Hey guys!
I’m going to apply in the fall intake, 2018. I’m from India and this is my profile:
SAT: 1580/1600 (790/790)
SAT Subject scores: 800 in Math II, 800 in Physics
APs: AP Physics C: Mechanics (5), AP Physics C: E&M (5), AP Calculus AB (5)
Class rank: top 10%
School grades: Under ICSE, 97% in 9th, 94.6% in 10th boards. Under ISC, about 95%
Senior Year courseload: ISC Physics, Maths, Chemistry, English Lit, English Language and Economics
Official Posts: House captain, Director at the Interact Club (charity club, subsidiary of the local Rotary Club)
Internships: summer internship with a professor at a nuclear research facility
ECs: Been playing guitar and ukulele for 5ish years, won group contests; Won a few photography contests; placed at the national and international level in the SOF International English Olympiad; selected for a science and tech exchange program to Japan, member of the school marching band for two years. I’ve volunteered at a local school to teach young girls english for about a year, and before that, at an orphanage (that was for two years.) Was on the school magazine editorial board! I also run a photography blog.
I have a few more activities - some contests, etc that I havent got the results for yet. Will add them as results come out!
So this is my university shortlist as of now.
Wellesley College
Amherst College
Williams College
U Chicago (SUPERULTRADREAM)
Columbia (also superultradream)
Cornell
McGill University
Carleton College
Also, I’ll be requiring financial aid.
If you think my profile might be a better fit for some other university, please do suggest it! Thanks guys
@kantyewest Judging from your SAT, AP Scores and the fact that you’re in ISC - I am guessing you come from a fairly privileged school. That’s good; because many colleges will recognise that your school is trustworthy(especially if they’ve accepted candidates from your school in the past). Also, you have a superb list(having only two Ivies and no MIT even though you’re a STEM person - this indicates you already know about the system quite a lot; and that’s really going to help).
You don’t really have a safety listed; do get around to doing that ( and Carleton is not a safety).
For the brutal part - as an Indian student requiring financial aid; the odds are stacked against you ( but you probably have academic statistics better than every other Indian applicant; some exceptions) (IMO, SAT score has a greater weight than your board result; but that’s just an opinion and I can’t say for sure - my opinion is based on my own experience).
If you have application essays ranging from good-awesome you should definitely get into some of them. Also recommendations. http://www.fulbright.sk/data/Doug-Thompson-Scholarships-list-2013.pdf
^ Use the above list judiciously(also it’s four years old - so ignore the cost of attending).
Wellesley College - High chance.
Amherst College - Good chance.
Williams College - Good chance.
U Chicago (SUPERULTRADREAM) - Not much chance. UChicago just isn't great with aid for internationals.
Columbia (also superultradream) - Good chance.
Cornell - High chance.
McGill University - Can't say. Don't know much about Canada.
Carleton College - High chance.
Definitely apply ED to one of them. (I would lean toward Columbia or Williams from your stats - but it’s your choice. All of them are ED-worthy because you only have selective schools right now)
You have not mentioned your intended major; I am assuming it is Physics. In that case, also consider Reed College and Harvey Mudd. Reed’s ranking on US News is plain wrong - they don’t give information to US News so they get placed at the bottom. In reality it should be ranked about ~25 overall in liberal arts colleges; and it has better name recognition than, say, Carleton. Also, one of the best for Physics courses. They have their own nuclear reactor. Harvey Mudd is a boss in its own right. Both give good aid.
PS - It’s good you have achieved something in SOF; it’s better to recognise those are not the actual olympiads. Having reached the international stages of the International Mathematical Olympiad, IOI, IPhO or IChO hold much, much higher regard. It still counts of course; just a word of advice.
PPS - Try and get a recommendation letter from that professor under whom you did research. Also, Amherst allows you to submit your research on the Common App. Definitely do that; that should help a lot.
^Further clarification on that statement that why the odds are against you if you’re an Indian requiring financial aid - colleges value diversity. Most of the international students applying are Indians and Chinese. It’s probably even harder for them to get in than their American counterparts ( by which I mean Asian Americans). So, in my opinion, colleges are more willing to dish out aid to international applicants from Rwanda or Tonga or Azerbaijan rather than Indians or Chinese.
But as I stated your stats are so high you’ll make a really tough case and you should definitely still get into a good college. Keep on studying hard in school, get good recommendations, write good essays and you’ll do fine.
Keeping above in mind, also apply to all Need-Blind schools except MIT i.e. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Amherst(already on list). (This is unless you decide you don’t have time to write all those essays - in which case, don’t).
The best is to get into an ED college in December and stop worrying; just peacefully be done with your boards.
BTW, if you don’t get good-enough aid when you apply ED(in your opinion), YOU ARE RELEASED FROM ED if you truly feel you can’t afford it. So don’t even worry about that for a second. I will repeat that your chances at UChicago are low and you shouldn’t apply ED there.
And in case you don’t know, ED = Early Decision. Read up on that,
Hey dude! Thanks so much for the quick reply! Yep, I didn’t bother with the traditional MIT/Caltech/HYPS level stuff cause the competition is too fierce and there are loads of other people who deserve it more than I do :’) Yeah, I might apply ED to either Columbia or Amherst. Also, yeah I initially did consider Harvey Mudd, but I looked into their Common Data Set - turns out, they don’t have too many seats for intl students and don’t give much aid on average for the seats that they do have. Also, yeah I know the SOF olympiads arent legit xD But i can’t find any international English olympiads!
I didn’t know about Reed though, so thank you! Yeah USAnews is pretty all over the place. I used the QS rankings for the most part but thanks! Yeah, the U Chicago dataset speaks louder than anything I’ve seen online - but a girl can dream.
I have a pending post, which makes a case for ED.
Columbia and Amherst are fine for ED; also you’d be surprised about Yale and Princeton - I know at least one person who got in without much extracurriculars(lesser than yours; it’s really all about how you present them) and a lower(when converting old->new) SAT and lower percentage in 11th.
Also note: You have no safeties yet. I cannot recommend any, since I was one of those who did not apply to any(this was something to do with the fact that I had no knowledge of the system and that I took no professional help).
Though I wonder, how do you know your AP scores? I assumed you had just been done with eleventh and were now in twelfth. Did you give them in 10th grade, or have you done twelfth grade already and are applying after a gap year?
Yeah sure! It happens once a year, in May. Registrations open mid-February of that year. Also, there’s either the regular testing date or the late testing date (all in May). So you can postpone an exam for a small fee. Registrations for late testing close by the end of April.
You can register by checking out the college board site - they tell you the procedure based on your city and stuff. Good luck!
