Chance me and Match Intl-Domestic student. [US citizen outside the US, 1550 SAT, 70% raw score in school, dip in grade 10]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US Citizen, Highschool in India
  • State/Location of residency: India
  • Type of high school: Private
  • Other special factors: None

Intended Major(s): Computer Science; Maybe Mathematics as well.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • HS GPA: School doesn’t give (please see below)
  • Class Rank: No rank given by school
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1550 (800M, 750RW).
  • TOEFL: 113 (119 superscored, 2 attempts). Might not report (doesn’t meet the 25/section cutoff for a few schools)

Grades:

Context: Indian boards have internal examinations (Generally significantly tougher and then board-examinations (easier) at the end of the 10th/12th grades). Also there is a large spike in course difficulty in 11th grade (since we can chose ‘streams’, i.e. science/commerce/humanities)

9th) 81.2% average. 71st-percentile

10th) 73.4% average. 55th-percentile (Can’t really explain this dip tbh) | 92.5% 10th boards

11th) 75.0% average. No percentile given

12th) English: 71% | Class avg: 60.1%

Math: 82% | Class avg: 45.6%

Physics: 77% | Class avg: 36.8%

Chemistry: 75% | Class avg: 48.2%

CS: 90% | Class avg: 69.6%

Awards: No exceptional awards. Minor ones like ‘Distinction’ (top 10% of class), and National Children’s Science Congress (did till state level)

Extracurriculars

  • Art in Minecraft: Used a custom framework to create the a Minecraft pixel art generator. 17M+ cumulative views on demo videos. 1st for Minecraft Bedrock edition (used by 75% of the 200M player base).
  • Video editor suite for Python; 11k+ lines+, custom AI upscaling pipeline, automated beat sync etc. 150+ transitions and effects.
  • Worked at a quantitative finance firm for automated trade execution. Found a bug in the current broker, advised and ensure client migration to secure vendor.
  • NLP powered learning platform, automated test generation, integrated trusted youtube videos and intelligently finds weaknesses.
  • JEE Adv prep (only reason I am including this is because I spend a significant portion of my weak, 25-35hrs/week on this). Preparation for India’s most rigorous engineering college entrance exams. The exam is formatted like an olympiad style test. This goes well beyond AP level, for e.g. the syllabus includes: vectors, complex numbers, conic sections (Math); Wave optics, Thermodynamics (Physics); Crystal Field Theory, Lattice Enthalpy (Chemistry).

Essays/LORs/Other
Essays: Probably average-ish.
LORs: I do think these will be exceptional, most of the teachers I asked would (hopefully) consider me one of their best students.

Schools
I think I am a pretty unusual applicant (particularly I think my grades might just get my application thrown out without a read), so I don’t really know where to apply. I guess I am “shot gunning”.

Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, GTech, Urbana-Champaign, UT Austin, Northeastern, ASU, UT Dallas. Open to more suggestions btw.

2

  1. When will you graduate high school…and when will you start college!

  2. Do you have an annual budget for your college costs from your family? IOW, how much can they contribute annually?

  3. Will you be applying to colleges in India also?

3

What is your budget?

Do you have options in your home country or elsewhere that are affordable and you would be happy to attend?

I can’t chance you but I agree with you that your GPA is going to be an issue…it probably makes the highly rejective schools on your list out of reach.

Why? I encourage you to spend more time on these essays. Average is not going to cut it at most of the schools on your list.

TOEFL is require by some schools, assuming your HS instruction is not in English. Which section scores are below 25?

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Thanks for your reply!

  1. I’ll graduate around Mid April to Early May

  2. My parents won’t give me a straight answer. (money is kind of a taboo topic in my culture unfortunately). However they said that they would “manage” regardless of where I want to go.

  3. Yes. Colleges in India just have an entrance exam you give (same syllabus for all of them). However I would prefer a school in the US.

5

My parents won’t give me a straight answer. (money is kind of a taboo topic in my culture unfortunately). However they said that they would “manage” regardless of where I want to go.

Yes, however given the choice, I would prefer attending a US university. (More flexibility in course offerings and overall a more enjoyable experience).

