Chances at WPI?

Colleges & Universities Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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<p>I’ve posted this in another forum, but just wanted to get chanced by current students. (It’s a little urgent.) </p>

<p>I’ll keep this brief: I’m highly drawn to both Union College(NY) and WPI.
Problem: I have a high need. I’ll can pay upto $25-30k. Both are need aware.
But, Union’s ED2 notification is on Feb 1, and CSS deadline is also Feb 1. So I believe Union becomes need-blind for ED/ED2 applicants. Even otherwise, Union gives a lot more aid, even to international students. So I need to know if I have a better shot at WPI to decide whether I need to apply under ED2 to Union or not.</p>

<p>Me: International(Indian) student.
Major(sure of this): Computer Engineering.</p>

<p>Curriculum(because I think WPI looks at rigor of courses):
9th and 10th - English, Language, PCM, Computer Applications, History, Geography and Environmental Education(We can’t choose number of subjects here. 9 is the Max/Min)
1st and 2nd PUC(11th and 12th) - English, Language, PCM, Electronics.(Again, Max/Min 6 subjects.)</p>

<p>9th: 80%
10th ICSE Boards: 90%
11th: 65% (I had a genuine reason. Counsellor has explained this. Curriculum, board of education, examination type changed. And it’s fairly common here in India.)
12th Mid Year: 81.33% (PCM and Electronics have significant improvement.)</p>

<p>(Please don’t convert and compare to GPAs. American and Indian edu systems are very different.)</p>

<p>Essay: Pretty good. Not stellar. But interesting and good.
LORs and Counsellor Eval: Epic! They gave me a fair idea about what they had written. Computers teacher said she wrote a 2-(PDF-)pages’ letter.</p>

<p>SAT I: 1960 (CR - 570, Math - 720, Writing - 670)
SAT II: Math L2 - 750, Physics - 730</p>

<p>ECs: </p>

<p>We don’t have the concept of student clubs. Most schools don’t here.(Which has been explained in LORs and School profile.) So these are just activities.
I’ve sent them a resume which has all the below stuff, along with links to the actual apps and docs and stuff.</p>

<p>(Misc., unrelated to major. Counsellor and recommenders have put in good stuff about these skills.)

  1. Playing guitar since 7 years. Lead Guitarist for school bands for all 4 years of HS.
  2. Gamer; Gaming contests.
  3. Sanskrit Literary Contests.</p>

<p>(Related to my interest)

  1. Lots of inter-school programming contests.
  2. Unpaid internship at a startup. Built their Android app and backend stuff.(Which is impressive, considering that I did the whole thing myself and has some advanced programming used in it. Hope they’ll see it.)
  3. Winner of Google Code-In 2012.
  4. Built a Android-Phone-Bluetooth-controlled Quadrotor. Have submitted a PDF documentation of this, with pics and stills from a video. (I think this will be significant to WPI, since they value Robotics talent.)
  5. Knowledge of a lot of programming languages/skills, which I’ve put in the resume and about which computer teacher has also talked about in her LOR.(If this holds any significance.)
  6. Some more computer programs and electronics projects, which are also pretty good. Have sent a PDF of a Siri-like Java program too.</p>

<p>Community Service: 90-100 hrs. Trained poor kids at a local NGO in Computers(using computers, internet, MS Office.)</p>

<p>I’m so grateful that you’ve spent your time reading this. Thank you so much! Any prediction/chance-ing appreciated!</p>

<p>P.S: I’ve applied to WPI under EA2.</p>

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<p>Hi skriptkid. I’m not a student, but a parent of a current student and accepted student from EA 1. As I’m sure you understand, no one outside of admissions can accurately chance anyone since we don’t really know all that goes into the decision making process. That said, WPI is very friendly to international students and seems to have a good grasp on the differences in grading, curriculum, available ECs etc. Your SATs are within the 50th percentile. SAT I math and SAT IIs look good. Your programming skills and related activities should be helpful as well. I think your chances of admission are pretty good. Although need aware, I’m not sure that your level of need would exclude you from admission (this is just a guess since I honestly have no idea how that comes into play, especially with international students). Be aware though, that WPI does not guarantee to meet full need. so there may be a gap between what you can afford and what they offer.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

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<p>That info was good to know. Thanks a lot, GraniteStateMom!</p>