<p>I've been going through the forum, and this place is absolutely great. Lots of useful stuff for applicants. I actually applied a few years ago, and used College Confidential quite a bit then - we didn't have a separate India section then though!</p>
<p>As an applicant from India, what helped me the most when I applied was the guidance of alumni from schools I was targeting who mentored me through several key steps such as college selection, resume building, and essay preparation. So, if you all are interested, I would love to provide feedback on any issue related to studying abroad - whether its assessing your profile, brainstorming through an essay, or even addressing small concerns.</p>
<p>A brief history about myself: I took the SAT 1 (1520/1600) and SAT 2 (Math 2C- 800, Phys - 790, Writing - 730) in 2004 while I was studying in India at The Doon School. For colleges, I was deciding between Columbia, Berkeley, and Amherst. I decided to go to Amherst because I wanted to go a small liberal arts college (and they gave me a great fin aid package!). While I was at Amherst, I majored in Economics and Political Science and studied abroad for a year at Oxford University. I graduated last year and was admitted into the Harvard Business School for an MBA. It's a deferred admission, and since I begin only in 2011, I'm currently working on my own start-up in New Delhi.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm sure most of you have realized by now that preparing applications is pretty tricky. Honestly, it's an art that does not come naturally -- no matter how skilled or deserving you think you are, it's unfortunate that only your application ultimately speaks for you. </p>
<p>If any of you have queries, or want assistance with any part of your application, reply to this thread and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Hi Umang! Its really nice of you to come here and offer your advice Seeing as you are from Amherst, I guess I’ll shoot away my first question about Amherst itself I’m ‘almost’ the regular Indian science-guy doing JEE-prep etc. with decent, but not overwhelming stats. I was interested in going into research and have no interest whatsoever in engineering. At the moment I was planning to do ‘Physics with Philosophy’ major with psychology as a minor(if that is possible). In general, my college list consists entirely of ivy league/high reputation colleges like MIT, but NO LACs(and IIT as the only safety). I have been confused about applying to an LAC for quite some time due to the varying opinions I received by them. Some say LACs are great for learning and research especially if you wanna get into a grad school later, while others say that the bigger colleges obviously have better facilities, professors, money to put into research and more opportunities in general. What do you suggest?
Thanks!</p>
<p>You raise an interesting concern - one that I think lots of people consider when deciding where to apply. However, I can tell you that one of the biggest misconceptions about small colleges is that they don’t ‘concentrate’ on research in the sciences. While, obviously larger colleges do spend more money in total on facilities, professors etc, on an individual basis, I think the liberal arts colleges match, or exceed, the opportunities you as undergrad student would get (which is what you should be concerned about). </p>
<p>As for Amherst, I can speak from first hand experience that the Physics department is great and there are actually a lot of people double majoring in Physics and Philosophy (at Amherst you don’t really have a minor, but if you’re committed enough you could triple major!). Many of my friends were physics majors who are now at top grad schools. </p>
<p>My advice would be to seriously consider a couple of the top LACs. As opposed to sometimes getting a bit ‘lost’ on the larger, more populated campuses, you’d be surprised by the amount of attention you receive at small, academic intensive colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks Umang!
That was a wonderful piece of insight into the potency of LACs when it comes to research I would LOVE to triple major! Glad to see I wouldn’t be considered odd for taking philosophy. I never knew triple majors were possible! Would that mean sacrificing physics courses to some extent? Or just additional workload? I don’t really mind working, but I can’t afford to miss physics-that is my core line of career. Also, from what I read on the site, Amherst gives no credit for Advance Placement tests. Is that true?
Amherst sounds pretty good to apply, is there any other LAC which will offer me significant advantages over a college like MIT or Princeton?
Once again, thanks a lot for your help!
P.S. I’ll need ~full aid</p>
<p>Gary7,
Triple majoring would not mean sacrificing physics courses or additional workload, since you would still have to take the required number of physics classes to major in it (I think its 9 out of 32 at Amherst). However, it would mean having very little space to take other classes. One of the great things about liberal arts colleges like Amherst is that while you can concentrate on your major, you can take all kinds of other classes (I took classes in Theater, Astronomy, Film making etc etc). </p>
<p>I’m not positive about the AP tests. Do they allow you to take them now in India? As for other colleges, maybe consider Swarthmore (Williams is also great, but I don’t know much about the science program - they might be need blind though for international students, so that’s something to look into). I was on full financial aid, and Amherst does give a significant amount. They used to be need blind as well for international students, but I think because of the recession, they are reviewing this policy.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot again! But 9/32 Is that a limit? I don’t know how exactly this is supposed to work, but 9/32 would mean leaving out 72% of the courses! Amherst does sound pretty cool when you mention your diverse course load though!
