(Re)Chancing for MIT, Harvard, UChicago, Caltech, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m an Asian male (Indian citizenship), and I’m graduating early, after sophomore year (so high school class of '16). I’ve already posted this info, but since then, I’ve had some updates, so I just wanted to ask again. Also, I submitted my MIT EA application last weekend (MIT’s a place where I feel like I can really be at home), so that’s another contributing factor.

Here are my classes:

Eighth grade:
AP Calculus BC

Summer: Courses on advanced general relativity, differential geometry, and quantum field theory at a research institute in India.

Freshman:
Bio H
Chem H
Art
PE
English H
Debate
French 1
PhD. Seminar at UCLA
Independent research at UCLA

Summer:
World History
Freshman English at community college

Sophomore:
AP Govt
AP Econ
AP US History
French 2
Theater Arts
PE
English 2 H
Teacher Assistant for AP Physics
Long distance research class in Norway
Unable to take classes at UCLA because of personal situation.

Overall GPA: 4.6 weighted, 3.94 unweighted. I only got one B.

Standardized tests:
ACT: 34. Breakdown: 33 Reading, 36 Math, 34 Science, 34 English
SAT IIs: 800 Math, 760 Chemistry.
AP scores: 5 Calculus BC, 4 Physics C: Mech (both in eighth grade, if that helps), 4 Chemistry, 3 Physics C: E&M (weak, yes) (also, both are in freshman year).

Extracurriculars:
Vice President of tutorial club
Founder and president of philosophy club
Founder of abstract algebra seminars at school
Volunteer for Interact, CSF
Independent and collaborative research at UCLA
Invited participant at UCLA’s math circle
Permanent Research Fellow since 2013 at distinguished research institute in India (the same one where I took relatvity, QFT, and differential geometry)
Given multiple research talks to both professionals and high school students
Co-organizer of the school’s science fair, and I extended this to the district-wide school science fair, all to encourage people to enjoy learning.
NHS (sophomore year)
Invited participant in Aerospace’s summer astrophysics research program in 2013

Awards:
European Union Contest for Young Scientists, first place winner and honorary award to London International Youth Science Forum
Intel ISEF First place and Best of Category winner (EUCYS award winner)
Honorable mention for Karl Menger award provided by the American Mathematical Society
First place winner in my category in California State Science Fair
First place winner in my category in the Los Angeles county science fair
Intel Excellence in Computer Science award
Mu Alpha Theta award for the most challenging, original, and creative research in mathematics
One paper published, but I’ve written up three papers, all available at my website

Essays:
Finished; I’m told they’re strong. I poured out my emotions in them, so much so that I actually cried after I re-read them.

Recommendations:
My research mentor and my art teacher. Both absolutely love me, and the recommendations are phenomenal. I also got an optional recommendation from the founder of the research institute in India, which is also amazing. My counselor recommendation may be “meh” because she has to write recs for >100 kids.

If needed: My mentor is contacting professors at the universities I’m applying to talk to the admissions offices of the respective colleges. I’ve also gotten mails (specifically directed towards me) from people from HYSPM who I met at ISEF encouraging me to apply and congratulating me.

The colleges I’m applying to:
Harvard
MIT
U Chicago
UCLA
UCB
UCSD
UCR (this is my backup)
Caltech
Princeton
Cornell

2

Are you a US Citizen or permanent resident?

3

@TooOld4School Neither. I’m an Indian citizen.

4

You will get into all UCS. The rest are a tossup, but you have as good of a shot as any, especially with those research awards.

5

Your Indian Citizenship could be a detriment, I am not sure though

6

@sattake Thanks! I also wanted to add that I’m an active member of the Math StackExchange (college-level math forum) and MathOverflow (research-level math forum) communities.

7

Harvard generally does not like kids who graduate early. Also you are an international. You also dont have 3 years of a foreign language. I think your chances are less than 1 per cent at Harvard.

8

If you speak Hindi or another language that would probably suffice for the foreign language requirement.

9

@TooOld4School Our school doesn’t have Hindi, although I do speak it.

10

Foreign language means foreign. You need to test out of it or have 3 years of passing grades.

Also, most “contracts” require adult signatures at some schools, -so, the “above age 18” keeps everyone legal. Some schools are concerned admitting underage students.

And, unless your mentor is on-staff at one of the universities you hope to attend, contacting the adcoms to say how great you are, is viewed as presumptuous and arrogant. They tend to ignore outside influences.

What’s the rush?

(You can’t immigrate with a student visa.)
Most of these schools are very expensive; can you afford their fees?

11

@auntbea I could probably test out of Hindi, and maybe independently study enough French to test out of it. My mentor is contacting the professors there, who may or may not talk to the admissions office. She’s just letting them know that I’m applying, and that I’m interested in working with them. I have exhausted all of the resources available to me, taking into consideration my personal issues, so going to college will give me more resources and opportunities to learn. I don’t know about the financial stuff, but I probably can afford the fees.

12

Bump.

13

Are you saying that your ‘mentor’ contacted Harvard’s professors to try and get you in…?

14

@Noahfireih Again, she did not contact the professors to try to get me in; just to inform them that I’ll be applying, and that if I come there, I’d like to work with them.

15

I know this sounds awful but, the adcoms won’t be impressed that a mentor is calling to say that you are applying. It’s actually a detriment to have someone try to “influence” the adcom members.

Harsh reality:
There are thousands of kids with exceptionally good resumes who apply to the ivies and your list of schools. Many are rejected. Additionally, the schools get federal funding so Harvard and the other ivies admit American students first since the parents’ federal taxes help to pay for research and programs at these schools. Harvard, after all is an American institution and its job is to educate the American student along with a small number of international guests. There are only so many seats at these colleges and hundreds of thousands of worthy students apply. Underage students, however, are at a disadvantage.

Also, the schools save their first spots for: recruited athletes, children of Presidents, celebrities, and internationally recognized people (e.g. Malala). The schools want kids who have a balance of activities. They don’t want robots who sit and study all day. Your list of ECs is impressive, but these activities are very one-dimensional. They want kids who are good at time management and will be a part of the school: volunteering at snow day, playing pranks, helping the community, playing sports/intramurals. Its hard for international students to grasp this need of well-rounded, balanced individuals who have had a “fun” childhood.

Also, you need to know that the UC’s do not fund OOS and international students. The fees are all on your parents. $55K per year for, any of the UC’s.

You also need to apply to some safeties, so you need to come up with a list of back-ups.

16

At some point, your app becomes less about how many awards you have or whatever and about your match with MIT. I had a long discussion with Chris about this and if you like your essays as much as you said you do, really that’s all you can do. I felt the same way, so at this point the dice are rolled.

My two cents are that you obviously pass ‘academic qualification’ - your math ability and research outshine one b (lol) esp. if it was in a humanities class. Your test scores are all within their middle 50. I’ve heard from a few people that did this before (I’m just going to list their last names), like Yip and Lee, that after they got in they met with some of the adcoms at CPW and were told the process is basically: out of the 5-10 early applicant apps they mill it down to people that have a legit reason to apply early, usually like 3-6, then select the best 1-5 of those. Whether or not you make the final cut is ALL about your essays/recs - they have to show your passion, your maturity, and your match.

17

I read @auntbea post. She is completely and totally accurate. You should heed her advice. At a place like Harvard they generally do not want to take students who graduate early. Harvard also has their fair share of students who did research in high school. I think you would be better off if you could wait to graduate.