What are an international's chances for ivies + other good unis? Will chance back!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey there :). I'm aiming for a CS major, looking to apply to the ivies, MIT, Stanford, etc.</p>

<p>GPA: 10 (maximum of our grading system)
SAT1: Not taken yet, I experience something between 1900 (the worst scenario) and 2100 (the good scenario). However, if I'm lucky enough I can score slightly higher (like 2150 on the perfect scenario). Avgs: 500-600 CR, 750+M, 550-650 W
SAT2: 760 Math2, 780 Physics (maybe will retake math2, aiming for 800)
TOEFL: Hoping for 105+
Classes: 5 Years of advanced maths (including stereometry, geometry, calculus, etc)
4 years of physics and English
3 years of literature, history, chem, German, philosophy&sociology, accounting, economics, 1 year marketing, management, and a couple of other classes too</p>

<p>ECs:
Languages: my native language, English, Greek, Italian, German
Sports: Taekwondo red belt (hopefully black at the time I apply :P), played basketball for over 5 years, skiing, windsurfing. Attended two Olympics and two Mediterranean games as an accompanying guest</p>

<p>Admitted to the Harvard Secondary School Program (will take some CS-related classes, and hopefully will do well)</p>

<p>Work experience:
I work as a web entrepreneur, building websites for different people and marketing them. Also, I've founded about 4-5 websites, including the biggest entertainment website in my country. I have a lot of experience with web marketing, incentive and ppc advertising, etc.
I make around $1k a month with my website portfolio</p>

<p>I've worked at a couple of companies as an IT, and as a designer + marketer at a small company.</p>

<p>Debates:
- School's Debate club president
- Some bestspeaker awards
- 6th and 2nd place in national debate tournaments
- a couple of other debates during 3 years
- workshops, presentations, and training freshmen for debating skills
- judge in a regional debate</p>

<p>European Youth Parliament:
- Head Organizer of a yearly National Selection Conference of EYP in my country
- Organizer of 2 sessions of the European Youth Parliament in my country (involving delegates admission, fundraising, web and marketing, etc)
- Selected in the National Selection Conference to attend an International Session
- Participated in some regional and international sessions
Student Council: VP of the student council, and an active member of it for more than 4 years</p>

<p>-Chairman for 2 years of the Environmental Committee in my country's Youth Parliament
-Active member of civil society organizations, attended some workshops and stuff like that
-Participated in different maths olympiads, and selected to attend an advanced math class once a week
-Some marketing and involvement with the school's newspaper
-Physics lab tutoring + research
-Physics and Chemistry club active member
-Some prizes in some physics competitions
-School library involvement
-School's marketing department (marketing my high school to other schools in my city)
-Piano player for more than 8 years
-Physics lab supervisor position</p>

<ul>
<li>some other stuff that I can't remember right now :)</li>
</ul>

<p>What are my chances for:
- Harvard
- MIT
- Stanford
- U Chicago
- Brown
- Columbia
- Princeton
- Ohio SU Columbus
- U Calif San Diego
- U Southern Calif
- Yale
- Rice</p>

<p>Will chance back! :)</p>

2

<p>Your ECs are pretty good but even your best case scenario of 2150 may not cut it at most of these schools. Your main priority should be attaining a 2200+ SAT score.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/897889-chances-ivies-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/897889-chances-ivies-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Hey! I definitely think you can get in. Even if your scores aren’t the highest, your extracurricular activities, achievements, and the fact that you speak 5 languages will probably make up for your test scores. Remember, most people in the US (no offence meant!) speak one or two languages at most. I’m also an international student (Venezuela)! Where are you from?</p>

4

<p>Little can make up for test scores. They give an indication of whether or not you can do well at a college, especially fo internationals.</p>

5

<p>thanks for your comments :)</p>

<p>I know that the SAT 1 scores are the weakest part of my application, but there’s not much I can do… I’ll take the sat 1 next week for the first time, expecting a 1900-2000. I’m not an English native speaker, and I don’t know most of the big words on the sat passages.
I don’t understand what does the CR and W scores have to do with my expected college performance. I’ll be in Computer Science, not literature for god’s sake! Moreover, isn’t my performance best determined by my grades and mostly by my harvard SSP grades (the classes are college-level, with college students)??</p>

<p>cguevarab, I’m from Albania :). Thanks for the praise, and that’s true, americans aren’t good at all at foreign languages :P</p>

6

<p>Most of these schools will not consider you major in admitting you. In the US most will change majors multiple times before graduating. In college you’ll need a full grasp of English which is why SATs are important.</p>

<p>Harvard’s summer program grades also won’t count for anything. Anyone can get in to be honest and the program is nothing like taking classes at Harvard.</p>

7

<p>I agree that students should have a really advanced knowledge of English, but I don’t think that not knowing some of the fancy words in the SAT will hinder my chances of doing well during college time. Anyway, what about the other universities that are easier to get in, such as Rice/Ohio?</p>

