The Indian Thread #20

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Thanks for the thumbs up Prinki.</p>

<p>I’m facing a similar dilemma as you are. Since I just changed schools in grade 12, I believe my previous counsellor would know me better and would do a better job of showing my strengths.
However, from all I’ve read, I think the counsellor must be of your current school.</p>

<p>There are some kids who go for summer programs from my previous school. It shows your passions, but there are definitely other ways to do that. It would be an advantage, but not one you can’t make up for.</p>

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<p>Agree with Tizil regarding rec also they should preferably one of your subject teacher, a subject that would also highlight your strength for the program that you are applying to.</p>

<p>In my opinion the focus of your essay can be anybody as long it is something or somebody you feel have instilled, inculcated, encouraged, inspired, strengthened your thought process or values. But do remember that while being all that it has to the voice of a 17/18 year old.</p>

<p>Also the ECs are what your school and home environment could provide, lack of which is something you will not penalised for. The adcoms understand that.</p>

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<p>Anialways - congratulations on your D’s admission to Stern!</p>

<p>Adding to what you already put down about US school system -</p>

<p>Although there is a general perception that schools use a uniform scale, that is truly not the case. There are a lot of schools that do provide the GPA this way but there are a lot that have other scales.</p>

<p>There are schools that do it on a 100 scale, 20 point scale, 10 point scale, 5, 6, 7 or 8 scale, there are some doing it with a 4.3 scale. I believe commonapp asks you if you are not using 4.0 scale, to define your scale. There are a lot of private schools that refuse to rank the students because they want all their students to have an equal shot at top schools and there are schools that rank them only in deciles or quarters.</p>

<p>Then the weighted GPA is a whole another matter. My kid’s school gives an extra point for advanced classes so the weighted GPAs say something like 4.6 out of 4.0. There are other schools in our city that start with 4.0 classes but they have some classes weighted at 5.0, 6.0 or 7.0. So you end up with 5.8/4.0 or something like that at graduation.</p>

<p>So my suggestion would be to follow what anialways already suggested, i.e., don’t convert to 4.0 scale. In addition, there are two very important pieces you need.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Get a good rank at your school (if your school does n’t rank, it is important to come up with one).</p></li>
<li><p>Get a profile done of your school if they don’t already have one. The profile has very important information such as how long has it been around, how reputable is it, how many students, what do the graduates go on to do (how many get into IITs, go abroad, get into other engineering, medical school etc, - we are assuming most people go on to pursue college somewhere).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Your counselor has the role to provide the above profile to colleges.</p>

<p>If you want to use a different counselor than the official one, a good policy to use is actually make a deal with the current counselor first that another person will write it so bad things don’t happen later. If someone is checking on you, they can go to the webpage, look up the name and contact them directly. I have heard adcoms say if you have changed schools, it is not a bad idea to get your old counselor provide input to your new counselor.</p>

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<p>@Tizil7-ur welcome.
@texaspg-But it isn’t mentioned on the app or the forms that the counselors are supposed to be sending a profile of the school!! Assuming it’s supposed to be sent, is the counselor supposed to mail it to all the colleges?</p>

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<p>If you look at instructions given to counselor, you see the following:</p>

<p>TO THE SECONDARY SCHOOL COUNSELOR
Attach applicant’s official transcript, including courses in progress, a school profile, and transcript legend. (Check transcript copies for readability.) Use both pages to
complete your evaluation for this student. Be sure to sign below before mailing directly to the college/university admission office</p>

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<p>the last few posts have been really informative , thanks !</p>

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<p>Thank you so much texaspg</p>

<p>It has been one big learning for me and feel so blessesd in the process have become so much more educated and wiser myself. I was like these children on this forum and think it is only apt that I share whatever little I know because all children in India do not have do not have an access to profession guidance at school. </p>

<p>I have been reading a lot of your interesting discussion in one of the threads on the parents forum. So nice to meet you here.</p>

