I am 17. Old enough to give college advice LOL.

APPLIES TO INDIAN APPLICANTS TO UNIVERSITIES ABROAD

It is hard to imagine that school is done. I thought I would have to walk home from the railway crossing for some more time, try to finish chemistry at the rate of one chapter per hour for some more time (okay well this one is a relief), draw parallelepipeds and polka-dotted cubes along the margins of my notebook for some more time and make ‘logical’ predictions of my college acceptances for some more time. I will not succumb to any clichés. Will elude the “what an amazing journey”, “such a hell of a ride”, “gave me everlasting memories”, and all the stuff that makes you cringe (not to mention that my first sentence was the epitome of cringe-worthiness (oh look even the self-deprecation is cliché!)).

So I will simply tell you very specifically (look here all prospective foreign universities applicants!) what I did right and what I could have done better (nothing was wrong, happens for a reason peeps!).

1)    Start early. I didn’t. I was still deciding until middle of 11^th grade. But if you are a late bloomer and are reading this in junior year, don’t worry, everything is under control. So first things first, take a deep breath and realize how absolutely useless any sort of stress would be. You will still be alive, still have a roof to live under, still have medicines when you fall ill and still have alternatives or a second chance if things don’t work out.  
2)    Assuming you have the ground rules clear, let’s move on to the more specific application bits. I will take you through everything that makes up your application to college, step by step. Your grades, your tests, your activities, your essays, the money games and everything, bear with me.

       3) Also, at any point in the upcoming bombardment of advice, if you disagree with me, please know that I speak from first-hand experience of my application and from what I have very consistently noticed in acceptance rejection waitlist trends at colleges. But I am only 17 then. I should hardly understand this. I may be phenomenally wrong. Then, so can be anyone. So take everything with a grain of salt if you like, but the insight is worth sharing so I will just write away! 😊

STANDARDIZED TESTS

 Get this right. Some say “standardized test scores don’t matter” and some say that people who say “standardized test scores don’t matter are wrong”.

They might not matter in context of your entire application in some cases. But if you want to be able to decide between Indian colleges (especially if you are a prospective STEM major) and US universities as early as possible, get a great score so you can work accordingly in the future and expect to get admission into at least a decent university, probably less financially feasible (referring to well ranked state schools with strong focus on academics).

Now, do they matter in top tier admissions?

The answer is they matter enough for you to take them seriously and try again if you don’t get your score in the first time. I have seen wonderfully intelligent people (with external validation too) get rejected. So don’t leave any string un-pulled!

SAT or ACT?

Whatever suits you. I took the old SAT two times and new one once to finally have a great score. I never attempted the ACT, despite its rising popularity, because the new SAT was more lenient on time and had a better Math component for me. So try both of them once when you prepare and choose for yourself what suits you better. I will probably make a new post about SAT advice later.

What is a decent score?

A score which shouldn’t negatively affect your application and be just another “checked” point I suppose would be like 1540 in new SAT and 34 in ACT. BUT AGAIN, I have seen students get admitted to ivies with 33 and rejected despite of 36. So try your best to get your best score to be on the safe side.

Subject tests?

 Definitely. STEM majors 101%. Some colleges require it anyway. And you know what, get 800s. It’s terribly easy. BUT AGAIN, I have seen students admitted to top tier STEM colleges with 760s and 750s. So try your best to get your best score to be on the safe side. If you have traditionally prepared in coaching institutes or tuitions, GET THOSE 800s. It eliminates reasons for the adcoms to eliminate you!

Advanced Placement Exams

Yes take them. They may not matter much in college applications but, if you are serious about US, will save up a lot of money in quite a few colleges. I gave Calculus BC and Mechanics and will give CS A and Bio now to earn around 40-50 credit units already.

SCHOOL EXAMS

Please perform well in these! And for god’s sake, STUDY EVERYDAY. No matter how many activities you are participating in, give at least an hour on even your worst days. This is something I didn’t do at all. Know that you can’t cruise through your exams like you did earlier without giving up all sleep in the breaks between your final exams (hello CBSE!), and this is coming from someone known for gobbling up entire books in a matter of a couple of days.

BUT AGAIN, mediocre scorers get in while top scorers do not.

EXTRA-CURRICULARS

Disclaimer: I will advise with respect to STEM majors here. Can’t trust myself with the rest.

