I’m an international from Taiwan. I study in arguably one of the best schools in my country (Chenggong Senior Highschool, where only people who scored over 97 percentile on junior high school leaving exams enter). The curriculum is far from similar to those of American’s, and almost no one applies to foreign universities at our school. Therefore, I hope to get a better view here.
GPA: roughly 3.3/4.0 while ranked in the top 20% of the class. We actually give out scores out of 100. My original GPA will then be ~78. Since my school is extremely rigor, the class average is ~60. 3.3 is only according to our school’s conversion table.
Standardized tests:
SAT: 1430 (will retake in October)
SAT 2: 800 on both physics and math 2
TOEFL: 106 (not sure if this is enough to replace my 1430 SAT when applying to MIT)
ECs:
Founded our school’s first First Robotics Competition team. I served as the team PR and lead my team to raise ~36,000USD for our team. We went on to win the Judges Award at a regional competition. Our team also went to rather rural schools and taught them simple Lego programming.
Founded our school’s first football team (soccer). Competed against varsity teams in Taipei and have won two tournament awards.
Revived English debate at out school after almost a decade. Our team won the regional winner award twice and national champion once in 2 years of participation. I won the best debater award at the regional round in my first year of participation too.
Served as the academic supervisor at our school’s MUN club. Also helped organized and chaired two MUNs with ~120 participants each.
I also play the Viola. Won quite a number of national awards during my time at junior high school orchestra.
Some other volunteer experience. Went to Cambodia for an international volunteer program. Built a traditional grass but there and taught the children there basic science.
Converting foreign grades to a US equivalent is tricky, but if your school days that your grades concord to a 3.3 US equivalent, that is too low for Top-20 schools. All of them will be reaches.
Try for schools like Arizona, Arizona State, or similar with decent STEM programs where your grades/test scores are in target.
Acceptance rates for foreign students to MIT this past year were 3.1%. The acceptance rates for foreign students at the rest of the colleges on your list are similar. While your GPA may not be an issue, since your school does not have the grad inflation which is common in the USA, unless you are in the top 10% of your class, you are likely out of the running. While your ECs demonstrate many great traits, they do not demonstrate that you are competitive in math or engineering at the levels that these colleges are expecting from applicants, especially foreign applicants.
So, while you have done great in school, and have accomplished many amazing things, you are really not competitive for a STEM major at any of the schools on your list.
Taiwan has always placed high in IMO. Assuming that those students who medaled will be applying to the same schools and have possibly higher GPA, OP is at a disadvantage.
OP should concentrate on the national college exams for Taiwan. If his high school is competitive, then there should be plenty of acceptances to National Taiwan University and National Tsinghua University. Do well there and there is the possibility of funded grad school in the US.
Your SAT and GPA (assuming it’s the same as American standards) will hinder your chances at the T20s. Even more so because you are an international student that is applying to STEM powerhouses. I would say that most t20s will be super reaches for you despite your fantastic ECs list.
Do you understand the difference between applying ED (early decision) and RD (regular decision) to Northwestern University, Penn & Cornell ? (MIT has non-binding EA = early action).
Admission rates for those applyiny to Northwestern University, for example, are much higher for those applying binding ED.
I would still recommend that OP get his undergrad at a top rate university in Taiwan/ROC like National Taiwan University or National Tsinghua and get good enough grades to be admitted to a top US university for funded graduate school.
The ECs are fine, but internationals are held to a higher standard. As I mentioned before, Taiwan has always placed in the Top-20 in the International Mathematics Olympics and those medalists are OP’s competition for Top-20 acceptances.
MIT has rejected students with way better GPA/test scores/ECs than what OP has currently.
I agree with you. And this is why I am also preparing for the college entrance exam at my country.
I still want to give it a shot at us universities tho. Since studying abroad seems like an eventual outcome in my education, then why not give it a shot and save 4 years?
Your advice is great and I really appreciate that truly. I’ll try and improve on my academics.
Because no one from your school has applied to those schools, the admission officer are not going to be familiar with your school. Many high schools provide profile of the school (what kind of courses are offered, distribution of grades, number of students go to 4 yr college, standarized test scores, etc) to let AOs know rigor of the school and your standing relative to other students. Without a profile, AOs may not know average GPA is 60. Therefore if you are serious about applying to American schools, you should ask someone from your school to describe its curriculum.
I don’t necessary think being top 20% from your school would disqualify you from those American schools. Some of those schools are need aware when it comes to admission, like Cornell. If you need a lot of FA then your stats would need to be tippy top. On the other hand if you do not need FA then it could be a hook for you.