| Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 95
| chances for an Indian International who goes to a private school
My cousin wants to attend a US school, but we have no idea what type of college within his reach.
He got a 2190 on his SAT (1530 M/Cr), and he will be taking his SAT II subject tests in October.
He averages about a 79% for his 9-11 grade percentages, and in his 10th grade board exams he got 80%.
The difference with his school, compared to all other Indian schools, is that they do not calculate rank, and they in fact DIScourage competition. They have no school clubs, and has no interschool competitions of anykind.
The classes are structured in a way that the students do not have to do their homework - that is to say, the teachers will not penalize students for not doing the homework, but trust the students to do it for learning's sake.
His school only has 150 kids total (from kindergarten to 12th), and there are only 27 kids in his grade.
Due to the noncompetitive environment, students have to take the initiative to pursue their own interests outside of school, which become a form of extracurriculars.
Here is a list of my cousin's "ec's":
- photography: he apprentices under a wildlife photographer. My cousin was the only person to be accepted under him after he viewed photo submissions from my cousin and many other kids.
My cousin entered a state-wide competition in which he competed with people much older and experienced than him, and his submission won third place.
He also voluntarily gave a presentation in front of his whole school about his travels (his dad is a cargo-ship captain), in which he showed the photos he took.
- piano. He has been learning piano for 6 years, and has completed his 5th grade-level examinations. He will be taking his 8th grade examinations in the fall (the highest level).
He has given many performances throughout his city
- he was in a band for one year with his fellow classmates in which he played keyboard, and he performed for his school. He also composed a few pieces for the band.
Volunteering:
- volunteered in a village in Rajasthan, putting together solar-panels for farmers (100 hours)
- helped a village in which lepers live - he interacted with them, and cleared their village of trash and rocks.
- cleaned a huge temple-tank (half (an American) football field)
I know that compared to many that post on this forum, this extracurriculars seem minimal, but do you think the colleges will take into account the environment from which he comes?
Also, I was thinking he apply early to a couple of colleges in order to get a feel for what is within his range.
He wants to major in physics, and doesn't mind either liberal arts colleges or huge publics.
I've given him a list of universities, including:
Berkeley, UIUC, UCSD, UCSB, UWM, UWSt. Louis, Purdue, UCLA, MIT, Rice University, Notre Dame, UMaryland (CP), Northwestern, OSU, UKansas, UT Austin, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, UMich, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Occidental, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Macalester, Grinnell, Mcgill (Canada), Reed, Whitman, etc.
This is a huge list and counting, and I have no idea which ones he can get into (MIT and Berkeley are a reach, that I know), so I'd really appreciate your input.
What can be considered his matches, and what his safeties?
thanks |
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