quick view about myself:
A math major sophomore in the top 30 Chinese university.
GPA of the freshman year: 4.43/5.0 =(94.3/100)
Rank in the freshman year: 1/160
TOEFL:109(R29 L27 S23 W30)
SAT: 1430
One time national scholarship & many times school scholarships
1 year in school Chinese orchestra playing cello until now(8 hours a week)
Lots lots lots of performance in the surrounding high schools, universities, cities with school Chinese orchestra
The member of the college basketball team(4 hours practise a week)
Currently learning advanced courses with the teacher such as CS231n in Stanford in the school machine learning lab c(ML is my career direction)(5-8 hours a week)
Join in China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling(the second prize of the nation)(top 5%)
And I have been doing some scientific researches with my professor about ML and game theory since September.
question and thoughts here: I really worry about my SAT, but now I have no chance to retake it before most universities’ application deadlines since next sat is in March. And my school list has some top schools like Northwestern, Upenn, Cornell, CMU. Because I want to live in a situation where people around me have passion towards learning and show talents. I am already getting tired that now most of my schoolmates were wasting their precious youth in computer games or TikTok. I do not want to be one of them. I need pressure from peers to push myself. So I want to go to those top schools to see how the real outstanding guys live and work. But I am worry about whether my sat will cause negative effect on my application. If it does, how much? I am planning to take MCM, a American modeling competition but the result will release during the April when I will have finished my all applications. And possibly I will have a paper published but that will definitely happen after the application.Before the February or March(which is the most school’s deadlines), is anything I can do to improve my chance except for working on my essay?
Thank you for your comments.
Can you please give your SAT scores by section: reading, and math. That will help.
Your SAT isn’t bad at all, but yeah for ivies you might be weighed down. Even if it was perfect it would still be a crapshoot but that’s just how it is.
I would look into larger schools too that accept more transfers. There are some good state flagships here. I’m not too familiar with some of them but I know Michigan and obviously California have good state schools. Bigger schools will be easier to transfer into. Definitely still apply to those competitive schools but understand if you don’t want to stay at your current school add a few safeties. If you’re afraid of being surrounded by “youth who waste their time” then at a bigger school at least you can find a niche of people who do want to study and work hard. I obviously can’t speak for the whole country but Americans definitely have a work hard play hard mentality. Some schools foster that and some don’t, but either way people aren’t just going to be talking about school and research the whole time especially in undergrad. I know some schools like UPenn and Wellesley have a big pre-professional vibe but most schools don’t.
Definitely look at common data sets and find schools that do accept a lot of transfers if you absolutely want to leave. If you’re fine staying at your school, just apply to the ones you really want. Also keep in mind, financial aid for transfers is bad, but international transfer is worse and some schools may be need aware. Good luck!
Are you transferring as a junior? Your SAT wouldn’t matter as much as if you were a sophomore transfer if you took it in high school.
Thank you for your comments.
I have already had some larger schools, which are UMich NYU USC UWM. I regard those schools as my safeties based on their accepting rate for transfers and my stats. But actually I do not know whether they are real “safeties”.
Then I want to add some of my motivations of transfering that I really want to see those brilliant people which can make use of their talents, not only in academical fields but also in other parts which you think as play things such as instruments or band or E-sports. I just want to be around with people who can focus and invest their time on their dreams or goals. You know, most students around me are just doing worthless things, less of them have career plans or personal dreams. It’s just like they are living for live. I feel like I cannot fit in with them. Sometimes I hate that life pattern. I have no offense of them. But I just want to change a situation to see more.
Anyway, thank you for your comments again.
Yeah I am transferring as a junior. But I took SAT in Oct. this year.
Are any of the schools affordable? If you need major amounts of financial aid, that will be problematic.
NYU and USC are safeties for nobody. Especially since we are talking about 70,000 for tuition/room and board. Neither are Michigan or Wisconsin-Madison.
If your top Chinese university is at the level of Peking/Tsinghua/Fudan/University of Science and Technology etc, my advice is to get your degree in China and apply to graduate school in the United States.
Funny thing that OP mentions that his classmates at a top Chinese university waste their time and seem to be shallow. My mainland Chinese relatives would beg to differ. My wife’s nephew goes to Harbin Institute of Technology (Chinese equivalent of CalTech/Georgia Tech) and nobody there is a slacker. Her cousin graduated from Tsinghua as an environmental engineering major and neither of them didn’t have their future mapped out or slid through school.
My advice above stands. Stand out at your Chinese university, get top grades, score high on the GRE, and go to grad school in the States instead of worrying about transferring to a US school as an undergraduate. If you get accepted to a PhD program, you will be funded and in the long run save more money.
The definition of a safety school is one that you can be accepted to easily as well as being financially affordable. By that definition, none of your schools on your list are safeties.
From what my wife told me, senior year at zhongdian daxue are focused on GRE prep and how to apply to American graduate schools.
My wife graduated from a 3rd rate provincial university in China and one of her classmates got a PhD from Georgia Tech. Another student from the same school got a Masters in EE from Virginia Tech. So even kids who did poorly on the Gaokao worked hard and had goals to improve themselves. Therefore I find it rather suspicious that students in your zhongdian daxue lack any motivation.
Hamurtle, happy to see that someone in college confidential has knowledge about Chinese high education system.
For your doubts, I would like to explain as follows.
Firstly, my university is Northeastern University, or dongbei daxue in Chinese, you can ask your wife about that. Northeastern University is one of the 985, which is a university union, or in your words zhongdian daxue. You can ask your wife, too. However, my university is at the bottom of that union and because of its remote location, the reputation went worse and elites have gone. But as I said, my university is still top 30 in most of the Chinese university rankings. The universities you mentioned like Tshinghua or Peking universities are great. Most of the young elites are in there. But in some less good universities like my university, things are different. Your relatives all make use of their time. But that is a little little part not the whole. I don’t know maybe everyone does that in their universities, but in my university, that’s just minority. Most people either follow other’s plan like preparing for the Chinese graduate entrance examination when they have to make decisions in their senior year or going to find a terrible job. Now I am the sophomore, at least in the freshman year and sophomore year, most people do not want to confront with the decision that how to live after graduating from the university. In other words, no early plan.
Secondly, thank you for explaining me the definition of a safety school. I am sure I can afford schools that I mentioned. I made the decision of transferring to American universities When I finished my Gaokao. My target school was Zhejiang university because I live super close to it, you can ask your wife and I bet she knows that university. But you know, I did not do well in Gaokao. So I guess the “famous school complex” once took root at my mind at that time and influenced me to make the decision of transfer. Though my current university has some fame,too. But in my mind, I still want to go to a real famous school as soon as possible.
Anyway, thank you for your comments and say my hello to your Chinese relatives.
I happen to know about Donggong-you’re right that it isn’t one of the more famous of the elites. To be honest I wouldn’t rate it in the Top 30 of Chinese colleges.
You have commendable goals, but it’s tough for American students to transfer between colleges, let alone a student from abroad. You will need to explain your reasons for transferring and saying that your current school or your fellow students are not intellectually curious is not a good thing.
Now it makes sense. Shenyang is not the greatest place to spend 4 years of your life. And there is the stereotype of the lazy Dongbeilao…all they do is argue, fight, and drink. And the food there isn’t the greatest especially if you’re from the heaven on earth (Zhejiang).
I can understand why you want to leave for greener pastures so to speak.
Surprised that you are so familiar with China.
Though not all what you said about Shenyang and people in there are correct, I still appreciate your understanding.