Chance Me (International Student)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi! Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through this post (I think I included too many details, but better too many than too little I hope). I’m planning to major in either chemical or mechanical engineering, and my reach schools are Columbia (SCEA), Cornell, Yale, and Princeton.

ACADEMICS:

3.94 GPA
2200 SAT
800 Math II 800 Chem 800 Physics
IB predicted 42/45

  • 6 in Math HL
  • 6 in English HL
  • 7 in Chem HL
  • 7 in Econ SL
  • 7 in Spanish SL
  • 7 in Physics SL

AWARDS:

several small Scholastic Art & Writing awards
Foyle Young Poets award
Presidental Award for Education for two years (I know this doesn’t really count)
several departmental school awards

ECs:

Doctors’ Club (even though I don’t want to be a doctor; I did mostly fundraising through this club) (3 years)
NHS (2 years)
Literary Magazine (4 years, president for two years)
started arts & crafts classes for elementary children
started art & writing competition for elementary children
expanded arts & crafts to children in cancer hospital
lead disease awareness campaigns (combining both NHS and Doctors’ Club)
don’t know if this counts, but I can speak five languages, two of them self-taught

WORK/ INTERNSHIPS:

marketing internship (completely random, probably won’t include in application)

BASIC INFO:

female
living in Middle East but American citizen (so there are very, very few job opportunities for women without having high-up connections, and not even then)
upper-middle class
no hooks, basically

Any suggestions on how I can strengthen my application over the summer are more than welcome (one thing I know I need to work on is my dearth of STEM ECs). Thanks again, and feel free to ask me to chance back!

2

You have some great credentials, especially as a woman interested in STEM, but those colleges are huge reaches for everyone, regardless of qualifications. I would add some Tech colleges with low female-male ratios (e.g. RPI, WPI, et al), Case Western, University of Rochester, and some public universities, also. You have a chance, but nobody has a “good” chance at any of the schools you listed. How about McGill and Tufts, also?

3

Thanks for the response! I was thinking of Tufts because I want to stay on the US east coast, but I’m not so sure about going to Canada.

4

Hey! I can’t chance you (because I’m only a student, myself), but I can let you know that you’re not an international student. You are an American citizen; therefore, you will be a domestic applicant. This significantly works to your benefit because, unlike international applicants,

a) you will be able to receive federal financial aid
b) most colleges will be need-blind for you
c) the competition will not be as intense (note: it will be incredibly intense in the schools you mentioned, but nonetheless, less intense than the international competition)
You might already know this, but you refer to yourself as an international student in your title, so I just wanted to let you know.

(If any of my information is inaccurate, please feel to correct me!)

5

Thanks! I didn’t know that I would be considered domestic.

6

IB scores don’t matter friend. You only receive then after you’'re accepted to univ.

7

I was told that top colleges take predicted scores into consideration, though. I could’ve been misinformed but I’m pretty sure that’s the case?