Is being international a crime or am I just under-qualified?

“They spoke about their “ground-breaking” research, start ups etc (fyi, they are so dumb that they didn’t even know that personal start ups are prohibited).”

Top colleges don’t believe young kids really do “ground-breaking research” and start-ups aren’t what they look for.

You just got caught in the international competition. Top schools have a idea of international diversity they want and sometimes, it’s not the year to admit many from one country vs another. Plus, countries like India have many applicants to the same top US colleges. And you may have been seen as two countries.

Go to Plan B. Apply here for grad school.

Sorry for the disappointing results. It’s heartbreaking to bring so much to the table and still not have it work out. Glad that you have a really high-quality Plan B, though. Wishing you all the best; if grad school in the US is what you want, I’m confident that you will make it happen!

And if you still want to try in May, there’s the NACAC list of colleges that miscalculated yield, you can check it out to see whether one or two might be better than your Plan B.