Chance me - deferred by Harvard, what next? (intl)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi guys! I normally don’t do chance me threads, but the deferral from Harvard really sank in & I’m reconsidering my college list. It would be amazing if anybody could offer some advice! I’m an international student from an extremely rural area & the first to apply to US colleges from my state, so there’s not much help around.

I’m applying for materials engineering + visual arts at most schools.

GPA: 5.0 on a 5.0 scale (Unweighted)
Rank: 1 of 69 students
SAT Reasoning Test: 1580
SAT Essay: 23
SAT Subject Tests: Mathematics Level 2 - 800, Physics - 800
TOEFL iBT: 116

ECs:

  • Materials science researcher at a big-name national university for two years, developed new polymer.
    President’s Award (2nd highest national research award); Best Poster Award at joint international symposium; keynote speaker at a national research event; invited to speak at an overseas conference.
  • International business contest held by FedEx 1st Place Developed app, awarded study trip abroad.
  • World Scholar's Cup [omitted] Global Rounds Individual 1st Overall Champion Scholar
  • Ikebana artist, representative of school club, viewed by Japan's First Lady Akie Abe.
  • Spearheaded first NASA Space Apps hackathon event in my city
  • Founded my state's first debate club, held events at local colleges as well. National Championships Finalist Regional Championships: Second place across 10 states Parliamentary Debate Competition: 3rd Place across 12 states
  • Coach and past speaker in my school's speech Club IPU New Zealand High School English Speech Competition: 1st Place Two-time regional champion
  • Intern, Junior Creative Advisor at design/tech start-up Worked on app that later won Good Design Award.
  • Creator, Humans of [omitted] Featured over 20 students across Asia; reached over 20000 people.
  • Leader of school volunteer club Started many new projects, rec letter said I was the largest contribution to the club in its existence.
  • Vice President, Student Government
  • Head Cheerleader for school sports events
  • Bouldering (belongs to extramural club)
  • Pianist, passed highest learner's grade with full marks and won regional award.
  • National Representative at Asian Science Camp
  • Independent Research: four physics/mathematics papers that were praised in my sci rec letter.
  • Writer, published poet Two-time winner of NaNoWriMo, published poetry in lit mag.

Essays:
For my Commapp, I have two essays that I’m very torn between - one is about my role in the classroom as the ‘punster’ and relieving my classmate’s stress and challenges I faced with that, and the other about my past infatuation with art and how viewing Murakami Takashi’s works brought to my senses that there’s an art to letting go of what you thought was meant for you for so long (can’t really explain concisely here!)
Which one sounds better?

Additional:
Not applying for financial aid - I’m a scholar in a prestigious program in my country & will receive full funding.
I’m an Asian girl in STEM so rip…?

College list (this is absolutely hideous I know):
Harvard (deferred)
Stanford
Cornell Milstein Program
Carnegie Mellon
MIT
Duke
Brown
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Cal MET, UCLA (applied)
Northwestern
Rice
WashU Beyond Boundaries
Tufts
JHU
Vanderbilt

If you guys could point out strengths and weaknesses in my application & revise my college list, that’d be amazing. Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

You have a very impressive and interesting profile! AND you already have funding for your education, so you’re not competing for very limited international financial aid dollars. You are in great shape and should have many options.

It’s Harvard’s loss, honestly. But as one of the very few US universities that are need-blind for international applicants, you chose the toughest possible pool for your early application. Probably only MIT would have been a steeper path to acceptance… and you still got deferred, not denied. Think of this as a good sign.

The challenge for you is going to be figuring out what school will best allow you to be the Renaissance person you hope to be in college. It may be hard to fit in all of your artistic and literary passions with a full-blown ABET engineering program in Materials. Which schools are going to be strong in all of your areas of interest, and give you flexibility to blend them? The Milstein and Beyond Boundaries programs sound promising in this regard.

You might think about adding Case Western Reserve U to your list. It’s unusual in that it has ABET accredited undergraduate programs in both materials science and macromolecular/polymer science (the oldest accredited undergrad program in polymer science in the US)… plus the option of an engineering physics degree that includes a sub-concentration in one of the engineering fields, including those two. CWRU also has an “open door policy” that allows open access to all programs; and it has strong programs in humanities and the arts (including a partnership with the Cleveland Institute of Music) as well as in STEM. CWRU has a large international student population and definitely favors full-pay internationals in the admission process, so I’d think of it as a low-match if not a safety for you.

Also, if you’re applying to Brown, you seem like a Brown/RISD dual-degree candidate to me - but you’d have to apply to both schools to be eligible for that.

I like both of your essay topics! I guess the question is, what side of you is it going to be most important for the AO’s to see, by the time they’ve read the rest of your application? Do you need them to see the depth and contemplativeness that the art essay shows, or has your overall application already shown that depth such that it would be better tempered by showing your lighter and more playful side, and also the way you interact with and support others? Colleges are definitely looking to see what you contribute to the community around you, so maybe that’s the more important perspective… but it really depends what you’ve been able to show them outside of the personal statement. If you’re submitting an art portfolio, there’s probably a personal statement associated with that, so maybe you can cover the art-essay territory there?

Sorry about Harvard, but I predict you will have many great (perhaps better!) options by the time you get done. Good luck finishing up the application process!!