Chance for Harvard and Cornell

zorn96
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:54:47 +0000

I agree, pretty decent ECs, but I’ve seen better from US students who also have higher GPA and SAT scores and they don’t get in. I do see why you would apply to these schools, especially since the exact level of competition wouldn’t be as apparent to an international student.
1st - Being a finalist in the competition to qualify for Intel ISEF isn’t regarded as highly as you might think, I had friends who went and took 1st place in their category AT Intel ISEF and didn’t get into Harvard.
2nd - You really do need to get your SATI and SATII scores up. Being an international student isn’t an excuse, especially since I believe they offer the SAT in other languages, my friend Quan took it in both chinese and in english.

I think if you can bring your SAT up past 2100 you’ll be good there, since international applicants don’t necessarily need to be as good. Also, take the SATII in Math2, not Math1. They don’t really care about Math1, and Math2 isn’t much harder. It also means you wouldn’t have to send the Math1 score. Try to break 700 on Math2 (it’s got a big curve so it shouldn’t be that hard).
You have a shot, but you need to make some definite improvements first.

chance me back?