Going to an international school. Affords me opportunities (but not that much).
On gap year
Hook: Small country with zero access to anything essentially.
Obstacles: really bad chronic thing I had in 9, 10, 11. 5 hours in traffic everyday to get to school (this genuinely ruined so many opportunities for me. Was already dedicated to schoolâs customary curriculum, so had to bear through it.
School is not competitive at all
Cost Constraints / Budget
Budget: $50-60k per year
Intended Major(s)
Applied Math. Or something adjacent to it.
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA: 4.25
Class Rank: 1/~60
ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 superscore. 800 english and 780 math
IELTS: 9.0
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
English: AP Lang
Math: AP calculus ab
Science: AP Physics 2
History and social studies: AP World History
Language other than English: French 2
Visual or performing arts: Creative Writing
Other academic courses: Research Methods
Took some advanced math classes, theyâre WASC accredited. Multi Variable Calc, Linear Algebra, Stats&Prob, Discrete Math.
Took 6 AP classes in total. Will take 6 this year as self study.
Awards
8 medals from international olympiads.
Ranked #18 Nationally for Competitive Programming (Including all ages and ICPC contestants). Estimate around #4 for my age bracket (I checked).
Invited to IOI Bootcamp but didnât qualify for the IOI.
Winner of the national english olympiad.
Valedictorian 2x.
10 awards for academic achievement (once per year per class).
AP scholar w/distinction 2x.
top 20% in some kaggle competitions (Machine Learning platform)
Extracurriculars
4 Research Papers. Already cited by ivy league graduate students. Endorsed by t3 uk professor.
Frontier Lab Research (OpenAI, Anthropic, Deepseek, DeepMind). Monument finding via ML methods. Mech Interp paper under Senior Research Scientist at one of the frontier labs. Can possibly get a recommendation letter from them.
Professional certified ML Engineer (Google).
Some blogs. finance adjacent (ui design and academic writing) and creative writing.
Active GitHub profile (programming repository used by developers) (2000+ contributions this past year).
Internship: Fraud detection and ID verification for a fintech company servicing 20+ banks. Got full return offer and will be returning in a few months.
Some presidential leadership in stem at school
Some creative ECs: gardening (working on a manual!), fanfics
Schools
(same list from months back)
Extremely Likely: (Please suggest colleges with plenty of scholarships and fin aid for Ex. Likely, Likely, Toss-up).
(IMPORTANT) Update on thoughts: My dream to live & work in the USA is dead. I think I understand that clearly now. But dead dreams foster new hopes: The government sponsors payment based on the prestige of the university GIVEN the fact that you return back home (this is what I will be doing). Ex. some girl in our country got into Stanford and it was entirely full-paid.
Where should I ED/EA/RD to for maximum prestige? I do not plan to stay in the US. Full-pay for need-aware colleges because government will sponsor. Will ask for aid at need-blind colleges. Otherwise, UofT, etc.
Maybe ED to Brown? Dartmouth? Northwestern?
Maybe EA to UChicago and if deferred, apply to ED2?
Ideas welcome!
The problem with ED is - will they meet your price? I donât know. You can try the net price calculators but many say they are wrong for international.
Of the US schools, you have none affordable - if you donât get enough aid.
So why not apply for any that give enough aid - as a public Alabama works and Iâm sure more do. And so many LACs will work - from Kalamazoo to Wooster to Allegheny, etc. just in case.
I donât get the - full pay at need aware because the government will sponsor but not at need blind.
Are they paying or not??
Good luck.
UIUC is a yes, prestigious Rochester is not on your list and is very international and you should add it. Brandeis is another. These are all, at least here, prestigious schools.
Ps - donât self study AP. Itâs not going to help at all.
How do they determine this? Do they publish a list for example (maybe similar to the newish British high potential individual visa program), or use a published global rankings table, or similar? Do they fund universities in countries other than the US too? Are the funds unlimited if you can get into one of these universities, or do they have a fixed number of students/funds to allocate each year?
Iâd suggest you go for this, of course, but not place all your eggs in this basket and ensure you have somewhere affordable to go to if you do end up needing to fund it yourself as well.
If you come from a country which typically does not send a lot of students to the US, it may give you a small edge at some of the colleges looking to build a diverse class. (I can think of at least two similar cases, one an ivy and one a t30, and I was told this much by someone in adcom at a different ivy), but of course you have a strong academic base anyway even without that,
Please donât put this on any applications. A valedictorian by definition is a student, typically having the highest academic achievements of the class, who delivers the valedictory speech at a graduation ceremony. Did you graduate twice?
Yeah our country is super obscure. There are very few applicants to the US.
As for the sponsorship, itâs top 50 globally (I assume the list is corroborated from multiple sources). Thatâs what I heard from a trusted teacher. I do have to get myself updated on this though. As for the placements available, it is a case-by-case basis because of the lack of applicants.
The government also does really low interest rate loans that are really favorable in terms of the inflation here, for international education.
No, taking a bunch of self studied APs is not worthwhile. What might be? Meaningful and involved volunteering with some organizations where you make an impact. A job. Maybe multiple jobs. Doing things that interest you and taking them as far as you can, not including APs. Getting some kind or local, regional, or national recognition for soemthing you have done to make an impact. Creating soemthing meaningful to yiu or others that has an impact beyond just yourself. Those things make a difference. Not self studied APs.
Is this the University of Toronto? It is a very strong university, very good for math, and admissions is largely stats based (and your stats are excellent). When looking up the cost of attendance, make sure to keep the exchange rate in mind. I think that it is a very good choice and I would leave it on the list (unless you are thinking of some other U of T, in which case I would add Toronto to the list).
I am not a huge fan of ED. I would only apply ED if you have figured out what your #1 choice is, and you are confident that you will be able to afford to go there if you get in.
Admission officers are more interested in how students perform in the classroom throughout an academic period rather than if they are able to cram for an AP exam. In addition, your AP scores would not be out until after admission decisions are made.
Agree that you should find more interesting and productive things to do with your time.