Do you care to post the percentile levels for your GRE results? (The exam is designed for college graduates who are contemplating graduate school, so your percentiles will reflect that.)
It really wasn’t great because I hadn’t studied for it or anything.
If I remember correctly, my VR was in the 52nd percentile, my QR was in probably the 50th percentile and I’m not entirely sure about my AW. But I’m guessing it’s in the mid-high 50s range.
In light of the exclusive group to which those GRE percentiles apply — college graduates contemplating graduate school — your results indicate that you are more than ready to enter college, and potentially to excel there.
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Wow, thank you for those kind words :^)
The GRE is to test that a person has acquired the skills they require for graduate school. It assumes that you have been through college, so your percentile as a high school student says nothing. It differs from the SAT in that it isn’t looking primarily for basic high school level knowledge and skills, but for more advanced reasoning and learning skills.
So a college graduate in your percentile is not ready for grad school, but a high school student in your percentile is just a high school student.
After you updated me with your full academic course list, your UGA acceptance is more understandable.
Your ECs that you continued to engage in as you moved to online high school are good, since you continued them for two years into high school. However, activities that you did not keep up with in high school may not help that much. So saying that you love basketball but stopped playing the moment you needed to pursue opportunities on your own may not look as good as if you had found ways to continue playing. Same for photography and other activities which you stopped when you transferred to online high school.
Since, based on the fact that you are full pay, you come from an affluent family, you had the opportunity to continue most of the ECs which you pursued during high school, so the fact that you didn’t may be considered against you.
The IEOM conference is good, and, had you been applying now, I would have recommended that you remove the publication part. Luckily, because that journal is predatory, it doesn’t reflect badly on you, but it just doesn’t help, and it may obscure the conference part.
For most colleges, this doesn’t really matter. You took a decent course set, got great grades on them, and had a decent set of ECs. that is more than enough for colleges like Kent State, Stony Brook, UIUC (not CS though), ASU, VTech and others. These are actually what the majority of the 2,000 non-profit 4 year colleges are like. The top most competitive, to which you applied in inordinate numbers, may be a lot more picky, because they can afford to do so. This is especially true for applicants from India, of which they have huge numbers, and accept only a tiny percentage.
However, in all honesty, Purdue or UIUC are top-notch colleges, and if your aim is to attend a very good American college, you have, essentially, achieved that.
I do agree with others and with you that, considering your age, Bard College at Simon’s Rock may be a good choice. If you are accepted to any of the women’s college, those may also be better choices.
Alternatively, if you are not interested in any of the colleges for which you get acceptances, I would recommend that you take a year, engage mostly in your existing ECs, take a course or two, and apply next year. You’re 15 and you have plenty of time.
Starting college at 17 is much easier that starting at 16.
Seriously - why are you in such a hurry? Your life expectancy is over 80 years, and starting a year early will not help you. It is much more likely that you will burn out, and, in your mid-20s realize that you’ve never really been a kid, but you would already be expected to get a job and career.
Enjoy being young - it passes and never comes back.
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I can surely relate to it as an 18yo, as I wasn’t able to enjoy my childhood due to financial crisis in the family and supporting my family and fulfilling the responsibilities from a very young age of 8.
Also, the thing is, once you leave school and get into college, you may not get back your time as a “kid” back, so just enjoy it while it lasts.
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I found the SAT and GRE exams to be conceptually similar, actually. Most inferences that could be drawn from one could be drawn from the other, in my opinion, at least for a student on this level. In taking the GRE, the OP, as a high school student, demonstrated above average verbal and quantitative skills compared to college graduates who are contemplating graduate school. This should be considered favorably, even if only informally.
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Alright.
I did not stop playing basketball and nor did I stop doing any of my other activities. I did more things in middle school like soccer, karate, and piano but I didn’t include those in my application because I’m no longer pursuing those activities.
I will look into the women’s colleges option but I haven’t applied to any of them. Can I still apply to any of them?
I’m very happy with my acceptances and UGA is a school I truly love so I don’t think I’ll be considering taking a gap year but thank you for that suggestion, it’s very reasonable!
Well, mainly because India really isn’t the place for me (it’s a great country and I love it though) and I’ve always wanted to study and live in the US. This is the only way for me to do it and don’t get me wrong, I love what I’m doing; I’m certainly not doing it just for the sake of doing it.
And I’m sure I’ll get to enjoy in college, right? 
I’ve taken the SAT practice exams and yeah, they are quite similar. The main difference is that the GRE is an adaptive test but they both do test our VR and QR.
Also, update:
I got into UNC!!!
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I’m not sure if I already updated this decision but I was waitlisted at UMass for CS and I hadn’t chosen a second-major I believe. Not sure though
SOme of the top women’s colleges are accepting applications late this year.
Only one great women’s colleges which is still accepting applications:
Agnes Scott - extended to March 15th. It is definitely worth your while.
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The surrounding town (Kirkland, NY) of one of your potential choices, Hamilton College, reported zero incidents of violent crime — of any type — in a recent year.
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Oh wow, thank you for that information!!
If you don’t mind me asking, how is Chapel Hill?
Oh yeah, I’ve heard of Agnes Scott, but I don’t think I can apply because I’ve already filled up the 20 spots that the Common App has : (
I don’t live in NC, but I hear their news a lot as my grandparents live near Chapel Hill. Overall, the town isn’t too bad - you would need to be more concerned if you were in the surrounding areas like Raleigh and Durham.
However, this doesn’t mean Chapel Hill gets little crime. They’re actually somewhat full of crime, but not really on campus. Stay out of Carrboro, DT Raleigh, and some parts of Durham and you’ll be fine.
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Oh wow, thank you for the information. It’s really helpful!
I was actually concerned because UNC has a C+ rating for crime and safety on Niche. But this reassures me, thank you!
Oh I should also warn you - frat row at nights isn’t usually safe at UNC, but that’s expected at a party school.
For CS, go to UNC if you don’t get into one of your top choices. The area around UNC is growing for many tech and biotechnical companies.
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Yeah, true!
I’ll keep that in mind! I’m kind of torn between UGA and UNC as of now :I
Here’s my two cents about UGA. Since you’ll be 16 and an intl. student, I’m pretty sure you won’t have a car. Athens, GA is pretty hard to get to from Atlanta.
But, Atlanta is easier to get to from India. RDU doesn’t have many international destinations so you’ll most likely fly to either Charlotte, NYC, ATL, or DC before getting there.
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