<p>He doesn’t have to mention that he was in college.
An aquaintance enrolled in Delhi University here but she’s applying and showing it as a gap year. She’s keeping it as a backup.</p>
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<p>Will someone reply to this question???</p>
<p>Ask pixie about the whole fee waivers thing. </p>
<p>He should get into MIT if he writes a good essay, does well in the interview, etc. As for ECs, just mention some stuff man like cricket football team, quizzing, etc etc and tell your principal to back it up in her counselor’s reco ;)</p>
<p>Why will he get into MIT?
- MIT is NEED BLIND
- MIT lays heavy emphasis on olympiads… Clearing RMO in the 11th itself is no small achievement </p>
<p>Esconie was telling me about this guy who had pathetic school grades (you don’t!) but made it to MIT because of his olympiad achievements…</p>
<p>Mention your JEE BITSAT etc rank and write a short note about it (intensely competitive national science and mathematics exam with so many aspirants etc) and mention the indian institutes which you got into.
MIT understands different avenues of evaluating intelligence/aptitude. They aren’t “MIT” for nothing. Plus write your essay about why u wanna go to the institution and what you wanna achieve there and why you dropped top indian institutions like bits to attend an american university</p>
<p>Lack of ECs due to JEE prep is okay! Seriously! </p>
<p>Just don’t worry, don’t underestimate your app, you stand a good chance</p>
<p>Hope this helps. Good luck.</p>
<p>thank you guys…
your words certainly were encouraging…(hope i don’t become complacent due to these)
i’ll do what i can</p>
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i know… i’m not applying to those places…sadly pton’s one of them</p>
<p>
no pixie…i don’t want to start something big like this with a bunch of lies
rather i would try to explain my situation to the adcoms</p>
<p>oh but my main question still remains…</p>
<p>do you people know of any good places to study (other than the top 20 univs)
seriously…i would rather go to a place with a close knit community…very high interactions between teachers and students
i mean a place where i could actually learn</p>
<p>yes the top universities are great…but the list of good univs/colleges doesn’t end there</p>
<p>amherst sounds like a good match.
Their physics dept. is top notch, it’s small and more importantly, it’s need blind to internationals.</p>
<p>
Everyone on gap year does it. The same way as recommendations.
Nobody’s dumb enough to enroll NOWHERE and apply abroad unless they don’t need fin. aid and don’t mind attending any place that accepts them. One must have a good backup and college back here provides that.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd sounds like a good match according to me.</p>
<p>And no, don’t mention that you’ve attended another college. Don’t listen to anyone here. I know people that have gone to top institutions by not mentioning anything about attending college.</p>
<p>Hey anirudhh, his CR score is a bit low for Mudd-its closer to the lower 25th%ile.</p>
<p>Maybe, but he has other stuff to make up for it. </p>
<p>Oh and I seriously think he should mention having gone to bits because its a reputed institution and they’ll most probably come to know that you went there and if they find out then they’ll obviously cancel your app and if the college is on commonapp then all the other colleges on the commonapp will also cancel your app so yeah it aint worth the risk acc to me. If you went to a small less reputed place then no diff</p>
<p>Zaphod, you are an amazing candidate; I dont doubt that.
At the same time, Aniruddh, I think you are overdoing his chances.
People who come 1st in IITJEE get into MIT. The last person I knew who got into MIT was Keshav Dhandhania, an IMO gold medalist and an IOI bronze, from Kolkata.
The RMO is an exam meant for class 11, and I qualified the RMO too. It needs a helluva lot of intelligence, but is nothing huge.
The NTSE is good, but again, I know many NTSE scholoars who didnt get in last year too.
I have no doubts that he’s very smart, but I think you need a little more.</p>
<p>The factors that work against you are:
- Financial Aid: I know a guy with good ECs, good Essays, good recos, a 2310 in SAT I, a 2360 in SAT II who got into 1 of his 15 colleges -Colgate cause he wanted 90% aid. Most colleges arent as need blind as they say they are.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>SAT I: I know it’s not ALL that matters, but it matter a helluva lot. And although MIT doesnt care much, Princeton sure does. Most of the Ivies do. A 2180 is good, not great. I’d suggest a retake in Jan maybe.</p></li>
<li><p>SAT II: If you dont ace your SAT II, all your stats will lose validity. Although, I dont think youll get anything short of 800.</p></li>
<li><p>ECs: No matter who you are, no ECs will hurt somewhat.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Just my two cents. Remember, for full aid:
- MIT is need blind - but has a 3% acceptance rate for internationals
- Princeton is need blind - but seldom looks at SAT I scores below 2300
- Caltech and HMC arent need blind
- UIUC, UCBerkeley and Gtech dont offer aid.</p>
<p>If you say you’ve attended another college, wont it make you a Transfer student?</p>
<p>I think for small, close-knit universities which fit your needs, you should consider Colgate. Beautiful campus, amazing student-teacher interaction, and an average of $44000 financial aid per international student.</p>
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<p>That’s a very strong statement. Just because you don’t perform on a random Saturday morning does’nt mean “all your stats lose validity”, especially someone who’s cleared BITSAT/JEE. SAT II’s are important, but if someone gets a 500 on it does’nt render him useless. </p>
<p>Of course, no Indian gets less than 800 on the SAT II’s.</p>
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<p>Seriously?? Just because your hero was rejected does’nt mean they are’nt need-blind. Many internationals have been accepted with lesser stats and 90% aid packages.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be rude, but you can’t throw around statements based on one example.</p>
<p>A CCer called Vanditdaboss got accepted to Harvard with 2180.</p>
<p>@rsaxena: That statement only applies to SAT I. SAT II gives you ample room for careless mistakes. You can get up to 6 wrong in Math II, 12 wrong in Physics and some 5 wrong in Chemistry and still get an 800. So, I think my statement would hold. For someone who cleared IIT to get more than that wrong would be quite sad.</p>
<p>And I know many internationals have, I was just sighting an example. The admissions process seems to be a lot about luck. In general, people who’ve asked for aid have a MUCH lower chance of acceptance than people who havent.</p>
<p>@debarghya9: I know Vanditdaboss. Friend of a friend. He had his own fair share of qualities, and was a god in his own right. He got into Princeton and Penn too. He chose Penn.</p>
<p>^Yeah I never said he was under-qualified in any sense. I happen to know him too. And what you’re saying is right for the most part. Take the case of gary7 who got in to only UPenn despite being one of the most awesome and nice guy around. Luck, indeed.</p>
<p>Awesome and nice have very little to do with it in the end. Gary was smart by no means, but only Penn saw that. It’s not easy. You’d be a fool to think others dont fluff up their applications just to get in. They do. Sometimes colleges do see that inner you though.</p>
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</p>
<p>Did you mean that?</p>