US Citizen educated & living abroad > Chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>US Citizen of Asian descent (ie Bangladeshi)
Want to Major in Engineering</p>

<p>Here are my STATs</p>

<p>Rank : 19 out of 290
GPA : School doesnt give GPA (I'm screwed arent I :)
SAT I : 2160 [750CR, 780M, 630WR] > 1st sitting
SAT II: Physics-740, Maths Level II-800 > 1st Sitting</p>

<p>Have been educated under the British GCE/GCSE System upto now
GCE Ordinary levels > 6'A's , 2 'B's
GCE Advanced Level > Chemistry (hav givn 3 units out of 6 so far) - 'B'
Mathematics [C1,C2,C3,C4, M1, S1] - 'A'
Physics (hav givn 3 units out of 6 so far) - 'A'<br>
Have taken further pure mathematics this semester</p>

<p>Expected Final Advanced Level Grades are all 'A's
Teacher recs are really good, counselor rec is okay, essays are moderate
Extracurriculars are okay. They include conmmunity service and debating skills mainly, interested in sports (cricket, tabletennis & basketball), I am currently home tutoring a Grade9 student on Accounting, Physics an Chemistry. Also won an Academic Excellence Award given by the Daily Star (local English Daily) for my O-Levels</p>

<p>Applying to</p>

<hr>

<p>Caltech
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Univeristy of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Carnegie Mellon University
Colby College
Penn State University
Lafayette College</p>

<p>pls comment on my chances</p>

<p>oh an btw I've had the opportunity to travel to a few places internationally(Malayasia, Thailand, France, England, Dubai, Switzerland, Singapore etc) So do you think this is an advantage for me and shud I put it on my app? Do I fall into any URM categories since I'm a US Citizen of Asian descent(ie Bangladeshi)? Also one of my main concern is how my Brit 'O' and 'A' Levels will be received in the US</p>

<p>Responses are much appreciated</p>

2

<p>Do you have strong A-level exam predictions? That'll be important...</p>

3

<p>my expected grades, from my counselor, for my remaining A-Lvel subjects (ie Physics A2, Chem A2 and Further Maths AS) are all 'A's. My HS grades have been all 'A's suffice for a couple of B's. I have already given 1 of my math a-levels (all 6 units) and have received an 'A' in it.</p>

<p>btw, thanks for your response rheasilvia</p>

4

<p>oh and my math and science teachers (the ones I am taking recommendations from) are really confident bout the predicted 'A' result</p>

5

<p>You're very welcome. If your predictions are strong, I think you should have a very good chance at all the schools you mentioned with the exception of Caltech--and that only because you're an international applicant without a distinguishing competitive award (which is something MIT and Caltech seem to really like to see in their internationals.) UIUC is an excellent engineering school.</p>

6

<p>I don't know anything about engineering admissions, but my D is an American educated in Europe and was treated as an "American applicant" with foreign address at all the schools she applied to--this is because her citizenship makes her eligible for fafsa-related financial aid. However international adcom specialists also read her app because they were familiar with foreign grading systems. I know British A-levels are well-regarded in the USA.</p>

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<p>If you are a US citizen you will be treated as an American with a foreign address, as the person above said.</p>

8

<p>Why are you applying to PSU, Lafayette and Colby? Yes, they are good universities, but if you are interested in Engineering, you are most likely in at CMU, Michigan and Illinois, all three of which are better. The odds of you not getting into at least one of those three is next to nil. Those are your safe schools. Instead of wasting yuour time and energy applying to PSU, Colby and Lafayette, I would apply to MIT and Stanford and maybe Cal-Bekeley. I would also look at Cornell.</p>

<p>And Asian Americans are NEVER considered URMs. URMs can only be US citizens of African or Latin decent...or original Native Americans. So no, you aren't an URM.</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
And Asian Americans are NEVER considered URMs. URMs can only be US citizens of African or Latin decent...or original Native Americans. So no, you aren't an URM.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Alexandre: you are mistaken. You don't think Hmong applicants aren't considered as underrepresented minorities here in Madison? I also suspect that for many colleges in the Midwest all Asian-American applicants, regardless of their national origin, are considered as members of an underrepresented minority. At other colleges across the country Asian-Americans whose families originate from Vietnam or the Philippines or Cambodia or Thailand or Sri Lanka or Bangladesh are probably considered underrepresented minorities.</p>