Chance Me: International from Russia (1550 SAT, 3.7 UW)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • International student
  • State/Location of residency: Russia
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Independent private school
  • Other special factors: no

Cost Constraints / Budget
$20-30k yearly

Intended Major(s)

Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: school uses 1-7 grading scale, if converting linearly 3.7/4 (6.48/7)
  • Weighted HS GPA: no
  • Class Rank: school doesn’t calculate
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1550 SAT (800 math, 750 english)
  • AP CSA 5, AP Calc BC 5, AP Statistics 4
  • IELTS 8.0 overall (9 Reading, 8.5 Listening, 7 Writing, 7.5 Speaking)

List your HS coursework

National Curriculum, with Computer Science, Math, and English on an advanced level (my school teaches custom courses which are way more rigorous than ones in public schools)

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)

Awards

  • top 10% in an international project competition with a group engineering project
  • Selected for finals of the national data analysis olympiad (top 5.4% on 2nd qualifier)
  • Finalist of an olympiad by HSE university industrial coding track
  • top 30 in the All-Russian English student olympiad in Moscow Province
  • Winner of the city stage of the All-Russian Student Olympiad in Biology & in Ecology

Extracurriculars
Led a team developing a website for a nonprofit’s volunteer recruitment.

Hosting a VPN service that is used by more than 20 people to access the Internet without government restrictions.

Had a bioinformatics research internship at a local institute.

Developed hardware and software for an autonomous hydrological probe, intl competition finalist.

Developed an online exhibit management system for a school exhibition, had over 1000 visitors.

Play club badminton at school, was player of the month once, 1st in team competitions, and 2nd in individual.

Attended YYGS this summer.

Play piano, received a bunch of awards; participated in a concert at a Moscow hospice.

Developed an app for school’s online diary system, received a 7/8 rating from school’s IT experts on the project poster session.

Hosted online 1 to 1 sessions with school’s applicants to prepare them for the English interview.

Essays/LORs/Other
LORs from Computer Science and English teachers, pretty strong.

My essay is about me building the VPN, and what it taught me.

My high school overall is really competitive and sends around 40 people every year to the US.

I am not fully relying on acceptances from the US as I was already accepted to Bocconi in Italy, but still want to give it a shot.

Schools
Amherst College

Bowdoin ED

Brandeis EA

Brown

Case Western Reserve University

Colby College

Cornell University

Duke University

Harvard University

Johns Hopkins University

Macalester College

New York University

Northwestern University

Princeton University

Stanford University

Swarthmore College

University of Pennsylvania

Wesleyan University

2

I’m sure you already know that this list of US colleges is pretty top heavy and especially so for an international student.

I think you have a chance of acceptance. For the schools that are need aware, your level of financial need could be an additional obstacle to acceptance.

Please show interest to CWRU as they expect this in their applicants.

You are a strong student, but so are the many many others who apply to these colleges. So :crossed_fingers:t2:is where you are at now. Just wait and see.

You have an acceptance to a college already!

1 Like
3

For most every school on here, they will determine your need. There are net price calculators. Some say they’re not accurate but perhaps you can have a school do a pre read. It would stink to apply to a $90k school that tells you it’s going to be $70k after need aid.

For a full price that will get you there, apply U of Alabama.

It’s $56,166 COA for international but they give the same merit to international as domestic.

So with $30.5k off automatically based on your stats, you’re in budget.

This way, if another doesn’t work out, you have a home.

If it is decided you do have financial need by the schools, make sure to add Georgetown, Brown, Dartmouth, Wash & Lee, Yale and MIT - not sure if I’m missing any but these are need blind so unlike aomt hold your financial situation against you where others may.

4

For a regular applicant who is international….this is highly unlikely.

You missed a few…the following list is for colleges that guarantee to meet full need for all accepted international students and these colleges are also need blind for admissions. This student had a few of these on their list already. They are all very highly competitive for admissions and even moreso for international students.

  • Amherst College
  • Bowdoin College
  • Brown University (for students entering in 2025 and after)
  • Dartmouth College
  • Harvard University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • Princeton University
  • University of Notre Dame
  • Washington and Lee University
  • Yale University
5

Yeah some are already on OP’s list - that’s why I listed some but may have missed one or two.