Hello! I am quite confused about which Ivy school I should apply to in Early Decision.
Academics: Top 25 percentile
ACT: 34
SAT Subject Test: Math I: 780, Physics: 780
ECAS:
Finalist of Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge (First to achieve from my country)
Won prize at the NASA AMES space settlement Contest (First to achieve from my country)
Developed a unique drug for HIV/AIDS
Member of School Science Club
Volunteer at an organization for Disabled Children
Conducted Experiments in Labs of multiple Local Universities and a world renowned Health Research and Biomedical Facility.
Race: Asian
Gender: Male
Intended Major: Microbiology/Biomedical Engineering
However, I might require a good amount of financial aid. I would highly appreciate any suggestions regarding where to apply. Thank you!
Only Brown, Penn, Cornell and Dartmouth have ED; the others have SCEA. While your numbers qualify you (although you didn’t state your GPA), you have not given us any information to help us inform you about which Ivy would be best fit.
I would be applying as an International student. My High school doesn’t publish academic report in terms of GPA.
In what would you plan on majoring? Being international will make it even harder to get in - lower than the acceptance rate for each school.
I intend to major in Biomedical Engineering or Microbiology.
if you already cured AIDS do you need college?
If you are looking for a safety school in case the ivy dream doesn’t work out - Temple University is on the cutting edge of an HIV cure - They have dumped a ton of money into upping research department and are on the forefront in HIV research- I am certain you could most likely receive a full tuition scholarship there.
Thanks runswimyoga! By the way, do you know how it works? From what I have seen in their website, they don’t offer much scholarships.
For the last three years the scholarships were automatic… meaning if you had the stats (SAT/ACT and GPA) and were accepted to the school you automatically received the scholarships.
This year double the amount of students (700 I heard) took them up on their offer - it was full tuition and 2 $4000 summer stipends for research and study abroad.
This put Temple in financial position they weren’t expecting so they are changing the process for next year …it should be announced on their website soon keep checking… I have heard they are still going to give out the full scholarships and stipends but they will cap them at 400 students. The earlier you apply/ get accepted the better chances you have is what I am hearing …
@runswimyoga the OP is applying as an international student, though. Temple does offer academic scholarships for international students, but I don’t think they have automatic criteria like they do for US citizens - so yes, keep checking for what they’re offering this year, but the criteria will probably be different.
Just as a side note, when you say you found a cure, did you work with researchers in a lab? or did you find it entirely by yourself? this is important as you dont want to portray this in the wrong way in your application as adcoms may not like that. Specifically state where you worked, and if you worked with a lab team, fellow interns, or anyone like that. If not, then thats great. Also state where you worked as well. ECs look decent. Definitely decide which Biomed engineering program is best for you and apply ED.
@thetennisking I never said that I found a cure. It is a novel drug that I have developed which is yet to be tested in vivo conditions. I collaborated with multiple virologists and international researchers related to this field. I am currently preparing my research paper.
I would be careful about claiming that you discovered a new drug. This often takes millions of dollars and pharma companies routinely fail. The success rate of finding a new drug for anything is less than 0.1%.
So when we read that a teenager discovered a new drug on his own you can imagine our skepticism.
It sounds like to me that you simply tested some candidate molecules using an in vitro assay. This does not qualify as a new drug, just a candidate.
Don’t over inflate your achievements otherwise it will look badly upon you.
@Sakib_Durlob
As others have pointed out, this sounds completely absurd. Are you actually telling us that you designed, synthesized and put into testing this molecule/drug? Is your name on the patent? Or were you a minion in the lab that did some routine work that any lab tech could do. No high school student has ever achieved what it sounds like you are claiming. You will make yourself look foolish by inflating your claims this absurdly.
Well, Jack Andraka did, but he’s an exception
But he developed more of a test to diagnose cancer, not treat it.
Right. What he did was truly remarkable, and in many ways the exception that proves the rules. There was a lot of serendipity involved, which is not a criticism or diminution of his achievement. Most great discoveries that are complete breakthroughs have some serendipitous elements to them. Recognizing the confluence of events is huge, and he did. But he still had to have a professor and numerous grads students and post-docs involved to bring his idea to fruition. Without that, the idea dies on the vine and we never hear of the guy, most likely. This wasn’t Edison toiling alone trying 1,000 different ideas before the electric light was “perfected”.
I won’t dismiss the idea that the OP could have been in a somewhat similar situation for this claim, but the odds are overwhelmingly against it.