<p>Where do you get your info about intl acceptance numbers? And if you’re just looking at percentage and classifying then you’re committing quite the folly. I am best qualified to talk about Caltech so I will. It is not a matchish reach and is a reach because the higher acceptance rate is because Caltech applicants are very self selecting. Meaning only the more qualified applicants take the pain to apply to Caltech because the more accomplished ones are more willing to be hardcore enough. Also Berkeley is also a matchish reach.</p>
<p>@Mystic Gohan:The information about the international acceptances have been taken from each University’s website. Usually from the Fall 2010 session. All sources for the numbers I have used can be found by navigating around the ■■■■■■’s I have provided.</p>
<p>The order of the college’s is completely random. I started typing the college names on the top of my mind, and then the other statistics followed. I’m in no way classifying them according to admittance rates. It is a co-incidence that colleges with similar acceptance rates have been grouped together.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input regarding CalTech. But by ‘hardcore students’ are you referring to all students in general, or international? And seeing that you got accepted, may I ask you if you consider yourself under that set of students? :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the Berkeley input as well :)</p>
<p>@Prinki: Prinki, a match is a college where you think you have a very good chance of getting accepted.
A reach is one where you compete with a much more competitive applicant pool, and hence your chances of acceptance get diminished considerably.</p>
<p>But before classifying any college as a reach, match or safety, you must carefully guage your own performance.</p>
<p>Well testament to self selection is the fact that Caltech has the highest SAT score percentiles. Not that thats a definitive gauge but it is a gauge nonetheless. Especially intls, a lot of em who apply are extremely accomplished in sci/math at the intl level.</p>
<p>Ahhh I must issue a disclaimer. Too lazy to check other schools but for Caltech the class size is for all 4 years. Meaning there are only 967 TOTAL undergrads at Caltech meaning they take in about 240 each year.</p>
<p>BTW, are these by any chance those colleges you’re applying to? Because they seem to have most of them I am applying too Moreover, keeping Purdue among those schools makes little sense lol</p>
<p>Haha yes
You’re also applying to the same ones? We could discuss :D</p>
<p>And Purdue is there because most of the people on the Indian forums keep talking about Purdue as a safety, and I scummed to the pressure So Purdue is just a low level safety, just for the sake of it.</p>
<p>@TiziL7- that’s what surprised me. I mean isn’t a guy/girl supposed to judge for himself if the school’s a match, a reach or a safety? How can it be generalized? :</p>
<p>@prinki94: Sometimes match can mean that you fit into the environment of the college quite well.
However, match in most part is defined by your stats and whether they will qualify as a good safety for you.
Reach can be broken down by high and low. High reach is usually when the college (ie ivies and top schools) has a highly random process of entering students…but your stats align with what their past entering classes had upon enrollment. Low reach would be that your stats are barely up to par with what is expected…and it could be just your essay and/or ecs that could save you.</p>
<p>Someone ■■■■■■■ again…
Being innovative this time…</p>
<p>Which has resulted in that spreadsheet being made private.</p>
<p>If you still want access to it, please PM your e-mail so I may add you to the list of people who can view it. Google says that you must sign-in to view the spreadsheet.</p>
Hang on a second, Berkeley admits >90% California in-state students since it is bound by state law to do so. If you’re going by a 21% admit rate, which by itself is pretty low for a public school, I’m sorry to burst your bubble. As an international, you’re looking at an admit rate which is freakishly low, well below 10%. The entering international class size at Berkeley is comparable to other top universities, like Stanford which admits ~300 students. Add to that the highest number of applications that Berkeley gets, way more(almost double) than Harvard, MIT,Stanford and the deal, and you wouldn’t really classify it as a ‘matchish reach’. Another difference is that you’re not just up against the international student, but you’re also competing with students from within the US who are out of state and have had far greater opportunities than you have. This is not the case at any other top school that you consider. I know of a girl who got accepted to Harvard and was rejected at Cal, a tata scholar at Cornell who was rejected at Cal and I can cite many more examples. I myself made it to both Penn and Cornell but chose Berkeley over either because despite being a public school and being forced to admit in-state students, it’s right up there next to the likes of MIT and other privates. That, in my view, speaks a lot about the caliber about the university. Keep in mind that the median scores for OOS at Berkeley are way higher than the ones you see to be floating around websites. So yeah, the next time you toss a university as a ‘matchish reach’, please do your research well.</p>
<p>
I wonder where that’s coming from. Purdue is exceptionally good for Aeronautical Engineering(Read: Neil Armstrong was an alumnus!) and is highly respected in the US for all engineering branches. Don’t go by the oh-this-university-is-easy-to-get-in-so-its-lame mentality that people in India have. Another example is UIUC, which is a superb engineering school but has an admit rate of around 50%. Keep in mind, it’s the quality of the school you should be looking at, and not excruciatingly low admit rates.</p>
<p>Whoa someone’s getting touchy about people dissing their college ;)(Lol he wasnt even dissing Cal ) While I dont dispute that Berkeley is absolutely top-notch, the fact that it is a public university means that the overall quality of students on average is not very high. That being said, the quality of the best at Cal is probably as good as anywhere else. Still, the fact that it’s a public uni means that their classes will be far bigger than other private universities resulting in reduced attention which might be deleterious to undergrads who might need more attention. Still this is not a deal breaker and you can consider yourself very fortunate if you make it to Cal :)</p>
Sure. I have complete reason to be. It wasn’t about dissing, it was about getting the facts right. Berkeley is not an easy school to get in unless you are a Californian. Period. Infact, nowhere even close. If people think so, they’re fooling no one but themselves. If you do get in with that mentality, kudos to you. :)</p>
<p>As for the difference between a public and private university, you might want to check this out:
</p>
<p>Agreed that class sizes aren’t quite the best at Cal, and perhaps even the average class level would be slightly lesser than that at MIT/CalTech, but weeder courses ensure that a more than reputable Berkeley brand name and prestige precede you when you’re hunting for jobs. The faculty is arguably the best you can ask for and if you’re worried about no spoonfeeding with no advisors running after you, well brace up bro, no one’s gonna run after you when you’re out working in the industry. Yeah, the good side about this aspect is that a Cal experience will bring you as close to the real world as possible. Whether you want that or not, that’s your choice, but it’s certainly not a killer. Infact, it just adds to the deal in my opinion.
Two cents from a guy who has more than good reason to love his university.</p>
<p>Two cents from a guy who’s not even begun taking classes at the university he claims to love dearly? I will reserve opinion on what it is like at Caltech. I might hate it though I sincerely hope that I do not. Getting attention in class from professors does not equal spoonfeeding that was quite the leap there. I do agree you wont get spoonfed in industry but a little more attention in smaller classes does help for sure. Also the average level at Cal is probably a lot lower than the average at MIT and Caltech because of their lax admission for californians. There is little doubt however that the top few in Cal are more than a match for the top at MIT or Caltech. Just saying that some people prefer smaller places. I for one prefer bigger places so I might not have the best time at Caltech but hey Ill try my best to enjoy myself anyway.</p>
Moreover, keeping Purdue among those schools makes little sense lol</p>
So Purdue is just a low level safety, just for the sake of it.</p>