Hi, I am a Malaysian student planning to apply to a US university for the fall 2017 intake. I was wondering if the community here is able to provide me with a list of universities that I should apply to.
Here is my profile:
Tests
New SAT: 800M 710CRW Essay:7/5/7 (First time) (Weak CRW?)
TOEFL: 115
SAT II: 800PHY 800MathII
Education:
Currently taking the second half of Cambridge International A-Level courses, (Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry)
Grades for Advanced Subsidiary Level (first half of the course):
- Mathematics: A (99th percentile)
- Chemistry: A (94th percentile)
- Physics: A (93rd percentile)
(Further Mathematics is only available in one sitting at the end of the course)
(Top average percentiles in my school)
First year school-internal final exam:
- Mathematics: 96/100
- Chemistry: 91/100
- Physics: 98/100
(My school does not rank, but this should place me 1st out of around 100 students)
SPM (GCE O-Level equivalent)
8A+, 1A, 1A-
(These grades should place me at 4.0+ on a 5.0 GPA scale I reckon)
Honors/Extracurriculars/etc:
- Concertmaster and President of my high school orchestra (Numerous national and international awards for my school)
- Won the Curtin University Photo Awards competition
- State representative (as 1st violinist) in the National Music Camp
- Committee member and participant of my high school’s Australian exchange program (Malaysian representative)
- Distinction certificates in the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music in Music Theory and Violin
- Self taught violinist, pianist, and composer (composed high school graduation song)
- Self taught photography hobbyist
- Drum Major and President of my primary school band (irrelevant I guess?)
- Tennis and Basketball (weakness here, have not participated in competitions, just as hobbies)
- Cathechism teacher (volunteer) and scripture reader (volunteer) at my church
- Volunteered at a retirement home once (violin performance & social services)
- Worked at my mother’s clinic
- Class monitor for two years in my high school
Interested fields of study:
MechE/EECS/CS
That’s about it. Please feel free to be straightforward when giving suggestions to me. If there is anything important that I’ve forgotten to add, do ask me to add.
Thank you!
How much can you pay each year? Specific geographic location in US?
Fees should not be a problem, I’m ready to apply for financial aid but if my taking scholarships or financial aid stops another student(who is unable to afford) from studying at a school, I will not choose to receive them.
I was thinking of California(nice environment and comfortable). West coast and east coast are preferable for me.
As an International applicant you realize you would be full fees at any California public university so around $40-60K/year? You would not be eligible for financial aid at these schools and they offer little in merit aid (scholarships).
I would target private universities in California: USD (University of San Diego), USC, Occidental, Univ of San Francisco (USF), Santa Clara, Claremont Colleges (Pitzer, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Harvey Mudd) to name a few. You need to do some research on your own to see which of these schools would fit.
If you’re interested in EECS, California is one of the best places you could be. Off the top of my head her’s a set of schools that may interest you. Keep in mind that you’ll probably be a full pay student (especially at the public schools):
UCs: Berkeley, LA, San Diego, Irvine, Davis, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz
CSUs: Cal Poly SLO, San Francisco State
CA Privates: Stanford, Caltech, Harvey Mudd College, University of Southern California, Pomona College
Out of CA Public: Purdue, UIUC, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, UMd College Park, UT Austin, UMich Ann Arbor, UW Madison
Our of CA Private: Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Duke
Your quantitative stats are very good - you could stand to bring up that CR score, but it’s not necessary - so as far as I can tell you are “academically qualified” for all the schools above. HOWEVER this does not mean you’ll get into all of (or even any of) these schools. Also I haven’t listed many safety’s so you should definitely look into affordable possibilities back home as well as less selective schools in the US.
@Gumbymom thank you. Yes, I am aware of the exorbitant fees. My (and my family’s) opinion is that quality education will be a worthwhile investment for me(Have 2 sisters studying medicine, one received a full scholarship).
Also, may I ask, why private? Not full fees?
@saif235 thank you for your comprehensive list. University of Sydney and UNSW at Australia are currently my safety options if I fail to get into a university that matches me in the US.
Also, as MIT and Berkeley are consistently among the leaders in EECS research and education, do you think that it is worth it for me to give them a shot with my current standing? How about the ivies?
If I’m reading your stats correctly, you are academically qualified for MIT and Berkeley. At that point if you can afford the application fee you might as well apply. The worst that could happen is they say “no” and you lose $70. Also, at Berkeley you’ll have a better chance of admission if you apply as a CS major instead of EECS, but you’ll need to meet certain GPA conditions to declare the CS major -just something to keep in mind.
I’m of the general opinion that the ivies aren’t particularly great for EECS. You’ll notice I’ve included Cornell, Columbia, and UPenn - the engineering focused ivies - as well as Princeton - great at pure CS. While the rest are great schools in their own right, there are better engineering schools.
@Aovnick: The reason I said to target private schools in California is that your stats could get you some good merit aid which would help reduce your costs. Since you stated your parents are willing to pay for a quality education, then the UC’s: UCB/UCLA would be worth considering along with the other schools noted by the above posters ^^^.
@saif235 @Gumbymom how does UCB, UCLA, Stanford, MIT, Princeton (EECS if available, EE if unavailable) sound like? Maybe a few more public and private schools?
Also, I am not very well acquainted with the public schools. Where should I go to find more information about them? e.g. ranking and rigor (to pick from the huge list)
MIT/Princeton and Stanford are all Reaches (for every applicant) but worth an application.
UCB and UCLA are definitely more feasible. If you unlimited funds, then apply away…
While I think it is worth it to pay for application fees, I am afraid of not being able to finish polishing my actual applications before the deadline. My wish is to select a few more fitting schools. I think I will place my focus on the UCs.
Keep in mind that you can apply to all of the UCs with one supplication. So there’s very little downside to applying to all/most of the UCs if you can afford the application fees.
MIT, Princeton, and Stanford are high reaches, but there’s my harm in giving it a try. I would also recommend trying for Carnegie Melon, Georgia Tech, UMich Ann Arbor, Purdue, and UIUC (at least). All of these schools are on the common app and the supplements shouldn’t be too difficult to write once you have s couple done.
Another good CA private school for those majors is Santa Clara. It is right in Silicon Valley and quite a bit easier to get into than a Stanford or UCB while still having a very good reputation in the area.
Thank you all for all of your suggestions. Any idea how to get more suggestions? Also, does knowing how to speak 3 languages (English, Chinese, Malay) help?