As far as FA is concerned, they are still need-blind I believe. Even if they change policies later, it doesn’t affect me. I guess I’ll look into Swarthmore after my exams, but at the moment, Amherst is the only LAC I feel rather confident of applying If nothing else, just the possibility of learning what I want to!
And yes, you can take APs in India now. I had to take them from a separate city altogether though.</p>
<p>hey college connect what about the idea of engineering in LAC. i have scored 2050 on sat1,800 on maths 2 and 790 in phy. as far as my acads go i got 95.8 in 10, 80 in 11 and 93 in 12th. so can u suggest me LAC with engg where i can get partial aid.</p>
<p>Hey, Im still a junior, but I was trying to shortlist my colleges, when I came across this thread. It would be awesome if you could help.
I want to do Liberal Arts in the US, but was wondering if I should apply to a bigger college like Amherst, which is definately the best, or a smaller one? I’ve heard that you don’t really get that much of a ‘liberal arts atmosphere’ in the bigger colleges because the student-teacher ratio is quite large. And I would also like to know which of the good colleges give financial aid to international students, because the cost of tuition for private colleges is quite steep.
Thanks! :)</p>
<p>^ Hellloo people you’ll are forgetting Williams it’s sometimes referred to as better than amherst and it’s one of the wealthiest schools in the US, therefore FA is pretty generous
and why don’t you apply to a mix? theres no harm in having a good combination of reaches and safeties…</p>
<p>Hey there CollegeConnect. Congrats on getting into Harvard Business School and all… I would like to ask you to chance me in my threads. Either in the India forum or in the chance me forum. All the information is there. </p>
<p>Also, if you look at my profile and can give me suggestions on what kind of schools to apply to?</p>
<p>1) Student council for 3 out of 4 years
2) Yearbook editor
3) President of local chapter of a UN recognised NGO that oragnises competitions for handicapped and specially abled children every year
4) Part of AIESEC
5) Startred own business in 11th grade, made a profit but had to stop because of academic commitments
6) MUN
7) Oraganised a city wide MUN in 11th grade, chaired a house at this MUN</p>
<p>I’m currently at a business college in bangalore, India and want to transfer to the US. I don’t expect any credits and am willing to do the full 4 years there.</p>
<p>Colleges:</p>
<p>Amherst
Yale
Northwestern
Claremont McKenna
NYU
Columbia
Vassar
Swarthmore</p>
<p>I need some safe colleges to apply to!
Any suggestions for colleges/tips would be more than welcome!</p>
<p>in response to Karishma, getting aid as a transfer student is very very difficult. In fact getting in as a transfer to those is very difficult, and when you’re transferring, the biggest factor colleges look at is “why you’re transferring” so you better have a solid reason for that. Your high school grades matter very little to nothing. Your college GPA matters a lot. The colleges you have selected are no doubt phenomenal and highly selective. If you’re keen on doing business and are willing to fore-go the aid issue, then I highly suggest upenn, cornell, emory, uva, umich, unc and nyu.</p>
<p>I’m natively from India. I live in Doha, Qatar, because my dad works here, but I consider myself intimately attached to India (we go there every year, wonderful place). I’m sure all the ‘over-represented minority’ stuff will apply to me. So, I’m posting here. :)</p>
<p>If you guys don’t mind I’m gonna ask a little question:-</p>
<p>I’ve done well in school (usually 90%+, and top 5), and competitions, but in my free time, I’ve written a lot of software and computer game related stuff. Students in colleges in the US have even used some of my code and libraries. You can see my site here: [url=<a href=“http://nikki93.github.com/]Link[/url”>http://nikki93.github.com/]Link[/url</a>] (do check it out, the ‘Projects’ and ‘Biography’ page). </p>
<p>Does this help my application? I mean, it does show that I have a little experience in the field (mostly going for physics/computer science, and games involve a lot of this stuff), or at least, that I’m very interested in it. Been doing it since I was 11. If it does help, how do I include it in the application? It doesn’t fit the usual ‘competition’ or ‘award’ things. Usually it should go into one of the essays right?</p>
<p>CollegeConnect (you were a dosco?!), i have a couple of questions regarding amherst.
is it good for economics?
