Crystal31

Thanks alot nonsecure!!
I will definately take math 2 and for the other one I am not sure.. What do u suggest? I plan to do either economics or maybe physics...
I wanted to take english lit but many people have recommened me that its very scoring what do u suggest?

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Ppaayas

Crystal31: Why not do 3 of them? It is definitely better and most applicants to Ivy League Colleges do 3.

AdityaP

There is no Econ SAT Subject Test

Crystal31

I wanted to take english lit but many people have recommened me that its not very scoring*

@aditya by econ and physics I meant my college major...

nocensure

Crystal31- I'm usually not for stereotypes. But in this case I don't think its too bad? How? Indians usually take math, physics, and chemistry and for good reason. We're relatively comfortable with it than others (on average). Moreover, I don't think you should take english lit but then I don't want to rule it out. What did you get on your SAT CR section? If you got above 750 then I think you can take it as a 3rd but if you do bad then score choice won't help you in ALL colleges. If you got less than it than take physics or chem.

As for me I took US History but then being a citizen I had background knowledge.

AdityaP

Crystal31- Oops. It seemed like you were referring to the Subject Tests. Sorry x)

Crystal31

@nonsecure, oh okay I have not given my SAT yet. Thanks alot for the advise though!
Also I wanted to know how do the scholarship system works? I mean I can afford my 4 yr college but i dont want to do that and get a scholarship instead.. I have an indian friend with Indian citizenship who got into University of Texas (Dallas) with 100% scholarship and $2000 p.a extra money.. and I am pretty sure he can also afford his college tution..
So I was wondering how could that be possible..
Please advice me! Thanks in advance!!

@aditya : No problems

P.S - Sorry for any graamatical/spell errors.. My phones auto-correct sux

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nocensure

Hey crystal- I think there may be a misconception here. For the big colleges, HSMYP+Ivies+Chicago or even Georgia Tech or CMU, scholarships are not based on merit. You could have gotten a nobel prize and it wouldn't help. They are based on need. While colleges will give money to you based on need one must discriminate between ones that discriminate against internationals asking for money and ones that don't in admissions. Ones that don't are termed need-blind and are few for example Harvard, Yale, Williams, etc. For others like Stanford for example if you're an international asking for need, you're going to have to be ver very very good or have a unique story that really appeals to ad coms because here asking for aid WILL affect admissions.

Now there are some alternatives here for an Indian. For example Tata offers scholarships for going to cornell. I think there was a guy in the class of 2015 thread that got it. This link contains more information.

Study abroad with Tata Scholarship

There could also be some NGO's that specialize in education etc that could give you grants if you're outstanding.

Crystal31

@nonsecure, oh okay thanks alot!

lifegang

HI,
I am willing to apply to various US universities.I have got a score of 87% in my X board exams(ICSE). I hope to get approx 90% in my school pre-board and 92-95% in XIIth board(ISC).I have a huge passion for Computer Science. I will be publishing a research paper by November this year.It is a very good topic on which I will be publishing. I have extra-curriculars like ,I am in the school football team,I am the head of the school Computer Department,I am a guitarist in the school band,have won debates in the school and more. I have a perfect SAT score and I hope to get 1600/1600 in my SAT Subject Tests(Maths Level II and Physics). I have participated and won in various competitions against IITians. So taking everything into consideration,I am thinking of applying to the following universities.
Princeton University
Yale University
Dartmouth College
Tufts University
Massechuesetts Intstitute Of Technology
Amherst College
University Of Virginia
University Of Pennsylvania
University of Rochester

I will be applying for need-based financial aid.(almost full aid)
So, I want to know my chances of getting in all of these colleges.And please tell in which of these colleges I have almost full chance of getting in.

Note: I have excellent essays reviewed by 5 teachers and have excellent recommendation letters from my teachers and counselor.

Please help me.
Thanks.


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Mrinal2207

Wait, you have a 2400 SAT?? That should really help you.

lifegang

Yup,but i dont know how much it will impact. Please help me...

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nocensure

Hello Lifegang. First of all a huge congratulations for the 2400. That's a really rare feat and should help you considering its even rarer on the international side. That being said, your profile looks pretty good on the academic side (and yes I am lumping your research and impending paper here). The first thing you should do when apply is wait for your paper to be published. Nothing against you here but I've lost count of how many people put research paper "soon to be published" but it never does. But if it actually is published its a significant achievement at this age. I also suggest sending it in the "supplementary information" section for each college in word or pdf format. All in all here's how I would rate your chances in % terms

Princeton, Yale- 40% (on average around 50% of domestic applicants with a 2400 get accepted to HSYP but since you’re an international that rate has to decrease a little but its still a great chance considering these schools are to an extent, crapshoots)
MIT- 30% (the Indian MIT admits are usually international olympiad winners)
Dartmouth- 45%
Amherst-50%
The rest>95%

I'm sure you want to know my reasoning of your chances for schools such as Princeton, Yale, and MIT and here is the reason. At these colleges, they can accept many domestic applicants who have done internationally prestigious competitions such as Intel or Siemens (if you don't know it then please look it up) and of course olympiad winners. The internationals that they take would have to be different than these math, physics, and computer science oriented domestic applicants. How does an international do this? One word: essays. Make sure your essays point out the reasons for your love for computer science and be sincere. Do this and you can bump up your chances for the top colleges by at least 5%.

Good luck!

lifegang

@noncensure: Thanks a lot!very helpful reply...
I will be applying for financial aud..have u considered it? If not then what will be my chances then? And plz chance me for Harvard, brown,cornell and John Hopkins University.

Thanks a lot for your reply

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nocensure

Hello again lifegang,

For HYP, they say that internationals asking for aid is usually not a factor. But I disagree. To an extent. If you're really amazing, then aid or no aid they're going to accept you. But assume there exists an exact clone of you (hypothetically speaking) but he's a citizen and he's asking for aid. That citizen will be accepted over you. Or assume there's another clone from Indian or another foreign country and he doesn't ask for aid. He will get accepted over you. Now of course the base assumption of my argument here rests on the premise that there will be two clones of you with the exact same well "everything." This is not possible and I'm sure you'll bring something new to the table. All in all, don't worry about the aid factor. I've always said that don't worry about the small things. If you're good you WILL be accepted somewhere good. Just try your best, be content in the fact that you have, and leave the rest to the adcoms or if you prefer a more profound context, the almighty smirking above.

Anyways, as for you chances, I would say Harvard would be 35%. They usually are more discerning than Y and P when it comes to Indian applicants and have a tendency as do Y and P to select from feeder schools. Also if you plan on applying to Stanford (and I say you should) this would be 35% as well because Stanford looks for subtly different things than Y and P and is slightly less objective in its admission policy. Brown would be the same as dartmouth and cornell would be slightly more (maybe 2-3% more chances) because they usually favor indian applicants in its international pool. JHU would be around 50% with Amherst.