Are these Universities good enough for an International seeking low contribution?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • International
  • State/Location of residency: Indian
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Independent highschool - state board based

Cost Constraints / Budget:

Family can contribute 10-12k USD per Annum

Intended Major(s)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.78
  • Class Rank: 1
  • SAT Scores: 1550+ (predicted oct score, waiting for result)

List your HS coursework

my school uses a state board type of framework.

MATHS - 2A
MATHS - 2B
SANSKRIT
ENGLISH
CHEMISTRY
PHYSICS
school if not included above.)*

Awards
none in the national level, just a few school ones.

Extracurriculars
Received an appraisal letter from the Prime minister’s office regarding an essay about environmental preservation for future generations

President of an AI club in my school, thru which I hosted a informational event and headed 50 of my peers in creating data sets for training purposes. Over 1000 people attended this event.

Currently involved in an informal small scale research on technology and it’s effects on adolescents.

Head of an intercity technology club, in which fellow tech geeks share everything about what’s new.

Freelanced digital art work, and sometimes contributed my work to charity.

Volunteered at an orphanage with the help my school to supply food, toys and other essentials.

Student president with a school over 700 people, created a solarpunk environment in my school.

Youtube channel which made over 4k USD and 1.7M Views, in which I showcased how to design art but mainly it was aout entertainment in gaming.
Essays/LORs/Other
Pretty good LORs from my Teachers.

Have to work on my essays haven’t started yet.

Schools
• Brown (ed)

•Amherst

•Umiami

•ponoma

•bowdoin

•Duke

•Swarthmore

•Yale

•Rice

•Caltech

•Columbia

•Dartmouth

•Northwestern

•Princeton

•Uchicago

•UPenn

•Vanderbilt

•Harvard (might replace)

•Carleton (might choose middlebury instead)

•cornell

If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): yes
  • Extremely Likely: yes
2

Your list is VERY top heavy…too many reach schools. If you really want to study in this country, you need some less competitive schools for admission on your list.

In addition, most of the colleges on your list are need aware for admissions…meaning your level of financial need could be considered when your application for admission is reviewed.

It’s very possible you might get accepted someplace on this list…or you might not get accepted anywhere on this list.

Please make sure you have a sure thing affordable school in your home country on your application list as well.

IMO, you need some less reachy schools on your list, and perhaps a few less high reaches.

And why are you applying ED? With your significant financial need, it might be better to be able to compare net costs amongst more than one acceptance. My opinion.

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Better get going on these. Each school has their own essays in addition to the common app essay. Your ED school, Brown, also allows for an optional video submission. That application is due soon.

My advice: dramatically cut your list. There’s no way you can get all of these done.

4 Likes
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Different high schools even just here in the US compute GPA very differently. When we get to international students applying from high schools all over the world the differences are even greater. This is very hard to compare. However…

This is way easier to compare. If you are the top student in your high school, that will help you to be competitive for the schools in the US which meet full need for international students. Admissions at colleges and universities in the US will have admissions staff who know how to interpret your grades in your country’s grading system.

I agree with others that your list is very long. Also, given how much financial aid you need, there is no school in the US where both admissions and affordability are likely. I think that you need to trim the list. At a minimum first send in applications to the schools that you think are likely to be a good fit for you. That way if you get burned out in putting together so many applications at least the applications to schools that you prefer will be done.

Perhaps you need to do two things. One is to apply to universities in your home country where admissions and affordability are likely. Also apply to a few universities in the US which you feel are the best fit for you. Then just wait and see what happens.

I see that you will be sending in an ED application to Brown. I think that this is a good choice and a very good university. You are a competitive applicant but admissions is very competitive and difficult or impossible to predict. I also see a number of applications to relatively small schools. If you prefer a small school (such as what here in the US we would call a liberal arts college) then get those applications sent in first.

With regard to essays, be genuine. Be yourself. Also try to avoid grammatical errors (which you have successfully done in your post as far as I have noticed). If you get stuck, then take a short break and relax. This does suggest that it is best to start the whole process a bit early if you can.

Best wishes. You look to be a strong student and I expect this to work out one way or another.

1 Like