Chance me guys! (please I can't sleep at night)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Interested major-biomedical engineering or premed

Okay, I should start off my mentioning I’m an international student, applying from Bangladesh. With that being said, kindly read through the post if you can, it’s pretty big :slight_smile:

Old SAT Score=2150, M 760(I WAS SHOCKED) CR=720 and W=670 (the essay screwed me)

Grades:
My school follows the British curriculum of O and A levels, GCE syllabus.
O levels=5A* and 3A (A=90%+ and A=80%+)
AS=4A (AS doesn’t distinguish A and A)
A2=gonna give em this May
Teacher recs- Should be very good
Transcripts are quite good. Overall, results and transcripts combined, I’d say I’m top 5ish in my school.

ECA’s:
This is where I really shone(or I believe). As a result, my grades weren’t the MOST TOP notch possible,

  1. Research at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University-I contacted the scientist on my own, got in with an application and a recommendation from my principal. Note that this is a graduate lab, so holy smokes I was out of my league. I believe my supervisor gave me a good letter. Plus, I was the co-author of a paper that was presented. It was also accepted by the editorial board of the biggest cancer community journal here, and will be published this Jan. And, he gave me a good rec letter (can't see cause of FERPA tho)
  2. Research at University of Dhaka-Same thing as before, but this time I contacted the Dean of Pharmacy department through the unused and underrated art of formal letters. However, I conducted a study here instead, collected data from about 5000 patients over the course of 3 months, analysed data, so on and so on. Solid experience.
  3. Employment at Red Viperz- I played video games like crazy when I was younger, and apparently I was good enough to join a pro team. I was ranked 1st nationally for 3 years in a row (year 8, 9 and 10) and top 3 in Asia (excluding Korea) for 2 years (9 and 10). The game I played was Starcraft 2, and it required intense strategy, decision making and multitasking. Held leadership positions such as manager of recruit department. My employer also gave me a rec letter, but once again bound by FERPA.
  4. Volunteering for Centre of Cancer Prevention and Research-Traversed the whole country (YES!) over 3 years, hosting an interactive show called 'Cancer Questions' in hundreds of villages. Answered questions, deflected myths etc. Also, I was selected as the best volunteer during my term, from a pool of about 84 others.
  5. Internship at Dhaka Tribune and Beautiful Minds-The former is the most well known English newspaper while the latter is an autism school. Both lasted for a month over the summers of grade 11 and 10 respectively.
  6. Co-Founder of Creative Writing Club at school-First student created club, had to have extensive meetings with school regulators, host surveys during school year to prove everyone wanted it etc. Got a rec letter

I have other tidbits such as 4th place in the Dhaka division interschool science fair, some other personal voluntary pursuits raising about $500

Honors:

  1. ‘Best Researcher’ BRACU-American Society for Microbiology Introduction to World of Microbiology Workshop. Top 17 student researchers invited to workshop, I was vocally announced by the judging committee during the end. (national)
  2. Highest marks in Biology and Mathematics in grade 11 (school)
  3. Daily Star Award (5-8% of all students-national, kinda like NHS in the US I think)
  4. High Honors (top 3% of each class, grades 9, 10 and 11-school)
  5. In school bio and math team for Olympiads. School only picks top 5 students from each subject for each team (grade 9, 10 and 11)

Essays: In retrospect, I think my essays were kinda cringy, and especially, I keep on thinking that my common app essay was too generic (dunno why). It’d help me sleep better if any of you kind people volunteered to go through it.

Schools applied to:
Bates College
Harvard College
Harvey Mudd College
John Hopkins University
Purdue University
The College of New Jersey
MIT
UPenn
University of Virginia
Trinity College

So, how do I fare? I know no one but the adcoms and really determine how I fare, but I was hoping to get some some light shed on my app. And finally, forgive me for any typos: English is my second language and it’s 6 am…

2

UVA: match
MIT: high reach
harvard: high reach
purdue: match
upenn: reach
Johns Hopkins: reach
match me?

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1952661-unviersity-of-virginia-chances.html#latest

3

@inspirational13 done! And thanks for your input! I had similar expectations

4

Also I’d like to add that I’ll be giving 3 subject SATs (Math II, Chem and BioE) come Jan 21, and am hopeful to get 2350+ combined score.
Another issue. My parents are both doctors, and they’ve been educated in good institutions here. However, their income is not that high as they are still battling their student loans, and I’d say combined the make <50k USD. Hopefully, colleges will see that and accept offers of financial aid, right?

5

It is hard for international students to receive financial aid, some schools just don’t offer any aid to international students. It really depends on each individual school.

6

@xclaner hmm I see

Anyways, please chance me guys!

7

bump

8

bumppp

9

If your finances work, you should get into bates, Trinity, Purdue, TCNJ. It’s all about the money, for you. If the money is fine, you will get into one. Go to sleep.

10

@Lindagaf haha thank you :slight_smile:

11

Seriously, go to sleep. And don’t bump again. You are extremely extremely unlikely to get into the others.

12

SO obviously you know that your ECs are going to be your strength, and academics will be your weakness, specifically because of your SAT for these schools. (although they’re not objectively bad, at all)

Schools applied to:
Bates College - Unlikely, but possible. Finances will be an issue.
Harvard College - No, as I’m sure you’re expecting. Literally perfect internaitonal applicants are unlikely to get in.
Harvey Mudd College - Maybe. But they are pretty stat-focused, and your SAT isn’t high enough for them
John Hopkins University - Possible, but unlikely, especially if you’re trying for bio. International drops your chances.
Purdue University - Higher chance here, I’ll guess that you get in.
The College of New Jersey - Accepted
MIT - Rejected
UPenn - Rejected
University of Virginia - Possible, but again will be almost impossible to finance even if you get in because it’s a public, which wont give you any aid
Trinity College - Possible, one of your highest chances.

You’ve got very slim chances at a lot of the top schools you’re applying to, even if you were a US student. However, you’re not, and I’m sure you’re aware that that drops your chances even further. You have the best chances at TCNJ, Purdue, and Trinity. Again, though, financing any of them will be an issue for you. Good luck regardless.

13

@Plumbus Actually, UVA is very well known for giving substantial amount of financial aid to students. While its OOS tuition fee is very huge, its financial aid is very large as well, even for those with ~$100k family income.

14

But he’s not just oos, he’s international. I think that’s changes it.

15

thanks guys :slight_smile:

As @Lindagaf pointed out money is actually a big factor, and I’ll just hope for the best

16

Applied: 10/28
Decision: 11/29
Major: Computer Science
Did you get in: yes
Class Rank:1/649
ACT: 36
New SAT:1600( Took it two times, 1560 first time)
EC: Varsity tennis 4 years, Intel science fair runner up( 10th, 11th) national, Deca International Champion (11th), Symphony Orchestra, started a start up, computer science club president, HOSA nationals(10th and 11th), internship at DELL, Student Council President, Robotics Vice President, LD Debate, traveled to Hongcun and helped them with fresh water and designed a website, volunteered at the local hospital and food shelter

Good Luck!

17

Harvard, Penn - never know
MIT - high reach
John Hopkins - reach
Purdue, Trinity - match
Can you chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1953132-chance-me-international-student-nyu-barnard-upenn-harvard-etc.html#latest