<p>Taekwondo (Martial art sport):
Achieved a 1st DAN BLACK BELT (Senior Degree), going through 10 color belt levels. ( I have a certificate from the World Taekwondo Headquarters, Kukkiwon, South Korea, approving my achievement of the black belt. I have also been allotted a profile on the World Taekwondo Organization's website.)
National qualifier and participant, representing my state. (8th grade)
Secured 3 GOLD MEDALS at State level tournaments.
Secured 4 GOLD MEDALS at District level tournaments.
Appeared in the School newsletter and website twice. Awarded a Trophy and a Medal by the School for achievements in Taekwondo. (8th grade)
Took part in demonstrations.
Training for the past 8 years. </p>
<p>Academic Record:
Participant in National Cyber and National Science Olympiads.
Awarded first prize in a school level Science Fair.
Active participant in a personality development program. (Infosys)</p>
<p>Other activities:
Completed a professional 32-hour course in Photoshop.
Stood first in Table Tennis, Long Jump, High Jump, and Hindi Quiz school level competitions.
Maintaining an educational and instructional blog on Taekwondo.
Member of a winning team in school debate competition.</p>
<p>Community Service:
Worked as a Taekwondo assistant instructor and helped the underprivileged Taekwondo students.
Help and train acquainted Taekwondo enthusiasts.
Collected funds for the victims of Tsunami in Jan. 2005.
Tutoring the needy for free.
Contributed an aggregate of 30 hours community service.</p>
<p>Bump! I have an SAT score of 1850, toefl ibt score of 110, and gpa of 4.00. I scored 770 in math level 2 SAT, 680 on physics, and 630 on chemistry. I’m an international student. Do you think I can make it to any one of the IVY leagues with this record. Do you think my low SAT scores will be covered up by my gpa, toefl score, and extra curricular activities?
I wish to take up mechanical engineering as my major.</p>
<p>Bump! Buzz!! Zing!!!</p>
<p>I am not a counselor but i think you have less then 2% chance of getting into IVY league as ME and other engineering majors need that you have high SAT scores . And most ivy league engineering students have GPA 3.8+</p>
<p>drexter, thank you for the reply. There are, however, some imp. things I didn’t mention earlier. I do have a GPA of 4, I guess. (I have the following data: 9th grade-89%, 10th grade-89.67%, 11th grade-95.5%. During my 11th grade final exam, I scored A+ in all subjects ) I have sent a mid-year report to MIT, in which I scored around 96.17% (All A+ again).
Update: SAT 1 superscored: 1950 (590 Critical Reading, 740 Math, 620 Writing)
Moreover, I heard that international students may choose to send either the SAT 1 or the TOEFL scores to MIT. Well, I sent both, just to show that I like to take up challenges even though I don’t live in a native English-speaking country. It is mentioned that a minimum score of 90 and a recommended of 100+ in TOEFL iBT are essential factors in admission. I thought that a 110 would do good. Nevertheless, I was informed that MIT considers only the best scores.
I forgot to state that I was awarded certificates for distinctive performance on the aforementioned Olympiads.
Also, in my recommendation letters, my math teacher mentioned that I rediscovered a theorem in Calculus and my physics teacher talked about a robot model that I built for my science fair competition. I don’t know how much this would weigh, but I just gave it a shot. Feedback for my essays were good too. In one of my essays to MIT I talked about how I availed the opportunity to develop myself by taking the SAT, preparing for a few months beforehand. I got to know about the SAT only in my late 11th class.
Additional info.: I was in the Table Tennis club (only sport activity offered) in my school (8th-10th grades). My present school (11th and 12th grades) is purely academically oriented and does not offer any EC activities. I study under the intensive IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) coaching program.
I also got recommendations from my Taekwondo Coach and a scientist (my uncle)
Oh, and I also emailed/faxed all the universities my achievements in Taekwondo. Taekwondo’s something I’m very passionate about.
I applied to the following…
MIT
University of Kansas (Accepted and considered for a major scholarship)
Purdue University
UIUC
Stanford University (Applied for financial aid)
Michigan State University (Accepted)
Drexel University
What do you think regarding my chances now? I’d appreciate any response. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>From the looks of it, a few things:</p>
<p>1) You’re an international from India, so it’s insanely competitive.
2) Any IB courses? Or are they all international format?
3) out of curiosity, ready for the JEE?
4) lots of school awards, but taekwando is impressive!</p>
<p>college134nj, I must agree that the competition is overwhelming. My school does not offer IB courses, sadly. Neither is it internationally recognized; it operates under the Andhra Pradesh state board but is very famous for its IIT training program. (Narayana, heard of it?) And yes, I am ready for the JEE. Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Furthermore, I’ve heard stories of applicants with SAT scores around 1600-2000 who make it to IVY or equivalent. What is it that distinguish these people? Also, I’ve heard that MIT considers the metrics to be the least important factor in admission. (Although not unimportant) Is it a mere coincidence that the ones admitted into the top schools have astronomical test scores?</p>