<p>My name’s guddarag (funny, isnt it) and im a normal nerdie guy from (country removed) planning to apply for the top 20 private colleges in the US for engineering that offer financial aid to international students.
ACT = expected 34<br>
SAT II Math 2 = 790<br>
SAT II Physics = 800
expected Advanced level grades = 4 A* grades (Chem, Phy, Bio and Math) and 1 A grade (Further Math)
(Advanced level is equal to Advanced Placement. They’re the international end-of-high school exams)
Ordinary level grades= 7 A* grades and 3 A grades. (the international exams at the end of the first 2 years of high school)
Position in class = 1st or 2nd in a class of 65 (only 3 students take Further Math A levels)
GPA (for the convenience of US people) = 3.9 or 4.0
Sparkling recommendations by Chem and Math teachers
Good essays
ECs = 1 hour daily Gym, a little Basketball, President of Science society. Having represented the school at 5 national science competitions and 2 MUNs. Active member of the Environmental Society)
Interested in Mechanical Engineering and/or Business Management
Schools :MIT
Arizona State
Brown
Caltech
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Princeton
Stanford
SUNY
Upenn
Yale</p>
<p>THE QUESTION OF THE DAY : Do I stand a chance?</p>
<p>What’ll really help you improve your applications is shortening that list. 14 schools means lots of essays, which means less time to work on each essay, which means poorer quality essays to all colleges. Here’s how to shorten that list: Do NOT apply to all 8 Ivy League schools. Brown’s open curriculum is the polar opposite of Columbia’s core curriculum. Columbia’s location in NYC is entirely different from Dartmouth’s location in Hanover. Yale has a reputation for its humanities programs, etc. Your list is all over the place. You have drastically different schools on that list. Do some research and shorten that list; I guarantee that if you love Brown’s curriculum, Columbia’s will seem awfully restrictive to you. I understand that you want to go to a reputable school, but that doesn’t mean that you’d be happy at any reputable school. Not having to write all those essays means you’ll have more time to work on the essays for the colleges you do apply to, which should help your chances.</p>
<p>Really? 430ktk. Means i have a 5% chance for each of these colleges and each of them is great (all are the one of top 60 colleges for engineering). Means im a great student at school. but im just a normal applicant for these ultra studious colleges. So dont i have to make sure that i get into at least one. Means if i apply only to five (Princeton, SUNY, MIT, Harvard and Colubia), wont my chances be extra-extra small?</p>
<p>Some people use the strategy you’re suggesting. Personally, I think it’s a bad strategy. Here’s my example. I had two friends who each tried one of those strategies last year. One of them only applied to one Ivy League/Top 20 school, and the other applied to 7. They had similar GPAs and test scores. My friend who applied to only one Ivy League/Top 20 is currently attending Harvard. My friend who applied to 7 only got into 1 of the schools he applied to–and it wasn’t one of the 7 Top 20 schools he applied to. Just because all those colleges are great doesn’t mean they’d be great for you.</p>
<p>Safe to only apply to high reach schools. Means these schools have such high standards. So i assume with a GPA of 4 and and ACT of 34, theyre still reach schools. SUNY and Arizona are my only safeties cuz all others dont offer fin aid to internationals.</p>
<p>Hold up. I NEVER said you should only apply to high reach schools. I said that you should limit your list to 4 high reach schools, not 12 like you have on your list right now. You need more safeties and matches. Both those people I mentioned applied to other schools not in the Top 20. Only applying to high reach schools would be a huge mistake.</p>
<p>That’s ok if those 2 safeties are absolute safeties (academically and financially) and you would be completely happy attending them. Basically, if you do that, be prepared to only have 2 colleges to pick from (I’d still say that even if you kept all 12 reaches on your list). You should still look for matches, though. And that 4 isn’t a concrete number. 5 or 6 at the most reaches would be ok, too. 12 is absolutely way too many.</p>
<p>im proudly south asian. but dont be racist. being indian doesnt make me superior or inferior in any way to africans, europeans, arabs, natives, indochinese, or east asians or central asians or jews</p>
<p>No one was trying to offend you here. I think what kaustubh meant to say was that for the international students, especially from INDIA, china, or south korea, chances of admissions are much harder since, thousands of internationals from those country apply each year, and the top colleges only accept 100 or less</p>
<p>Not to rain on your parade, but I don’t think “1 hour daily Gym, a little Basketball” count as proper ECAs that colleges will appreciate and be impressed by. I work out 4-5 times a week as well and play a few games of football here and there, but they’re stuff you should be doing anyways as a functional human being.</p>