The reason being that my country doesn’t recognise homeschooling unless done by nios. Also I want to go into academia, but Indian curriculum at university level is lagging far behind. Also the main university body is increasing the number of “Vedic maths” courses, which is being slammed by so many professors(900 of them signed a joint letter) and will reduce my preparedness for graduate degree. So overall I do not think it is the right move for me to go into Indian academia + nor I have done nios.
Regarding the paper I am using the word exposition for it in the common app. I forgot to update about that in my ec list
Can you please answer these questions?
What was your SAT score? Specially, math.
Yes sorry ! I got 1340 (670, 670). The thing is I have autism + adhd, and am unable to focus for things which I do not find interesting like sat, so I went totally without prep.
Nope I haven’t taken any board exams taken by 12th students yet.
Note I had proctored exams for all of my dual enrolment classes. Especially the Harvard one was proctored by the prof teaching the course.
I have also applied to UIUC EA , and will apply to some more EA schools by Nov 1.
I have dual enrolled in only math, cs and physics .
In other words, none of the universities in your home country recognize your academic preparation as sufficient for admission?
I’m sorry to say that US universities are unlikely to consider your qualifications sufficient either.
Unfortunately, a 670 in Math is not a competitive score for highly selective schools and may suggest that Math could be a challenging subject for you.
No humanities? No language?
Please check the academic requirements at each school you’re applying to. US colleges typically want their applicants to have taken a well rounded curriculum.
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Then you would have a very difficult time at a US university. You’re expected to be able to maintain attention in a classroom setting. If you need special education help, it’s available as well, but you do have to take coursework that is not in your area of expertise.
You’re expected to produce a strong HS background in core subjects like English, history, foreign language, Sciences which include Biology/Chemistry and some require Visual/Performing Arts. You can’t skip this or your application is dead immediately.
Then, you will be required to take some general education coursework, while in college, including some of those subjects. It’s not going to be complete “math” until you get to graduate school.
The universities want and need to produce students with these backgrounds because that’s what employers, and the general population, expects these students to have. This is a bachelors degree. Graduates are expected to be able to carry on and converse in more than just one subject.
I suggest that you save your time and money and use your current experiences for your future career. As for the US, If you don’t have a broad-based education as a strong foundation for academia, there’s no way you could relate to any future “students”.
As far as your extracurriculars, name-dropping and attending distance learning courses at elite schools, that anyone can take, doesn’t substitute for sitting in a classroom or lab, learning core subjects for high school requirements. Those high school teachers and their letters of recommendation, in conjunction with the high school counselor’s letter, are strongly considered and thus, more valuable.
University students in the US are required to take a broad base of general education courses to meet the requirements for a diploma from a US university.
I don’t know what those requirements are in India, but I’m assuming it would be something similar.
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Presumably yes, since OP mentioned that their current academics wouldn’t be recognized by Indian universities.
@Everything_Math, I completely understand that it’s your dream to pursue undergraduate studies in the US. However, the reality is that your current profile isn’t suitable for U.S. college admissions (let alone at highly selective schools like Chicago). You haven’t attended school after 10th grade, haven’t met your country’s standard for homeschooled students, have only taken a few online classes that anyone can sign up for, participated in online coding competitions that aren’t widely recognized, don’t have letters of recommendation from teachers who’ve worked with you closely, and haven’t demonstrated strength in math (your intended major) through SAT or AP scores.
Here’s my sincere advice: focus on completing the NIOS curriculum or taking board exams (or whatever you need to do) so you have the equivalent of a 12th-grade education. Then, aim to get into the best college you can in India, excel academically, achieve a strong GRE score, and apply to US universities for graduate studies. That’s a far more realistic and achievable path than the one you’re currently considering.
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This is what I have been thinking also. I see at least two problems.
One problem is that 670 on the math SAT is very low by the standards of any highly ranked university in the US, including Chicago. At least according to Prepscholar the median score at Chicago on the math part of the regular SAT is 790. This is the same as MIT (although Chicago is test optional which will skew the results somewhat).
The other problem is that universities in the US have a lot of requirements outside of a student’s major.
One daughter got her bachelor’s degree in Canada. She had fewer general requirements outside of her major, which allowed her to take more classes that she really wanted that were either in her major or in closely related fields. She did still need to take some required classes outside of her major. I am not sure whether or not this is generally true of a wide range of universities in Canada.
In agreement that the highly competitive schools are not likely to accept the OP, but if he wants a US college education and is full-pay, are there any less/competitive colleges where he could succeed?
Without the equivalent of a high school education? I doubt it.
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How about if he takes a GED? And then starts at community college and transfers to a four-year college?
Since he isn’t eligible for college in India, and is clearly motivated to study math at a high level, maybe that would work.
This student has reported that he can’t focus unless he is interested in the topic.
He says he is autistic and has ADHD. Some of the CCs have great Special needs support and staff teams, but some CCs may not? due to budgets and other factors.
I don’t think his parents would pay for a CC because it wouldn’t be considered as “high regard”.
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A U of Arizona isn’t a hard admit and has the SALT program. I’m sure it will have a robust math program, given it’s a leader in physics and engineering.
For those with a traditional high school prep, it’s an easy admit but I don’t know if OP will meet the minimum criteria in regards to courses required.
So I’m going to be blunt here, and say that a really strong math student would /should have done better than that for the math section even without prep. (As an example I personally know of - incidentally also asd/adhd -who barely prepped (a few practice exams) and got a 760, would probably have hit 800 with some decent prep.) This is not to say that 670 is a “bad” score at all - I believe it’s something like 92nd percentile and would be competitive at a good number of colleges - but it’s not the type of score that makes top universities realistic for math.
The second thing, as others have pointed out, is that most US colleges have breadth requirements which means you will have to do courses in a number of subjects that may not interest you, making this an issue if you are unable to focus and work on them. This does make me wonder if you might not be better suited to applying to UK universities, where a maths degree will be focused on math and closely related subjects. Have you looked into that?
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When I saw his special interest, I thought that a math major at the college of creative studies at UC Santa Barbara might work out really well for him, since they bill themselves as graduate school for undergrads. But I don’t think he has taken the high school requirements to get into a UC, so I was thinking if he could go to Santa Barbara City College and then transfer to UC Santa Barbara, that might work out. A real long shot, but maybe.
OP, here is the link to the math major
But I don’t think you have the necessary high school background in non-math subjects to be admitted as a freshman. But you could perhaps take the GED test which gives you the equivalent of a high school diploma and then attend Santa Barbara city college for two years and then apply to transfer to UC Santa Barbara. The nice thing about this is that the city college is right near UCSB and I believe students from both often live together in the same apartment complexes and share campus resources.
@gumbymom would something like this work for the OP, who is very interested in math but is home schooled in India and does not seem to meet typical high school requirements for most US colleges?
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Even easy to get in Arizona requires this of HS grads - not sure if different for international -
- 4 years of English
- 4 years of mathematics
- 3 years of lab science
- 2 years of the same second language
- 2 years of social sciences (1 year of American history)
- 1 year of fine arts or 1 year of career and technical education (CTE)