<p>We visited both MIT and Chicago during my son’s college tour - they are very similar in that they are incredibly intense learning environments. But, they are very, very different in Chicago’s emphasis on the core and MIT’s on engineering. My son was able to eliminate the tech schools from his list after visit MIT and RPI - wonderful schools, not for him, though. He takes Alfred Nobel’s lessons more seriously than most, and believe that one must, as far as possible, understand the ramifications beyond the laboratory wall of what takes place within the laboratory. </p>
<p>I don’t imagine in that you will be able to visit, but I think that you need to think about this. The tech schools will let you concentrate more than either Chicago or Princeton. The fit of the school for you - or the “you” as you will be in a couple of years - is much more important than the ‘name’ of the school. </p>
<p>You have a personality; that’s likely to show through in your applications. You shouldn’t be afraid to apply to some of the very top schools; you just have to be sure that you are applying to at least some schools that offer internationals need-based aid AND where you will be at the top of the applicant list.</p>
<p>Well I just have a little problem here. As i said before I have kinda messed up my junior yrs grades, you know around 70% though i have a chance to show improvement, and I sure will. And yes a few of these activites are a bit old but majorly all in my high school, i hope that doesnt have an adverse effect on my app. Well as of now my short term goals are to get a really good score on the SAT and SATII, which I know I will and to get 90% abo</p>
<p>btw ball badminton is similar to badminton but in that we use a little soft ball instead of shuttle…lol </p>
<p>Ah one more thing, should I get my grades evaluated by WES, cos I will get all As LOL anything above 64 is A for them
Cheers!</p>
<p>"Ah one more thing, should I get my grades evaluated by WES, cos I will get all As LOL anything above 64 is A for them "</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer on this one - you will want to research and talk with other internationals to see if this is a good thing to do.</p>
<p>IMO, Caltech and Princeton are the least likely to forgive junior year grade issues. MIT looks beyond grades a tiny bit more - but they are still incredibly competitive. If you decide that a tech school is for you, Harvey Mudd is pretty interesting. Just because you haven’t heard of a school doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a get fit.</p>
<p>i totally agree ohio_mom but I have no other options now I have already messed things a bit. So what only I can do now is that prepare well for my SATII and SAT. I tried taking AP but I was a bit late, as they are not easily available here in India and were TOO costly. </p>
<p>So the only hope i have is to give it my best shot. If you have any other advice for me I would be more than glad to accept.</p>
<p>Well for the first two years of my high school I had been getting straight As. But in my junior year we have something known as Unit Tests which have a max. marks of around 40. Well they are not really important. I messed these up. I have an avg. of 70% on these. But still I have my final examinations left which have max. marks as 100 for each subject. So these are the ones that are written as the passing percentage of grade 11. And by the time I will submit my applications I will have given 2 more exams of my senior year. And I guess I will maintain atleast 90% on these 3 tests. </p>
<pre><code> Even with the 70% avg. I maintain a good rank in my class( top 15%) I also tried taking AP tests to show my competence in the subjects but due to the reasons above I was unable to do so.
The major I want to pursue is aerospace. I plan to do my undergraduate from US as it will provide me enough time after my studies to gain citizenship. oh I forgot to mention, I wanna be an astronaut. In India I have never got any oppurtunity in the aerospace field. But yes I tried participating in the Nasa Student Involvement Program, which got discontinued due to budget cuts.
Then another interest I pursued was my passion for linux. I have been contributing to the linux community for the past 4 yrs. My own linux will be rolling out soon!
</code></pre>
<p>The universities I have in mind is Embry Riddle and Purdue, because I think they provide really good education in aerospace field and also some practical experience ( specially embry riddle, they have got their own aircrafts!!! w00t!) [I atleast watch their flight cams for 20 mins everyday ] </p>
<p>Well there it everything abt me. Waiting for your advice. Feel free to ask me anything else you want.</p>
<p>Well in Class XI I have an avg of 75% but my final exams are not over yet, they are in march. And I guess just final exam scores matter as they have max marks as 100 and they cover the whole curriculum.</p>
<p>And yes my full list of ECs:</p>
<ul>
<li>Won a Gold Medal in Informatics Olypiad conducted by SIlverzone</li>
<li>Secured 2nd Rank in 7th International Level Science Talent Examination conducted by The Bangalore Science Forum.</li>
<li>Represented Delhi Public School Rajkot at ‘LISTEN- The Worlds First Conference on Childs Concerns’.
3.Secured 3rd Rank in National Cyber Olympiad.</li>
<li>Secured 7th position in Assesment of Scholastic Skills thorugh Education Testing</li>
<li>Was promoted to School Captain from School Prefect recently.</li>
<li>Awarded ‘A’ Certificate by National Cadet Corps</li>
<li>Special appreciation by ‘Leprosy Mission’ for social work.</li>
<li>Represented region at the State Science Fair at IIT Kharagpur.</li>
<li>Represented region at State for Volleyball and Ball Badminton.</li>
<li>Won state level debate organised by Hindi Samaj</li>
<li>Appointed school basketball and volleyball team Captain.</li>
<li>Appointed School Captain at DPS, Rajkot.</li>
<li>Choosen as a member of the Indian Ubuntu Linux Team.</li>
<li>I have my own customized linux distribution geared towards education (similar to edubuntu to be specific)</li>
<li>Founder of Linux User Group in my city.</li>
<li>Partcipated in AIDS awareness drive.</li>
<li>Special Appreciation by LIFE(Lower Income Family Emancipation) for social work.</li>
<li>Successfully participated in Environment Week in our city.</li>
<li>Finalist of Environment Quiz Contest conducted by Environment Education Council for Children Delhi Public School Society.
20 4th Rank in State Level Quiz Competition conducted by Rajkumar College Rajkot.</li>
</ul>
<p>Well I have an avg of 2100 on 2 practice SAt tests so that shoudl give you some idea</p>
<p>bad news on that score - at U of Chicago, internationals applying for finaid are not allowed to apply early. But, Chicago does not offer engineering.</p>
<p>Let’s look at this rationally. If you want to be a pilot astronaut, you probably join the military. You probably need perfect eyesight for this.</p>
<p>If if you want to be a mission specialist, you have to figure out something to be a specialist in. My husband (who is an astronomer) can’t come up with a good guess as to what specialties american, indian or private missions will be looking for 10 or 20 years down the road.</p>
<p>If you want to design spacecraft, you look at aeronautical engineering. Are you an engineer by nature? If so, Chicago will have the math courses for you - but not the engineering.</p>
<p>“am an engineer by nature no doubt about that!”</p>
<p>Well, you would be very popular at Chicago. My son isn’t an engineer - but he is a fairly hands-on kind of a person and is in great demand from everything from futon assembly to computer stuff. </p>
<p>One of my son’s friend’s applied to 3 schools (among others) that are pretty much orthigonal to each other: MIT, Chicago and Brown. She wasn’t sure which path was best for her when she applied in the fall. By spring she was, though, and is at MIT. I think that you are a bit like her in that you are talented in many areas. </p>
<p>I think that your safest bet is to start your applications this summer, and apply to a fair number of schools (8+). You’ve got the international wanting finaid issues going on one axis … and a last of definition of academic goals going on the other (nothing wrong with this at your age, LOL). Mapping out a decent spectra of schools should hopefully result in good options this time next year.</p>
