I am an Indian student studying in the 11th grade in the CBSE syllabus. I have always wanted to go to MIT. It has been my dream college. So what does it take for an International Indian to get a seat in MIT?
Every Indian wants to go to MIT. What does it take? Great ECs, stellar academics, good SAT/ACT, TOEFL/IELTS and SAT II scores, good recommendations, stellar essay, creativity, ingenuity, etc.
So yeah, not too easy. And don’t say “seat”. This isn’t an Indian college, they don’t have a fixed number of seats to offer.
So here are my stats, please tell me what are chances and what I can do to improve them:
GPA
9th grade - 9.4
10th grade - 9.8
11th grade - 75-80% (I slacked off and was concentrating on extracurricular activities)
12th grade - ~97%
SAT 1 - 2350
SAT 2 - 2400
AP CS - 5
TOEFL - 115
Class rank - 2/180
ECs
Keyboard (9 years, I finished all levels that is Grade 8 with a distinction), guitar, saxophone and I am also the lead of my school band
Computer programming (I develop professional apps and develop and design websites)
Karate, basketball and squash
Bodybuilding and yoga
Chess
Have won and participated in various national competitions
I have around 80 certificates
I will also participate in the Indian Computing Olympiad happening this year
Letters of recommendation are great
I don’t need financial aid
Salary income - >$60,000
I can’t chance you, I find the very concept of that ridiculous.
However, are far as I can say, everything is great, and you have as good a chance as any compared to others. Your biggest let-down is your 11th grade scores.
Yeah even I am worried about that. Do you think it will have a big effect? Or do you think I should repeat the 11th grade which is possible in my school?
A degree from IIT.
If you are in the 11th grade is that 97% in the 12th grade a hopeful grade? Are those SAT scores actual or hopeful? I think you are going to have a slim chance. You basically had a C average in the most important year of school. Thats a death nail there. If you say your grades were terrible because of EC, that tells MIt you can’t do school work AND EC at the same time, which ALOT of kids can. Sorry.
Do you think I will have a chance in other colleges like Caltech, Stanford, UC Berekeley, Harvard, Purdue? Yes, my SAT scores are real and I can definitely get 97% in 12th. Many people have, so I think I can and will definitely work for it. Or do you think I should repeat the 11th grade which is possible in my school?
I personally don’t think you have a chance with a C average from 11th grade, which basically says to the schools, I did great freshman and sophmore year, and junior year, which by American standards is the “hardest, push” year, you did terrible. I don’t see anything spectacular in EC-no national intel wins, math competitions won etc. The standard testing is great, but frankly anyone applying to MIT has those scores. I also don’t see volunteer or leadership roles. If you have your heart set on MIT, and you can repeat 11th grade (without it being on your transcript) then that is the way to go.
Sorry, didn’t answer the question. The same idea pertains to all the other schools, which are all similar to MIT.
What about other colleges?
Purdue would be a lot easier to get into with those scores. UCB will take the money to admit internationals and the scores don’t hurt there either.
What about stanford, caltech, Columbia, harvard, georgiatech, princeton?
Do all of the Indian schools have a generic list of schools in the US which are the toughest? Every Indian on CC lists applies to those schools.
You have no clue about any of these schools, do you? They are ALL vastly different but require similar and some require more “exciting” EC’s. Based on what everyone has already answered for you: No, you won’t be able to get into those schools with your 11th grade results. Additionally, you can’t guess your 12th grade results, unless . . . .you know your school freely gives those kinds of grades, and that would be a problem for you if the colleges are familiar with your school.
Why would you want to go to schools which require you to study even harder and be more active on campus if you can’t maintain the right balance? These schools are tough for a reason.
Have you even visited MIT? How do you know it is your dream school? Do you know how rough their winter has been? They are under 9 feet of snow and rock-hard ice right now. They have had a brutal and LONG winter on the East Coast.
Oh ok I got it. After MIT which college do you think is good and prestigious for engineering like Stanford and UC Berkeley?
@"aunt bea"
I can answer that. You see, Indian students don’t go into depth about whether the school is the right fit for them, if it’s a good campus for them, if it’s possible for them to get in. If it has a good rep in India, it’s good. It doesn’t matter if the school is a mere shadow of it’s former glory, to Indians, name and prestige is everything (if you want an example, look at the post above this). To Indians, it’s the hardest colleges or nothing. Why, even to this day, thousands of apply to the Indian Institutes of Technology, which isn’t even good anymore, but that doesn’t matter to them.
Combined with the narrow mentality of Indian parents, they don’t look beyond the “big name” colleges. For example, Student A wants to go to Stanford. However, s/he gets rejected from Stanford, but gets a full ride to, say, Carnegie Mellon, s/he would feel sad to go there. Why? Because that person might feel that CMU isn’t as great as Stanford, although there isn’t any base for that assumption.
However, this isn’t the case for all Indians. Luckily, my brother and I’ve lived my whole life outside India, so we’ve never had to develop this kind of mentality, and neither did our parents, although both of them studied in India and abroad. Right now, I’m a junior in India (I’ve been here since freshman year, following the A level curriculum), but I’ll leave after senior year, and do the same thing I’ve done for years; go from country to country!
Anyway, back to the subject at hand, to Indians, weather, campus, etc. doesn’t affect their decision. If MIT was a wooden shack in the middle of the desert, it still wouldn’t matter to them. Unfortunately, this is the sad truth.
“I have around 80 certificates”
@RaviGopal - How are you able find time to get these certificates AND study AND do all the ECs on your list AND go to school?
I am an Indian, living in US now and I know what goes on there.
There are many good universities/colleges other than the ones you list.
Good luck.
@RaviGopal no, you didn’t get it and are not listening. If you didn’t do well in 11th grade, all of the other elite schools that you’ve listed won’t admit you EITHER!
You’re are not getting it. Stanford and Berkeley are not secondary schools to MIT. Stanford is even tougher in admissions. It’s a private expensive school and is very particular about who it admits.
Berkeley is a California public school and has volumes of students who apply and you would have to be better than all of them to even have a chance.
Frankly, because you seem to be really clueless, you probably won’t get into any of those schools and I now see why your grades were low.
@DarkEclipse, great information to have!
^^ That’s pretty much true for Mainland Chinese students and parents too.