Here is a list of my awards and extracurriculars as of junior year. Can you please let me know if these activities/honors would be considered “stand-out” or appropriate for Ivy League caliber students or students who would get accepted into top-tier UCs like Berkeley and UCLA? This is provided that I have a 33 ACT (which I scored on a second attempt) and a 3.95 Unweighted GPA (4.59 Weighted). However, because my testing and GPA aren’t finalized as I’m still a junior in her second sem, I would like you to consider these awards/activities individually given I have high stats.
Honors:
Scholastic Art Honorable Mention in Southeast Regional Awards (15% of all applicants from all three Southeast Contest States)
International Conrad Innovator (1 of 100 from over 600 contestants)
International HOSA Barbara James Service Award Winner-Silver (For completing over 175+ community service hours regarding healthcare in one school year)
One of 2 students from each county selected to serve on Kentucky Dept of Education’s Student Council
KY Science Fair Society for In-Vitro Biology Special Award Winner (awarded to one junior in the entire fair of nearly 200 high schoolers, and my work is featured in the annual Society for In-Vitro Biology newsletter. However, I didn’t win “Best of Fair” and didn’t make it as an ISEF finalist)
Student Technology Leadership Program State Showcase “Best in Fair” Group Project (1 of 60 teams statewide including both middle and high schools)
AP Scholar with Distinction
Academic Team State Junior Varsity Tournament Written Testing 2nd Place
Selected as 1 of 5 student speakers from around my district at a TED-style talk given to 100s of juniors at the annual career fair at the University of Kentucky.
Activities:
STLP Technology Club Student Rep (2018-2019) and President (2019-2020) (School)
HOSA Club Founder, President(2018-2019) and Conference Chair (2019-2020) (School)
National Girls’ Collaborative Young Girls’ Advisory Board (National)
KY Dept of Education Student Council (State)
Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council IdeaFestival Fair Committee Chair (County)
Bluegrass Youth Arts (County): Arts Classes for students in unprivileged areas (President-to-be for 2020-2021 school year)
Student Researcher at the University of KY microbiology lab (2019-2021): My project looks at the role of hypoxia-inducible Factor1 on the risk of acute graft-versus-host disease in mice models
National Honors Society (Member)
National Art Honors Society (Member)
Academic Team (Member)
You have pretty strong awards and EC’s. Also make sure that your ACT/SAT scores and GPA are strong.
Maybe being a part on a research or an internship might really add to your credentials.
I forgot to mention I am an international student (Living in US w/ immigrant visa). Would this somehow require my honors/ECs to be more “impressive”/competitive than they are right now?
Your awards aren’t nationally recognized and they’re really specific to your district/region, but your ECs (mainly the first 3) are pretty good. If you’re international, it does make your chances worse and you’ll be held to slightly higher standards.
I’d ED to one of the Ivies or comparable school (Northwestern, Duke, Vandy, Chicago…) as I don’t believe that paying sticker for a UC is good value.
@bluebayou will I have higher chances of receiving aid/merit-based scholarships at the Ivies rather than UCs?
@daunt18 two of my awards are internationally based (Conrad Innovator and the HOSA Service Award). But you are correct in the sense that I don’t have any national awards. Would having international accolades place me in a better position as an international applicant living in the US, and generally, how would the number/level of the awards and ECs be for an international admit with good stats?
The Ivies don’t get merit aid. It’s need based only.
The Ivies don’t give merit aid and CA public’s have an OOS fee (~$23k/year) that all OOS students have to pay. I think it’s going to get more competitive for international students who need aid.
I think some of your awards are good esp as a strong female STEM candidate. if you focus on the only the national/international awards you will have a better picture of how you compare. Even with 3 strong national awards there is no guarantee. I think where you are from is also important. If you are from a country that is under represented you will have a benefit but if you come from a country with many candidates then it will be a drawback.
Keep doing what you are doing. That’s a great list. And make sure your SAT/ACT scores are in the top % .
@austinmshauri I currently don’t plan on applying for aid as it doesn’t really seem beneficial in the case of an international applicant, and I don’t fall under the need-based category. Would the admit rates still be low for international US applicants who don’t apply for aid?
This is regarding Ivy League schools and similar top-tier schools. I have seen several college prep websites mention that these selective schools have around a 10-12% general acceptance rate which falls to around 6-8% for international/non-resident applicants. At the same time, the international pool is significantly smaller than the US citizen/perm resident pool. So, would this be beneficial or more difficult for me?
@Happytimes2001 Yea…regarding that, I currently have been living in the US for almost a decade with a visa. I am originally from India and fall under the Asian category. This may be a common college apps stereotype but I heard Asians and especially Chinese and Indian applicants tend to apply in large numbers to these selective schools in the international/non-resident pool. Would this hurt my chances since I heard these applicants usually have done ground-breaking things like starting significant startups or raising large sums of money on an international level.
The overall admit rates are much lower than you think for the Ivies. They are in the 5-7% range. You should look up the rate by each school you are interested in. If you are not a US resident, and would be treated as an international applicant, it will likely be several percentage points lower. India is one of the most competitive countries to apply from. Currently, Harvard only has 21 students from India in Harvard College, or somewhere around 4-6 per class. Given Harvard’s popularity, one would assume a pretty high yield, meaning maybe 6-7 students are admitted each year on average. The other T20 will likely be very similar.
I think you have good accomplishments, and should apply to some top schools, but if you want to study in the US for college, you need to look at schools that are not T20 selective for matches and safeties. If you will be full pay, you may be very attractive at many colleges, public and private, that are not at the top of the pile.
@STEMGeek16 Yes, unfortunately that’s an overrepresented minority. Also, the acceptance rates are far lower than you cited. In addition, many of the applicants have a hook (athletics, legacy etc). If you had a hook and the EC’s that would be better. But no one really ever knows.
@Happytimes2001 What would be examples of “hook” besides legacy and athletic recruits? And given my stats and ECs, which schools should I aim for? (I can make a separate forum regarding this if that’s easier)
@BKSquared thanks for the info! Do you know how many students approx. applied from India (You mentioned 21 were “selected”).
Found this on Berkeley’s website: https://admissions.berkeley.edu/international-students
It says the international admit rate is 9.14%.
Does this indicate 9.14% of the student body is international or does it mean that 9.14% is the acceptance rate for the % of intl students who got in?
I have not seen any official published figures of applicants from India. I think most people are guessing that the admit rate for people from India is at least 2-3% below the overall rate, with a lot of the accepted students having some type of major hook, e.g. donor parents, politically connected, legacy.
As to the Berkeley website, I interpret that as acceptance rate. Students from India made up about 10% of all international student acceptances for students entering Fall 2019, including graduate students. https://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/student-stats2019.pdf
@BKSquared thanks for the link and info! I have one last concern, would it be close to impossible or a waste of time for such international applicants who don’t have such major external connections (legacy, donors, etc…) to apply to such colleges. Would you suggest I apply to other middle-tier and safety schools given my ECs/honors and no external hook?