and do you think i would get through with aid with 720 in math 2 and 710 in chem and 2020 in SAT I? dont say that that’s not all that counts. the rest of my application is goodish…i guess. above average for sure.the thing is that i was planing to apply to amherst but now there is barely any time left and i dont want to write the essay unless i have atleast some chance of getting in.</p>
<p>Ok… this is the first time I’m doing this. A brief introduction: I’m a 17-year old Indian international student looking for a good undergraduate engineering program (a bit cliche, I know) or architecture BUT I have lived in San Jose, California for 7 years, so forget all the images of the stereotypical nerdy Indian (though I am quite smart). Anyway, here’s a peek into the stuff going into my application:</p>
<p>SAT II:
Math I: 800
Math II: 800
(I guess the fact that I’ve given these in my junior year is an extra bonus)
Physics:750+ *
Chemistry: 750+ *</p>
<p>*I havent given it yet</p>
<p>ECs
International Award For Young People - Silver Medalworking for gold)
Rigorous Camper (4 5-day camps)
Community service (2 hr/ week, 15 months)
Swimmer (15 months training, 1hr/week)
Drawing/Artist (15months training, 2hr/week)
School Chess team - Captain (5th in city tournament out of around 50, adjudged best player in school)
School International Model United Nations Delegate
National Cadet Corps (NCC) Course Pass out
Nature Club editorial board
Science Association - Secretary
School Bomb Squad
School Marathon Runner
Quizzer (3rd in inter city competition)
Website Designer
iTouch ethical hacker and theme designer, member of ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ (does this stuff count??)
Writes for school magazine
Blogger (writes poetry and prose): deedydash.blogspot.com
Annual Fundraiser participant (for two years)
Tae Kwon Do (purple belt)</p>
<p>Achievements: (This one’s my trump card)
Country McMillan Examination topper: Mathematics (one of two recognized indian math competitions by wikipedia) for two years in a row
Country McMillan Examination topper: Science
City T.I.M.E examination topper (out of 1000 participants)
Country wide 25th and 163rd in the Fiitjee talent reward examination, amongst around 20,000 participants in consecutive years, winning 100% schol at the institution, and cash prizes
School Math Record with scores 97, 100, 100, 100, 99, 100 (board examinations), 100. uptill junior year midterm, in the rigorous indian curricula.
School Award for award for excellence in Physics, Biology and Mathematics.
Certified for excellence in the National Spell-vocab challenge
Regarded by helpage india for recognition in annual fundraiser.
Attended two city level science camps (for top 1% of academically brilliant students)
Led school in interschool city level debate, quiz and extempore competition, placing 3rd, 3rd and 1st respectively</p>
<p>Other Benefits:
Top 2.5% of class (1-5 / 200)
95.4% in ICSE (national tenth grade board examination), 3.2% away from national topper, achieving a 90 in english, 100 in maths and computers respectively
As a person, through my stuffed CV, it may be hard to believe, but I’m nothing like that nerdy Indian weirdo everyone expects. I have a vast friend circle of jocks, and am very amiable, friendly, and have a normal social life of an average american teen.
Though I cant play an instrument as such, I’m really into music and movie critique, and am totally up to date with the latest music, movies, etc. (have around 12000 songs and 300 movies on my comp </p>
<p>OK, that’s a lot for anyone to read through. I hope y’all take your time and actually bother reading through it and offering me hopefully positive feedback. Thank You for your time.
Also, judging by my application, would you suggest I play it safe and apply ED to Cornell, or wait for MIT (my dream) or CalTech (my geographically favorable spot). Please give me percentage chanced on all my listed colleges, or maybe some suggestions to other good colleges. Thank you again.</p>
<p>@deedydad, california you say? UCB, UCLA. engineering?. top student? Stanford, Harvey Mudd i say. </p>
<p>Architecture Much??, or Engineering?> try Cooper Union
You know the rest of the drill rite?..
k, so go to us news and look up the top 20 engineering colleges, apply to all those who are need blind if u need aid, and than apply too all those which give merit aid…if you dont neet aid and can pull up 200 grand choose 8 or 9 you would love.</p>
Seeing as you are from Amherst, I guess I’ll shoot away my first question about Amherst itself 
I’m ‘almost’ the regular Indian science-guy doing JEE-prep etc. with decent, but not overwhelming stats. I was interested in going into research and have no interest whatsoever in engineering. At the moment I was planning to do ‘Physics with Philosophy’ major with psychology as a minor(if that is possible). In general, my college list consists entirely of ivy league/high reputation colleges like MIT, but NO LACs(and IIT as the only safety). I have been confused about applying to an LAC for quite some time due to the varying opinions I received by them. Some say LACs are great for learning and research especially if you wanna get into a grad school later, while others say that the bigger colleges obviously have better facilities, professors, money to put into research and more opportunities in general. What do you suggest?
Is that a limit? I don’t know how exactly this is supposed to work, but 9/32 would mean leaving out 72% of the courses! Amherst does sound pretty cool when you mention your diverse course load though!