low reach/high match
Skidmore - High match
Drexel - Match
You might consider adding a safety or a low match. For you, a safety/low match will be a less selective private school that offers exceptional financial aid to internationals or a less selective public school that offers strong aid to internationals. These may be hard to find but if you want to help ensure acceptance to a school in the US, it’s worth looking into.
@prezbucky Thanks for chancing me. You said that Williams was a reach and Amherst was a Low Reach for me.However, there is only a difference of 2.8% in their acceptance rate (Amherst is 14 and Williams is 16.8). Do you think a 2.8% difference would change a school from reach to high reach?
I imagine prezbucky was taking into account that you’d apply to Amherst ED.
IMO “chancing” this list of schools is an exercise in futility. There is no way to predict unless you are way out of range in terms of grades and scores (too low), or royalty/famous.
^ Yep – Amherst and Williams are roughly equally selective, but if you’re applying ED to Amherst, you’ll likely have a better chance there.
Without an actual SAT score, it would be useless to guess your chances.
And you probably don’t want to be posting stuff like this on CC using your real name as your screen name (if that indeed is the case).
@AsleepAtTheWheel Thanks for the tip. But why? What’s wrong in posting my credentials here with my identity?
I think you have a good change at Amherst. Can’t speak to the others - idk much about them, and the Ivies are just a random chance once you’re competitive which you are.
@AbhiRuparelia – I don’t think that it’s the case for Amherst, but there are specific college threads on CC where admissions people peruse the notes (e.g., Tufts, a couple of years ago). You probably don’t want admissions to know that you’re getting your guidance from CC.
As a general rule, anonymity here is a good idea.
Hey, I’m a stammerer too - virtual high five! Are you involved at all with the NSA?
As for your chances, I’m not sure how applying internationally changes the situation, but you definitely have a strong resume. Very competitive schools are always a bit of a gamble, but I’d say your chances are good. You might want to research how financial aid works for international students, though.
@petitbleu Thanks No I am not involved with NSA. However I have my own blog to help the people who stammer and I am open to help anyone to fight with their stutter. Currently, I am working with a 30 year old guy to help him fight his stammer. Amherst is need blind for international students which means that I can get a huge financial aid package (Given my income bracket).
First, I’d echo @OHMomof2. Chance threads are useless, except in extreme cases. I’d add that when you get a favorable response on a thread like this, there’s something akin to confirmation bias. Most parents who follow college-specific threads do so because their kids go there. So they’re familiar with their kids who got in, but not as familiar with the myriads of highly qualified kids who did not get in. Amherst unfortunately rejects many many kids who are not only qualified, but who would be a good ‘fit’. There’s simply not enough spots in each freshman class. Unless you’ve got a strong hook, it doesn’t matter how qualified you are. There’s nothing remotely close to a given.
@petitbleu
It’s much harder. Amherst - and most elite colleges in the US - keep the level of international students at about 10% of the student body, so 90% of spaces are more or less saved for domestic students. Competing for a spot in that 10% is much harder than competing for a spot in the 90%, though in this case that is very competitive too. Not all US colleges are like that, many have more international students.
Always a good idea. In this case Amherst is a terrific pick for a low income international student who is in range for it academically, because it is one of 5 schools in the US that are both need-blind in admissions and also meet the full need of international students (as determined by the FA office, not by the family or student, of course, but that’s not unique).
So I’d advise @AbhiRuparelia to apply, but to make sure more likely admits/a back up plan is in place. Because admission to Amherst is a long shot for everyone but international students especially.
@AsleepAtTheWheel is right - I never, ever post in chance threads because I think they are largely a waste of time, but I do watch this forum because I can answer general and sometimes specific questions about Amherst.
Most highly selective schools only accept a few international applicants from each country. They have a unofficial quota in that they probably won’t accept more than 5-7 students from the entire country of India. That being said you have a good shot just based on you extracurriculars. However, it is a dangerous thing to assume that you will be able to go from around 1410 on the SAT to above a 1500. Even with extensive practice there is a big difference between those two scores. The practice tests are pretty similar to the actual one.