As STEM majors, you have a lot of scope to fill up your CommonApp. Internships, awards, competitions, exams, projects, welfare, research, any form of expression really.

As I said before, do your best.

Start pulling all strings. Contact professors, preferably from reputable universities in India or abroad if possible, and take up research. I worked with someone mostly highly disinterested and published a paper entirely on my own and did original research entirely on my own. I hope you guys get to be in a better position. Networking is the key. I know some hardcore STEMmies like me might hate it, but the sad truth is what it is. Definitely ask your parents to get some leads for you if possible.

Same goes for internships and offline certified courses. Same goes for working on projects individually or with a team. I had to do most projects alone and that left me panting as I ran between 5 places everyday last summer trying to get things done. I thought later, mostly to console myself, that working alone might show more calibre or sorts but no. Unless you really describe all your struggles in the process in an essay, adcoms will probably not even register the difference between a team/individual initiative. So try to make work more efficient and manageable. I failed in this area terribly. Sacrificed all no-work time juggling everything.

Most importantly, try to get some recognition. Do something at a level beyond school to have your best shot at standing out. Make an app, start an organization, publish original work, etc. [NOT TO MENTION EVERYONE DOES IT NOW. CARVE YOUR WAY TO STANDING OUT].

In short, if you are capable enough to do these things, add on to your platter of skills the ability to network a bit more. That’s the key.

ESSAYS

BWAHAHAHAHAAH. Please sorry but when anyone says “she/he got in because of better essays” LOL. I sympathize with you that ability to write should not be a reason to eliminate an otherwise wonderful candidate. SADLY, that’s how things work. Those tier one colleges need some masala to make their “holistic” decisions.

So well, your only option is to give them that masala. Write about unconventional ideas and topics but do not overdo it. Please do not describe an extracurricular or some struggle plainly like it happened. Derive metaphors and learning and sure as hell vary sentence structure and furnish vocabulary. This is a very subjective area. Cannot comment much. But make sure your essays align with your interests. Make sure they, wait what do the experts say, “let your passion come through” since they are only interested in “what make you you” (slight sarcasm, apologies).

WHY YOU WILL BE REJECTED DESPITE OF A WONDERFUL APPLICATION

Okay now. Buckle up. You may work very hard. You may sacrifice everything. You may struggle more than others. You may feel you deserve the best. But you may (or may not!) need financial aid. Lolled right there. LOOK. Competition is tough. Internationals are a major source of income at these aid giving top tier universities. Candidates asking for aid WILL BE significantly disadvantaged. SO PLEASE LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS TODAY, RIGHT NOW. Even super deserving applicants asking for no aid will get much less than they expect in many cases. WHY?

Aid/no aid, legacies, US citizens, city/area representation, selectivity of a particular major, minority gender in a major, very difficult past, very resourceful background and sometimes a stroke of luck – after accounting for all this, as Ed Boland put it, “there isn’t much room left for your generic genius”.

So what do we do? We spread our net wide. We apply to all kinds of colleges. We lower our expectations. And we work really hard. PLUS we work smartly to maximize our chances.

And we let it all go. All strings detached.

GENERAL COMMENTS: Not bragging, just telling you how things are, I had pretty much all prestigious competitive academic achievements of India put together. Loads of awards. Loads of work in Computer Science (also most competitive major lol). Really unconventional essays. I applied for financial aid. Got waitlisted at Columbia, UPenn, Princeton. But on the brighter side got into Carnegie Mellon SCS (yay, also 50L Rs. Per year lol), Olin College of Engineering, Vanderbilt, and Rice (last three with aid/scholarships) which have lower acceptance rate for CS than do some ivies. Got into USC (with just nom for scholarship), UCLA, UIUC, UCSD, and likes and HK universities (with targeted HKSAR Government scholarship given to less than 10 students worldwide including Hong Kong) and Canada universities.

AGAIN I AM NOT BRAGGING: I AM TELLING YOU THAT MANY PEOPLE WITH STRONG APPLICATIONS WILL GET REJECTED. I AM NOT A GENIUS BUT I HOPE YOU CAN SEE THE RANDOMNESS OF ADMISSIONS FROM THIS.

SO, know that what happens to you happens for the best. And as I always say, “Keep Calm and Apply Everywhere" LOL.

Cheers,

MYD 😊