Matches and Safety?

College Search & Lists
1

Hello, everybody!

Ethnicity - Indian(Male)
High School - Delhi Public School, Eldeco, Lucknow, India
International Applicant

GPA - Freshman: 10/10; Sophomore: 10/10; Junior: 79%(?) [School gives CGPA on a scale of 10 for Freshman Year, Sophomore Year, and percentage for Junior Year and Senior Year]
SAT I - 1500/1600
SAT II - Math 2: 800; Physics: 790
AP - none taken (sincere question - should I bother to? I don’t care for college credit)

Major Academic Awards :-

  1. Mathematical Genius Award 2015-2016 Sophomore – All India Rank 12; State Rank 2
  2. International Science Olympiad (SOF) Junior – International Rank 218 (98.77 percentile)
  3. Certificate of Merit from CBSE India for Performance in Junior and Sophomore Year 10/10
  4. National Creativity Olympiad Sophomore – All India Rank 32
  5. Qualified in Second Level of DPS Science and Mathematics Talent Examination 2014-2015 Junior

Extra Curriculars :-

  1. MIT Launch
  2. Co-founder of a company to help people improve their public speaking.
  3. Cultural Captain of school
  4. Senior Prefect in School Student Council
  5. Made two websites for School – One for School MUN, one for School Alumni
  6. Freelance Graphic Designer – Worked as Head of Design at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Model United Nations 2016 and many others.
  7. Secretary General of my school’s Model UN – Senior Year Under Secretary General of my school Model UN – Junior Year
  8. Played Basketball since 2012 in the school team, Participated in many District, State, National, and International Level championships. (Bronze in Rural International Games Championship recognised by the Government of India).
  9. Playing Piano and Guitar for 8+ years, part of school band, participated in National Music Competitions
  10. Volunteered in a Mobile Eye Treatment Van that goes to villages and offers free eye care to the poor
  11. President of Model UN Club

Interests: CS, Physics, Aerospace

Reaches:

  1. MIT - Early Action
  2. Harvard
  3. UPenn
  4. Berkeley
  5. Cornell
  6. Stanford

Matches:

  1. Georgia Tech? ??????

Safety:

  1. Purdue?
    ???

Help me out a bit here.

Thanks

2

Some possible matches might be Brandeis and Emory.

As far as whether you should take APs, it depends on what your school offers. If it offers a bunch of APs and you don’t take any, it could look like you’re not up for a challenge (and could hurt your class rank). If your school offers them and you feel like you can handle them (which I’d expect you can if you’re applying to top tier schools) then I would at least take the APs in the subjects you’re really interested in to show that you excel in those areas.

3

My school doesnt offer AP. I dont think I will be giving it now. I dont think Emory is a good choice. It doesnt even have an engineering department and their CS is basically unranked as ive heard. Brandeis doesn’t appeal to me as well.

4

@aryan096

MIT - Early Action- High Reach
2. Harvard- High Reach
3. UPenn- High Reach
4. Berkeley- High Reach
5. Cornell- High Reach
6. Stanford- High Reach

  1. Georgia Tech- Reach ?????
  2. Purdue- Match ????? International admissions are harder than domestic, especially for your demographic. Emory's CS program is ranked and has great placement, however it's a Reach for you as your scores aren't high enough for most of these schools.
5

Congratulations on the 79 in Class XI, that’s impressive. :slight_smile:

As for all international students, what’s your budget?
Due to your exceptional stats, this will be the main, hugely limiting, factor.
Second limiting factor is that top students from India apply to all the same colleges.
Why no Harvey Mudd or Cal tech among your reaches for instance?

6

@MYOS1634 Haha. 79% isnt really that impressive. I slacked off and could’ve done much better.

My parents have been supportive and have told me not to worry about the fees of the university since we are relatively well off. However, I do not wish to be a burden on the family and a scholarship would be nice.

However, I think my family is too rich to get financial aid, but not that rich to afford my stay for four years. What do you think are my options?

I really wanted to be in the relatively north east of the USA. And plus, CalTech is super reach I think, therefore I did not bother with it.

I will definitely look into Harvey Mudd.

Thanks

7

Tufts University has a strong engineering school, large international population, is highly ranked in the US and is in/near Boston with a slightly more forgiving admissions rate than some of your other schools (but acceptance rate is still in the low teens)

8

Penn State Match
Florida Match
Maryland Match
NC State Match

Clemson Match/Safety
Iowa State Match/Safety

Texas AM Safety
UCF Safety
Auburn Safety
Arizona State Safety
Alabama Safety
Oklahoma Safety

https://www.asee.org/documents/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/16Profile-Front-Section.pdf