<p>Congratulations on UCLA, Michigan, CMU, LSE and the rest Hyaline :D</p>
<p>Thursday’s two days away :D</p>
<p>What is Thursday? Berkeley or others as well?
Congratulations to all who got in/wait listed at CMU.
Yes, college is becoming a reality now, I hope many of you will stick around next year as time permits, to help the newbies.</p>
<p>Thursday is the Ivy Day. ;)</p>
<p>Accepted at CMU SCS and CIT ECE!</p>
<p>@Mrinal - I have heard CMU is pretty bad with any sort of aid. Remember everyone going there is eligible for merit aid, so most aid is need based. If you are serious to come here and contingent on aid, your best chances would be colleges that are not as competitive (unless you manage to get in to the ivies) Somewhere there was a list (alabama,usc…?)</p>
<p>You guessed correctly F16Parent, All Ivys and Berkeley will release their decisions on Thursday.</p>
<p>CMU does not offer fin-aid to international students.</p>
<p>^^Already knew that, I thought that they may have merit aid if you perform well in the semesters. Guess I was wrong. 
Btw, congrats Pratyush and all the best to all for come 29th :)</p>
<p>I also want to share something more regarding choosing from among the acceptances put it in perspective clearly, because sometimes one has to in the thick of things to really understand what everybody keeps saying about being competitive and be able to adjust.</p>
<p>And that is if you are looking for the most competitive one from the lot, weigh it with lot of serious thought. Why I am saying this for the following few factors that you might not be able to ‘get it’ till you are in the middle of it.</p>
<p>One, even though our Children are very intelligent and mature, going to college is their first step into the real world as young adults. There is no hand holding what so ever.</p>
<p>Second, if one is among the top 5- 10 -15 percent of their class of 50 or 100 or 150 right now, you will be one of the thrown in a group of class of 200- 500, who are all among the top 25 percent of their class from world over, and so the game begins.</p>
<p>Third, please keep in mind you are going from family based environment where your primary focus was academics and I am not sure how many are doing chores around the house from laundry to taking out trash to making beds to cleaning the bathroom, so that is one big overwhelming change.</p>
<p>Then there is taking care of yourself in case of medical emergencies, stocking you supplies and socialising while trying to keep everything within a budget.</p>
<p>Learn to communicate with your Professors and advisors appropriately and effectively on your own, no PTAs.</p>
<p>And the social factor of making friends and since there are no curfews, life will be like a flight on auto pilot and before you realise it, you might be really far away from your intended destination.</p>
<p>The social factor is important because every body is trying to fit in and find their own ‘niche’ and that requires investment in terms of time and effort. Otherwise there is a risk of being alone and homesick and depressed, which is a very real possibility.</p>
<p>Very difficult to keep track of things when one is thrown from a structured and protective zone to a totally unstructured way of life, in terms of class timings, making to class on your own, submitting assignments, meeting deadlines all the time, especially when the temptation is pulling at you every step of the way. </p>
<p>I am not trying to scare you guys, but you need to factor in all this while you make your final college decision. </p>
<p>Do you really want to be in a competitive college which is far away from civilisation, and when it gets cold you have only your one and only dining hall to rely on, and you are forced to be indoors because the cold is 'bloody cold" and it is not ‘fun’. And are stuck with same group of people for 16 weeks because there is no town, and if there is a town close by, it will dead because of the snow. So think and try to imagine what it like to go to small hill station for holidays in winter here in India.</p>
<p>Just some food for thought for you guys…</p>
<p>^Great post anialways ! That is why it is very IMPORTANT to find a fit, rather than just go by prestige. Please everyone READ her post. </p>
<p>i have also heard of students who will get into Computer Science at CMU or Berkeley but then can’t handle the pressure and work load. As someone said, the good students from the US are really really good…(forget the part that Indian education is harder…:)) On the other hand, someone from say another less competitive school is at the top of their game. Who do you think is more attractive to the employer?</p>
<p>And I totally agree with the social fit. What kind of person are you? Do you want a more cosmopolitan culture (big cities), more international student base…or are you ok with just 1000 other students in cold New Hampshire? Believe me, for Indians, it is specially important. Your best friends and your new family will be your fellow Indian students :)</p>
<p>A great post, Anialways!</p>
<p>I can already relate to some of the things you said, having spent my senior year in Brussels. I believe this will provide me with a cushioning effect in college :)</p>
<p>You have pointed out some really nice points up there :)</p>
<p>This blog is useful [Before</a> Applying to College, Answers Every Indian Student Should Know - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/before-applying-to-college-in-the-u-s-indian-students-should-be-able-to-answer-why/]Before”>Before Applying to College, Answers Every Indian Student Should Know - The New York Times)</p>
<p>So I’ve been following this thread for a bit and am finally making my first post here. :)</p>
<p>Firstly, congratulations to all of you! It’s so cool to see all your acceptances to such awesome unis. Here’s my status so far:</p>
<p>Accepted: McGill, Mount Holyoke, Grinnell ($30,000 schol)
Waitlisted: UChicago
Rejected: Vanderbilt</p>
<p>2190 SAT 1, mid-high 700s SAT IIs, asking for quite a bit of aid. I was very honored to have been waitlisted at UChicago since I’ve heard it’s pretty tight-fisted with aid for international kids (and Indian isn’t exactly URM, is it? 
) However, I was pretty disappointed with my Vandy denial. Not so much because I wanted to attend it, but because of what it foreshadows about my upcoming Ivy and other top-tier decisions…</p>
<p>So many new people are joining us. That’s great! :D</p>
<p>Welcome to the thread starlight!</p>
<p>Congratulations on McGill, MoHo and Grinnell! A friend got into MoHo - if you’d like to talk to her, PM me :)</p>
<p>I agree, rejections usually lead most to lose hope over upcoming decisions but don’t worry. The very fact that each individual college has a different decision making process ensures little correlation between decisions :)</p>
<p>Congrats everyone! Them decisions are rolling in! 7 more to go for me!</p>
<p>Which ones Pratyush? 6 to go for me.</p>
<p>Cornell, Columbia, Brown, Penn, Berkeley, Stanford.</p>
<p>Till now:
[ul]
[li]Georgia Institute of Technology[/li][li]University of California - Los Angeles[/li][li]University of California - San Diego[/li][li]Carnegie Mellon University (CIT)[/li][li]Massachusetts Institutes of Technology[/li][li]California Institute of Technology[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Can’t believe I already have 6 of my 12 decisions. 50% done. 3 of these 6 aren’t acceptances. 50%. Two days and I’m done.</p>
<p>Tizil </p>
<p>My remaing clleges are the same as yours with the exception of Harvard and Princeton instead of Brown. My Princeton essays were probably the best of all that I’d written, so hopefully I’ll get in there. Harvard looks like a LONG shot.</p>
<p>I’m waiting on Dartmouth, Cornell (Deffered ED), Duke, Princeton (just for fun), NYU, CMC, Middlebury, Tufts, UCB and UPenn.</p>
<p>So 10 :S. I applied to faaar to many places…</p>
<p>^ You’re not alone. I applied to 16 places in total. Got 5 decisions already, waiting on 11. :D</p>
<p>
So true. I know of someone who actually quit after 1st year and went back to an Engineering college in S India. I think the grass seems greener on the other side and it is important to filter out the diversions here.</p>