<p>As suggested by b@r!um, I shall re-post my entry here.
I am from Mainland China and currently study in Singapore with scholarship.
Like the title, I am intended to major in math. Not decided whether in combination with econ or physics or math alone. </p>
<p>LACs are prefered, but big U are also ok for me.</p>
<p>Some stats:
High School: Highly competitive, top junior college (equivalent to high school in US) in Singapore
School top in math, physics and chemistry
Gold Medal with 9th rank in Singapore math olympiad
some achievement in physics and chemistry olympiad
rank and GPA not available in my school
ECs: one research paper published in Physics Review A, paper also accpeted in some conferences in US and canada.
Vice-president of a shool club, organiser of a national math competition (although this nation is quite small =.=)
Has some community service.
SAT1: currently 1900 (sad), but guess can push till 2200 at the end of year
SAT2: math: 800, physics: 800, chemistry: 800
taken some science AP exams, results not out yet, should all be 5</p>
<p>FA: Family can only afford 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost.</p>
<p>Quite detailed already. Could someone give me any suggestion of colleges that I can go? </p>
<p>I suggest you apply to Princeton University. It has the top Math department (in my humble opinion) in the US and, unlike its peers such as Harvard or MIT, has a stronger emphasis on undergraduate education. Princeton also has one of the top Economics departments in the US and is exceptionally strong in theoretical (math-oriented) Physics. A perfect match for you then !</p>
<p>Outside the US, I also suggest the University of Cambridge in the UK. It is second to none in Math (or “Maths” as the Brits say) and also has world-class Physics and Economics faculties.</p>
<p>I am a math major at Princeton and can try to answer any questions you may have. The departments you are interested in are all top-notch, and we have very good financial aid for international applicants (need blind, 100% demonstrated need, etc.). Harvard and MIT obviously have great programs in these subjects as well. As bruno said, Cambridge is also a good choice for math, econ, or physics. You don’t need to decide which subjects you untimately want to pursue any time soon. In fact, you can major in one subject and go to graduate school in another! For example, my economics TA majored in math at Cambridge and is now finishing up his PhD in economics at Princeton. My advice is to work on boosting your SAT. The writing section is especially easy to improve. It tests a few specific gramamr rules, and once you know them, you’re in great shape.</p>
<p>I also think Princeton will be good for you, coz they are arguably better at Math than Harvard n the rest. Jux get ur SAT scores up, n we’ll see what’ll happen.</p>
<p>No offense and I don’t want to be a wet blanket but even if his SAT scores come upto 2200 - Princeton is a high reach due to lack of EC achievements. I am not discouraging you but advising you to look for other options!</p>
<p>Thx, ajayc. I know Princeton will be a high reach. But I think my EC is still ok. Having paper publishing is not something that everybody has. It has been listed as one of the outstanding ECs in other threads.</p>
<p>Princeton is a high reach not because of your ECs, just because you’re from China… but you still have a decent chance… the key in college application: don’t fear! You never know unless you apply! And don’t trust chances threads!</p>
<p>University of Chicago has a math program of equal quality to HMP (know plenty of math majors who chose Chicago over all of those schools), and it’s easier to get in. Harvey Mudd also has a great math program, although it’s a bit more applied. Also, LACs such as Swarthmore, Amherst, and Reed have rather high grad placement.</p>
<p>phuriku speaks the truth. Chicago’s analysis sequence is particularly well regarded. The only downside is that Chicago’s financial aid isn’t as good as HPSM.</p>
<p>I don’t think the SAT counts that much. Instead, focus on your essay and get top recs from your teachers. If you want, get 2000s and you’ll be fine. Besides, your extracurriculars sound good to me and they clearly show commitment to the sciences. Your paper is certainly not everyone has. Have you thought of MIT? They have a small, yet very strong math department. LACs like Williams and HMC also offer great math programs.</p>
<p>I happen to disagree with ajayc (sorry :)). Yeah, doing significant research is only one EC but it can be quite a time-consuming and very impressive one. The single most important admission criteria for grad school is – guess what – your potential to do quality research. I can hardly imagine that an undergraduate college would turn down an applicant who has already proven himself.</p>
<p>Would you mind sharing how significant your contribution to this article was? There’s a continuoum of possibilities ranging from being the sole author to being one of 20 co-authors with hardly any input at all.</p>
<p>That being said, unless you did significant original research pretty much independently and get a recommendation to prove it, you should still consider Princeton a reach.</p>
<p>Thx b@r!um. I shall elaborate a bit on my paper. It is a quantum physics project which is usually done at graduate level. We get much help from our mentor. Our mentor is kind enough to put me as the second author in the paper to Physics Review A. In the paper that we will submit to the conference, he put me as the first author. There are three authors in the paper. One is my friend. The other one is the mentor himself.</p>
<p>TBH I don’t think your resume is that impressive. Here I summarise it:
I hypothesize the community service was school-mandated CIP, is there more to it … Anyway I’m a huge fan of bullet points so here goes.</p>
<p>[ul][<em>]What’s nuclear spin bath? I suck at comprehending journals. Anyway, I can think of at least 5 people in the 1990 batch who have published, so that alone won’t get you in.
[</em>]The SAT score needs to be raised pronto, although you may estimate that you can raise it to 2200 - it really needs consistent work. If you wish to apply EA to UChicago you should be ready for the October sitting.
[<em>]To be honest I think Princeton is a high reach for you, so you need some safeties. Are you interested in Cambridge? You don’t need ECs to go UK - and your math achievements should stand you in good stead.
[</em>]Some other schools you might consider are UCBerkeley, Columbia, NYU and UMichAA (plenty of A<em>Star scholars there I heard).
[</em>]Btw you taking scholarship or applying FA?[/ul]</p>
<p>Berkeley, NYU and UMich are expensive for out-of-state students and don’t give fin aid to international students - scratch those. I agree with most other points of yours except for the research. Publishing research <em>can</em> be quite impressive depending on the quality of the research, but I am in no position to judge the OP’s work so I won’t. </p>
<p>But as a general remark, the APS Physics Review journals are among the most prestigous world-wide. I just suspect that most if not all of the original research ideas came from the professor and the two students just did the legwork, in which case you are right that the paper would not be that impressive - but it would still show a lot of dedication and talent. A recommendation from the research mentor could make or break the OP’s application at ultra-competitive places.</p>
<p>But kudos to the professor for giving credit to the students! Consider yourself lucky ;)</p>
<p>Well plenty of Singaporean people do apply for scholarships - I might go as far as to say that a majority of those going overseas do so on government scholarships. The rest mainly do so on FMS (Father-Mother Scholarship). Yeah but since the OP didn’t state whether he’s applying for scholarships, it’d be important to source for schools w/ FA. </p>
<p>How about Rice, Purdue, WUStL, Northwestern, Harvey Mudd? I’m not too sure about the mathematics there per se but I perused several rankings.</p>
<p>Lol…I would be applying for FA in my app.
Thx for all the suggestion.
So…Rice only gives 1 full FA?
WUStL math no good?
What does it mean to say that HMC is a cut throat college?</p>
<p>Uh… Cut-throat means highly competitive. Rice offers a full-tuition scholarship to international students, which is pretty good - based on merit though.</p>
<p>WUStL - I don’t know about the math there but I looked up the Gourman report and US news and Putnam results and Wustl ain’t that bad, isit?</p>