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<p>@texaspg-THANKS!</p>

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<p>i wanted to ask everyone out here, specifically the 2015’ers and the older ones who have gone the application process before…
people who apply in colleges like Umichigan, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Illinois Urbana Champaign and other good schools apply because they are able to afford the fee? We all now that they dont give financial aid to international students…so is it that we would need to leave out those colleges? I have seen other people applying there (in the Indian threads) , so probably they all didnt need financial aid right? Or is there something else I am not aware of?</p>

<p>Also are there any aid/scholarship options (external sources) which you guys are aware of? Please share here if you can! thanks!</p>

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<p>Full bright scholarship…I dunno if its applicable though.
(Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Duke, U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Smith, Hamilton, Bates, Colgate, Colorado College, Macalester, Mount Holyoke, Kenyon, Trinity College, Trinity University, Connecticut College, Union College, and Manhattan College…etc. ) are need blind</p>

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<p>My school ( idiotic one) doesnt take part in interschool basketball) atleast for girls, but im the house captain and we always win at school tournaments. How do I include it? Is it beneficial to include?</p>

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<p>Check out this link for scholarship</p>

<p>[Indian</a> Students International Student Loans and Scholarships | StudentLoansForCollege.org](<a href=“http://studentloansforcollege.org/studentloans/indian-students-international-student-loans-and-scholarships/]Indian”>http://studentloansforcollege.org/studentloans/indian-students-international-student-loans-and-scholarships/)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.internationalstudent.com/schools_awarding_aid/[/url]”>http://www.internationalstudent.com/schools_awarding_aid/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.internationalstudent.com/schools_awarding_aid/[/url]”>http://www.internationalstudent.com/schools_awarding_aid/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@prinki94 - full bright is for graduate school…anyway, thanks for the information but I wouldnt apply in LACs
@anialways - thanks a lot!</p>

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<p>You are welcome no problem</p>

<p>Here are two more links</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/pages/students/finance[/url]”>www.educationusa.info/pages/students/finance</a></p>

<p><a href=“http://www.international*****************%5B/url%5D”>www.international*****************</a></p>

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<p>School profiles - the second one is a little more detailed.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.conroeisd.net/schools/profiles/3.pdf[/url]”>http://www.conroeisd.net/schools/profiles/3.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District - Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District”>Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District - Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District;

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<p>post 415 the second link is international*****************</p>

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<p>Maybe you could use intentional “~~~” or something similar between the letters, anialways :)</p>

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<p>ok i’ll try again the rest of the word is scholarships</p>

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<p>Thanks :D</p>

<p><a href=“www”>url=www.international*****************</a>international-scholarships(dot)com</p>

<p>The above link, without the ‘-’</p>

<p>Meh. The link doesn’t work, because CC censors the ***************** part automatically, even in BB code.</p>

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<p>Hey guys…
Just wondering…how many of you guys actually paid attention to your essays?
I just wanted to make sure y’ll aren’t making a mistake by not putting much effort into it.
If you’re an international student applying to an us school…esp an ivy one…then make sure your not only answer the essay question. The essay is the MOST IMPORTANT DECIDING FACTOR. Colleges want the following answered in your essay…but they just dont say it.

  1. Why should we pick you out of a pool of millions of applicants?
  2. How can you make our campus better by attending our school here?
  3. Do you really have a passion to attend this school…or is it just bc of typical brand-naming that you’re applying here?
  4. How can (insert college name here) help you? in other words…how can attending this school help you achieve your goals?</p>

<p>the essay is a chance to “sell yourself” to them. they want to “hear your true voice” and not get a paper that uses elevated language that you dont normally use. They disregard these papers completly.
Trust me…itll make a difference. Go back and look at your essays you guys…and make sure you answered the above questions without seeming to direct/agressive.
Also…dont be like, “I really …really…really…want to attend this school!! Please accept me!!”
They hate those types of essays the most. They lack character and dont show any passion what so ever.
just felt like passing this on bc this is a common error students are making all over the world.
good luck! :D</p>