8

<p>I’d say high match for OSU and UCSD and USC. For the Ivies the scores are a little low tbh but who knows, you can still get in.</p>

9

<p>it’s gonna be hard for an international, but i wouldnt be to worried about your SAT scores they should be plenty high when coupled with your great ECs but ivies are gonna be reaches</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/915376-chances-some-east-coast-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/915376-chances-some-east-coast-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>thanks for the comments. I know the sat 1 scores aren’t that great, but I’m striving for a better score. I’m gonna take kind of a mock sat exam this saturday, and then will study as hell for the oct sat. </p>

<p>I also forgot to mention, financial aid is crucial for me. How much do you think it will matter during my admission? Are these unis need-blind?</p>

11

<p>bump!!!</p>

12

<p>The financial aid point is something you should have mentioned, it puts you out of the running for a lot of the ivies (though if you want do to CS i dont know why you would generically apply to ALL the ivies). Universities in America are generally not need-blind for international students unfortunately. You really need to get that SAT up! Some tips are on this website for SAT prep, but what you really need is a prep book to study. I can usually do the vocab because I speak french, another romance language helps a lot.</p>

<ul>
<li>Harvard reach</li>
<li>MIT reach</li>
<li>Stanford reach</li>
<li>U Chicago high match/low reach? I don’t know how they would react to SAT</li>
<li>Brown reach</li>
<li>Columbia reach</li>
<li>Princeton reach</li>
<li>Ohio SU Columbus match</li>
<li>U Calif San Diego match</li>
<li>U Southern Calif match</li>
<li>Yale reach</li>
<li>Rice low reach
I think i would vary my options a little bit more, and do fewer ivies.</li>
</ul>

<p>Chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/898730-chances-duke-penn-cornell.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/898730-chances-duke-penn-cornell.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

13

<p>I’m curious about your grading scale. Is that a heavily weighted 10 on a 4.0 scale, or something else? </p>

<p>You have very solid stats, assuming that you achieve an SAT score of 2200 or more. How are you predicting your scores? Practice tests? PSAT? Try some SAT prep work in a workbook or online. Don’t overwork yourself, but just a little bit of time can work wonders. </p>

<p>Harvard- reach.
MIT- lower reach.
Stanford- reach.
U Chicago- high match.
Brown- reach.
Columbia- reach.
Princeton- reach.
Ohio SU Columbus- safety.
U Calif San Diego- match.
U Southern Calif- match.
Yale- reach.
Rice- low reach/high match.</p>

14

<p>thank you very much for your replies.</p>

<p>I’m basing my assumption on practice tests. I took my first SAT Reasoning yesterday, and I think I didn’t do good :((</p>

<p>Anyway, can you please explain me the difference between reach and match?</p>

<p>thx :)</p>

15

<p>International admissions are extremely competitive, even with the need blind schools. Add in your financial need – need aware schools will be very quick to reject you unless you give them a darn good reason not to.</p>

<p>There are some things you lack that almost all applicants who get in have (heck, even more crucial for Internationals). </p>

<p>You really need to understand how Ivy League schools work. They are NOT specialized tech schools. They are liberal arts schools. That is why CR and Writing matters, regardless of your major. You haven’t done your research on Ivy Leagues as much as you ought to. From what I see Ivy schools aren’t right for you with 1 obvious exception.</p>

16

<p>@ellipses: I don’t know what you mean by weighted or not, but we have a grading system from 4 to 10. 4 is the fail grade, and you pass the class with all the other grades (5-10). Basically, I have the maximum grades on all my classes and years, hence, top GPA</p>

<p>geekorathletic: what schools would you suggest me? I know that the ivies are not the best for my major (except brown, that I think that ranks pretty well on CS). MIT and Stanford are my dream schools. What else could you suggest me?
thx :)</p>

17

<p>RESEARCH. I cannot emphasize this enough. Stanford is a liberal arts school. Have you looked at their curriculum? Do they fit what you want? They don’t just let you take all the tech and science classes you want.</p>

<p>Seeing how your two dream schools are just about the most International unfriendly schools you can pick out in top 10, I’d say you really need to search out for more options.</p>

18

<p>I’ve read that stanford has one of the best (if not the best) CS departments in the US. Also, is a top ranking school for CS. Why wouldn’t they take the classes I want?</p>

19

<p>I said Stanford is a liberal arts school. That should’ve been the big giveaway.
Undergrad is not the school to pick out based on rankings. Do that in grad school. Just by looking at you right now, Stanford doesn’t seem right for you. If I were you I’d look at CalTech or MIT, although both of those are not friendly to Internationals wanting FA.</p>

20

<p>thanks :)</p>

<p>I think that both caltech and mit are daaamn hard for me to get in. Any other schools you guys can suggest me??</p>