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Hi there I would appreciate any feedback concerning which college I should apply to.

(Since I am already in a college I am looking for mostly reaches and matches.)


My info is:

International applicant.
Location: New Delhi, India
Race/Gender: Male, Asian, Indian Subcontinent
Prospective Major: Computer Science
Need finaid, tons of it!

SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Verbal: 700

SAT II Scores
SAT II Writing: 760
SAT II Math IIC: 800
SAT II Chemistry: 790
SAT II Physics: 800

ACADEMIC :

Bronze Medal at 15th International olympiad of Informatics'03, USA. (88th/265) (Highest scorer from India)

Rank 1 in the Indian National Informatics Camp'03

Rank 10 in the Regional Mathematics Olympiad'03, Delhi Region (State level).

Rank 49 in the Regional Mathematics Olympiad'04, Delhi Region (State level)

Six scholar badges from my school for meritorious academic performance in all the years possible.
(6th - 11th, the award is not given in 12th)

Certificate of felicitation by the French embassy for excellent performance (90%) in French in 10th boards.

Distinctive performance in the Indian National Cyber Olympiad'01. (Not related to the six intl olympiads)

EXTRA-CURRICULAR :

Currently, rank 3 amoung the 265 Indian programmers at www.topcoder.com
(handle: Ishan, rating: 1694)

Stood 2nd in the programming competition at Shaastra'03 held at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. 85 teams (3 member) from various institutes in South India including from the IIT's participated.

School computer club
Member (10-12), Director Programming (11-12) , co-Vice President (12) and Judge (this year).

I have succesfully represented my school in inter school (state level) computer competitions (2 member teams):

In programming
2 firsts, 5 seconds, 2 thirds

In quiz
1 third

Math lab
Member maths lab (11) and Judge (this year)

Gaming
Represented my school in inter school gaming competitions (State level)
1 first 1 second

Puzzle solving
Rank 12 in the Indian National Puzzle Championship conducted online (12th/150)

Other

Participated in the Intel Dare to dream event and met the Intel Ceo.
(Selected as one of 15 from Delhi)(State level)

WORK EX:
Currently doing contract work for topcoder.com (writing problem sets)

School Record
top 10% of batch at a public magnet school

10th
science, math, french, english, social studies
all a's (4 a1's and 1 a2)

9th and 11th were similar

12th
math, computer science, english a1's
Physics b1 Chemistry c2

Although I havent had my college exams yet I should be able to get grades like in 9,10,11th.

I am currently doing a bachelor in science (computer science major).

By Angel_Handsome (Angel_Handsome) on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 03:08 pm: Edit

You would want to apply to MIT(x-reach), Stanford(x-reach), CMU(match/reach), Cornell(reach), UIUC(safety), Caltech(x-reach), Georgia Tech(match), Purdue(safety), UCLA(Safety/match) and Princeton(x-reach). If admitted pick anyone with highest aid. MIT loves olympians so you might see familiar faces if u decide to attend.
Do not remove MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell and safety schools from your list. why? because those four schools give tons of aid to int'l
students and safety school are just a nice cushion.
PS- I wouldn't be surprised if you get into all the top schools, but you have to understand that int'l pool is extremely competitive.

By Angel_Handsome (Angel_Handsome) on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 05:38 pm: Edit

and delete Princeton since it doesnt take any transfers.

By Ishan (Ishan) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 03:08 pm: Edit

thnks for the feedback

bump

By Ishan (Ishan) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 01:38 am: Edit

bump, anyone else ?

By Cooldude (Cooldude) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 10:00 am: Edit

hi Ishan,
so where are you right now?? that will also most probably be a factor,

anyways heres my list (although freshmen) for CS:
MIT
Stanford
Princeton
Harvard
Cornell
Duke
Yale
Northwestern
Georgia Tech
UT Austin
JHU
Tufts

On my list most of the schools are from good to excellent in CS, but all of them give Financial Aid except Georgia Tech and Northwestern does not give aid to intls tranfers.

btw The Indian post still exists
do you know any Indians who got into MIT??

I still dont believe what happened in March

By Cooldude (Cooldude) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 10:32 am: Edit

even brown university has a good cs program

By 007 (007) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 09:21 am: Edit

yep, the list is quite good