Shotgunning as an International

Chance Me / Match Me!
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If you know me, no you don’t know me pls… Also sorry copied over from Reddit

Demographics: Male Indian living in America not a citizen, Live in the South, Family Income: 150k-170k

Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): CS/Computer Engineering + Aerospace Engineering

SAT: 1540 (800 M and 740 R&W)

ACT: 35 super score(36M, 36E, 34S, 33R)/ 34 highest on one test (36M, 36E, 32S, 33R)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.97 UW/5.2 W (out of 6) - I happened to get finessed by school because I moved half way through sophomore year so this would be higher (all my As were converted to 90s on weighted scale cause old school had no weighted grades) - calculated would be around 5.7 if properly calculated

Coursework: 14 APs by the end of senior year - right now 5s (Calc BC, Bio, Physics C Mech + e/m, Lang, APUSH, Macro, APCSA, Stats) on all exams besides Physics 1(4) in addition to Calculus 3 this upcoming year

Taking next year: AP Chem, AP Gov, AP Psychology, AP Lit

Awards (not much tbh and weakness): (never got chance at many events due to citizenship status)

  • Multiple Chess tournament awards

  • AP Scholar With Distinction

Extracurriculars:

  • internship with Startup created my MIT/Stanford Alumni and helped with ML/AI aspects (computer vision to be exact) of the startup and also web development

  • internship with health tech start up and working on NLP for sentiment analysis and helping web development aspects

  • research with professor from state school focused on the ML/AI space in security *unpublished research paper and newer project

  • also had a job (volunteering not paid due to citizenship) before I was stopped due to my citizenship status tutoring coding for students at a business

  • (maybe my most impactful) creating a web app for school to reengineer ap course education and make it more fun for students - have many teachers on board will be released soon

  • been playing chess for 7+ years and rated decently 1756 peak rating USCF

  • have YouTube channel (not many subscribers but oh well) focused on teaching various topics from math to chess, coding, etc

  • President of a unique club focused on creating start ups

  • have many projects on Github → some projects for Youtube Channel

  • Tutor students in Chess and other subjects (not a official non profit but I do this for fun)

  • Biology and CS Tutor for teacher in school

Essays/LORs/Other: Working on these now

LORs:

CS Teacher (10/10): Had for CSA and also the one who proposed the AP education idea and been working with him ever since and built a good relationship

AP Lang (8/10): Participated in class, made sure to go for help for essays as much as possible and a lot of office hours - luckily got a 5 so the work paid off and build a good relationship

CEO for one internship (8/10): got a long well and she understood that I was in school so I tried to make my best effort

Schools:

Texas Tech, UT Dallas, Texas A&M, Rice University, UT Austin, Cornell, Upenn, MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Stanford, UIUC, University of Maryland College Park, Columbia, Purdue, USC

Stanford is dream school so I am planning to apply REA but not sure please advice on what I should apply in terms of deadlines.

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How much can your family comfortably afford to pay for college?

That is a very important starting point.

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max is 35k

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I think you should apply to your state flagship. Most give instate tuition to international students who have graduated from a state hs, even if you don’t get some other state aid. In Florida, you’d still get BF but may not get state aid (although with a family income of $170k you probably wouldn’t qualify for it anyway). Your list is very selective, and as an international student you are making that selective list even smaller and more selective.

You should be aware that many jobs in aerospace require citizenship, and that includes internships and co-ops.

3 Likes
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thank you for your response, yea I am applying to my state flagship UT Austin, my main focus is in CS and I just find aerospace to be interesting field I want to look at

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Have you researched the COA (cost of attendance) at each of these schools and completed the NPC (net price calculator)?

With the family income you indicated it is unlikely you will receive much if any need-based aid, especially at OOS publics. Therefore, you need to include schools on your list where an international student would have a chance at merit aid. With your interest in aerospace, look into UA-Huntsville and Florida Tech where you may have a chance of affordability. Those programs are highly respected.

Are you considered in-state for COA in your state since you attended high school there? That’s most likely your best option. I’m not trying to discourage you. I hope others more familiar with your situation will have more suggestions for you. Good luck!

Edit: @twoinanddone makes a good point about internships/jobs.

2 Likes
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Thanks. I assume that’s $35k per year and your family can fund all 4 years. Yes?

You should use the net price calculator for these schools to determine how much need-based aid you would qualify for. You may not qualify for any - in which case most of the colleges you’ve listed will be unaffordable. So use this as a starting point as I mentioned above.

Your in-state options are your best bet as others have pointed out. You have a pretty “reachy” list. You need to identify additional schools that are affordable and where you have a very high chance of acceptance.

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You do have high stats and many accompaniments. This one in particular stands out:

I’m also curious about this:

how many startups did your club launch?

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it is a newer club (2 years in the running) we have launched about 2-3 startups

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yes, thank you I will try to edit this list

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University of Alabama at Huntsville. Program is very good and I believe you would get decent merit aid thus making this very affordable.

3 Likes
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Maybe some Canadian universities as a plan B?

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