I am an Indonesian student want to apply for MIT, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. My projected sat score is 1450, with roughly 18-19 essay. I am a top10 Math Olympian in my country (APMO silver medal, Considered for IMO 2 times, HM RMM). My extracurricular includes volunteering for a nonprofit organization that produces math contests monthly (other extracurricular includes futsal, badminton, and a local quiz bowl but those are irrelevant in my opinion). I am interested to take Mathematics.
What is my chance for those three universities?
Thanks
Your chances at UCLA, and UC Berkeley are very very very lowered because you aren’t from California. That SAT Score might also not be great, probably want to raise it to 1500+. You need some other way to stand out out not just IMO qualifying doesn’t suffice, i have friends who did that in the USA and they have preference cause they are from the USA for all 3 colleges. You could make it to MIT, if u raise that SAT.
If you need financial aid (meaning, if you don’t have $60,000 per year) do not apply to any public universities such as Berkeley or UCLA. They do not give meaningful financial aid to people who aren’t legal residents of their states. As for your chances at Harvard, Princeton or MIT… your chances are less than 10%. Not because you’re not a great applicant. But because these schools are highly selective and you are competing for a very limited number of international student spots from among the best in the world.
Still, I think you should apply. Just have a back up plan.
MIT, Harvard, and Princeton are very very highly competitive for admissions. You will need to be close to the top student in your high school, and very close to being the top student in your country to have any realistic chance of admission. If you get 800 on the math SAT, then you would be average among MIT students, if you get in.
1450 overall on the SAT is low for MIT, Harvard, and Princeton, but is not completely a deal breaker. 1500+ would be better.
You should also be aware that financial aid for international students is very unlikely at UCLA and UC Berkeley.
If you are very close to the top student in your school, then it might be worth applying to these five strong schools. However, you definitely need to think of them as high reaches, and you definitely need to have other more realistic options.
If you do get to attend any of these five universities, then plan to work very hard for four years. Expect the classes to go very fast and the tests and homework to be very difficult.
I can see this being UCLA and UC Berkeley if you don’t request financial aid and you have a strong high school transcript (have a lot of friends at CS with less than 1450 SAT scores but stellar grades getting in).
For internationals the high school transcript is the most important, and your IMO achievements are pretty big.
You should raise your SAT, apply to the UCs, then apply EA to MIT and hope for the best.
