What are my chances in T-20 Universities? [international, 20/20 GPA, 1530 SAT, 102 TOEFL, IMO bronze, need full financial aid; math, computer science, applied math]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • international student (Greece)
  • Male/White European/Greek (optional):

Intended Major(s)

  • Mathematics, CS, Applied Mathematics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 20/20
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 20/20
  • Class Rank: 1
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1530 (730 in English, 800 in Math)
  • TOEFL: 102 (29 Reading 26 Listening 25 Writing 22 Speaking)

Coursework

  • Participated in preparatory lessons for University Math Competitions in Autumn 2022, 2023, conducted by the Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Awards

Mathematics (IMO= Interntional MO):

  • 3 IMO bronze Medals, 1 IMO HM

  • 1 Gold Balkan MO Medal, 2 Silvers

  • 1 Gold Junior Balkan MO (perfect score), 1 Silver, 2 Bronzes

  • 8 Golds in National Olympiad (3 perfect scores)

  • 10 Distinctions in Thales Contest (National Level)

  • 7 Distinctions in Euclides Contest (National Level)

  • Perfect score, Gold medal at Mediterranean Math olympiad

  • First prize, Gold medal at European Math Cup

Riddles/puzzles:

  • 9 Kangaroo distinctions
  • 1st and 4th place at National Riddles Contest

Extracurriculars

  • founder of school math club,
  • founder of school chemistry club
  • editor and contributor of school newspaper
  • member of local basketball team
  • member of local arts club
  • participant at national history fair (with team), part of work published at magazine

Interscholastic distinctions:

  • Best short story (2022)
  • Best christmas photo (2021)
  • Best student action (tutoring/mentoring at school, 2023)

Tutoring/work experience:

  • 1–1 private sessions at school for career advice to students,
  • math olympiad coaching under aid of my country’s mathematical society
  • Grader and proposer for Evan Chen’s USEMO
  • Proposer of problems at math magazine issued by Math Societ

Articles/seminars:

  • Presented part of my work at two seminars conducted by my country’s Math Society,
  • Two research articles to be published at arXiv
  • Latin, Chemistry, Mathematics, Educational articles publshed at school newspaper.

Article review

  • Reviewer of 5 articles published at mathematical magazines, or on the internet

Organizations

  • Member of 8 organzitations conducted online mathematical contests. Was founder, proposer, grader, publisher, editor and president of the Problem Selection Committee for most of these societies. In total I proposed 19 original problems.

Soft skills, other qualifications

  • English: full proficiency
  • German: limited proficiency
  • Excellent knowledge of LaTeX editors, basic knowledge of programming languages

Essays/LORs/Other

Decently good, a 1 personality score according to a former Harvard AO. Probably a 2+ in reality.

Cost Constraints / Budget
Full financial aid.

Schools
All T-20 US universities.

2

I think you’re a very strong candidate. Congratulations on your many achievements!

I believe you have a better than average chance, but not all schools are need blind for international students so that is going to reduce your chances at those schools.

The following schools are need blind and meet full need for international students, so focus on these:

There are other schools that meet full need but are need aware for international students. You can look at the full list of schools and how much aid they offer non-citizens here:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d1ad956be52e800010a2502/t/6313e393ddb48a18cc68275f/1662247828371/Financial+Aid+for+International+Noncitizens+(August+update%2C+2022).pdf

Do you have other options in your home country?
Given that international students have single digit % acceptance rates to these top schools, it’s very important you have a backup plan.

Good luck.

2 Likes
3

Hello,

thank you for your kind and supportive reply! I do have a backup plan, as I am also studying for the Panhellenic Examinations, set in May-June.

I do know some colleges are need-aware… May I attach any essays here so that they are chanced, too? Also, according to your experience, what would my academic and extracurricular score be? (according to Harvard’s scale)

Thank you!

1 Like
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You’re welcome. I’m glad you have a plan B.

No, do not post here as this forum is public. Instead, follow the instructions here to submit your essays for review.

Tagging @hebegebe as he may be able to help.

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Do not post your essay publicly! If you would like feedback, please follow the rules here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/follow-these-instructions-to-get-essay-help/3640959/

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@orelig2006,

I think you may qualify for an Academic 1 or 1-. You should be proud of your many accomplishments.

While a 1 means a very high chance of admission for a domestic applicant, the odds are quite a bit lower for an international applicant.

To put things into perspective, MIT cares much more about IMO than Harvard, and they only accept about half of international applicants that made it to the IMO. So a rough estimate of admit rate for you at Harvard is about 25%.

By the way, I am about to board some international flights, so I won’t be responding for a while.

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Have a safe trip @hebegebe. And thank you!

1 Like
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Thank you so much for your reply!

When you have time and you are back from your trips (be safe!), could you please comment on my extracurriculars, too?

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Why just T20 universities?

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You’re clearly a superlative applicant.

List optimization: You must remove UCs and any public university if you included them in your top 20. You may want to add Amherst College (need blind full need for internationals, one of the most selective colleges in the US although not known abroad, and in a consortium with other colleges which can matter for math.)
HarveyMudd likes top (IMO) math students.

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Because out of the T-20 there are very few options that
i) meet my financial aid needs and
ii) are in a sufficiently good level of academic excellence that would motive me to leave my country…

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@MYOS1634

I have removed UCs since day 1… As for public universities, I do not recall including any, but why is this bad if they are giving financial aid? I have added Pomona and Amherst - from what I saw they are really prestigious.

Is Harvey Mudd a prestigious university?

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I think you might be missing some fabulous colleges where your need possibly could be met…and have very high academic standards.

Are you saying you need a full free ride? Remember…the colleges compute your financial need, and it’s based on your family income and assets primarily.

14

Taking a look at HarveyMudd, I saw that it actually doesn’t give financial aid to international students…

15

Well, my family’s gross income is a bit less than 25000$ a year, so my family cannot afford anything else than a full ride…

Could you suggest any colleges I am missing? Here is my list of (23) colleges I’m currently thinking of applying to (and have written essays and such):

MIT
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
Caltech
Columbia
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Miami
Northwestern
NYU
Rice
Michigan
Franklin & Marshall
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
Pomona
Duke
UPenn
Notre Dame
Vanderbilt

… and three Canada institutions: Toronto, Waterloo, UBC

16

This is from the Harvey Mudd website…

@orelig2006 looks like they do provide limited need based aid to international students…unless I’m reading this wrong. @MYOS1634 what do you think?

International Students and Financial Aid

Harvey Mudd College offers financial aid to a small number of admitted international applicants. Because funding for international students is limited, your level of financial need may affect your chances for admission if you apply for financial aid. International students are not eligible for federal financial support. Please be advised:

  • Competition for funding is high. We are able to meet 100% of a family’s demonstrated need for only a handful of international students.
  • If you enter Harvey Mudd College as an international student who does not need financial aid, you won’t be eligible to apply for aid in subsequent years.
  • Harvey Mudd does not offer funding for international transfer students. An international transfer student may only apply to Harvey Mudd College if he or she is not applying for financial aid.
17

Michigan does not guarantee to meet full need for those who are not residents of…Michigan.

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Oh, oops :frowning: Thanks for catching this. I will consider applying to Harvey Mudd instead.

19

They say only a handful get full need met. That’s 5 or under…total. But you could be one of them. Good luck.

1 Like
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Haha thank you for giving me hope :slight_smile: And for taking time to help me with my queries - if you know of any other college I am missing, please let me know!