Honestly, I just decided to start applying far too late, so I don’t think the essays are going to be the best they could have been. Luckily I had already taken the SAT (there are a few colleges here that accept the SAT).

High school is English medium. I gave two attempts, 113 in both. In the first one I got a 24 in writing, 30 in speaking. In the second one I got 29 in writing and 24 in speaking.

6

If you mean Arizona State University, the admission requirements are listed at First-year admission requirements | Admission | ASU . If you have met the high school course requirements, then your 1550 SAT score will be sufficient for campus admission. But you may also want to check International first-year student | Admission | ASU regarding international high school records and such, even though you are not an international student. You may have to contact them directly to figure out what applies to your situation as a US citizen outside the US.

Computer science at ASU has higher admission requirements than general campus admission, according to https://degrees.apps.asu.edu/bachelors/major/ASU00/ESCSEBS/computer-science , but if your course work fulfills the course work requirements, it looks like you will be admitted. Math at ASU does not have higher admission requirements than general campus admission, according to https://degrees.apps.asu.edu/bachelors/major/ASU00/LAMATBS/mathematics .

However, ASU cost for non-Arizona residents is around USD$60k per year, according to Out of State Student Cost of College | Admission | ASU . That page has links for scholarships information.

7

So…you will start college fall of 2026? Have you sent any applications yet?

Do your parents understand that some of the colleges on your list cost $90,000 a year or more? And UC Berkeley gives no aid to out of state students (over $75,000 a year, and that doesn’t include your mandatory health insurance and travel costs). It’s not likely you will get much aid from GA Tech, Purdue, UT Austin. These are public universities and their mission is to support their instate residents.

ASU will give you auto merit aid, but it won’t be the full cost of attendance.

I am not sure what your aid will be like at UT Dallas.

The thing is…for merit aid at some schools, your application deadline has passed. @tsbna44 might be able to elaborate.

Have your parents run the Net price calculators for any of these colleges?

These colleges are reaches for even the strongest candidates. Their acceptance rates are very low.

8

I’ve applied to UC Berkeley already. Not to any of the rest.

Yes, they understand the costs of these colleges and they have still said that they would be able to manage.

They have run a few new price calculators (for the first 5 listed) and said that those are affordable. I did tell them about UCB before applying (I would get no aid) but they said its fine.

9

This is a very good TOEFL score. This suggests that English is not a problem at all for you, which of course is also clear from your contributions to this thread. Unfortunately all that this really shows is that you speak and write English as well as a native English speaker, which puts you on a par with the large majority of other applicants to universities in the USA.

U.Mass Amherst is very good for computer science. Some merit is possible. You will not get a free ride there. U.Mass Lowell might be safer for admissions, although your SAT score will help at either school.

As others have said, if you get in then UC Berkeley will be expensive. Also they do not consider SAT scores which in your case is a pity since your SAT score is so good.

To me ASU looks very likely for admissions (assuming that this is Arizona State).

10

On your list, a handful of those schools have a January 5 deadline for applications for regular decision applicants. A couple are January 15.

I think you need to get going on these applications.

Perhaps it would be best to apply to less schools and do a really good job with the applications than to try to rush through all of these.

But do check your deadlines!! And don’t miss them.

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Yes, I meant Arizona State University. Thank you for those two suggestions!

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Yes, I’ve already started, a friend told me to check ChanceMe/MatchMe/Essay reviews out here.

Unrelated to this thread, but would I be applicable for the Essay Reviews on this site? (not sure if I qualify based on the pinned post there).

Thank you for your help!

13

Yes! You absolutely can use the essay help on this forum!!

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14

they would need to check each school for merit or other deadlines.

For example, Alabama, you can get auto merit when you get in.

But if you sought extra money beyond the auto merit, they say - December 5 is the deadline to complete scholarship applications in ASAM and submit any additional requested materials for summer and fall admits.

It’s not on your list, but that’s an example so check school by school.

15

How so?

Unfortunately, that approach is going to make already reachy schools even more so.

Have you considered taking a gap year and preparing better?

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I want to avoid taking a gap year, I don’t think its for me. Just a hunch.

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