u/itsthalapathy

Chance a maybe cooked student for UCs and T20s

Demographics: Live in SoCal

Currently a rising senior

Gender: Male

Race: Indian

Income: ~200k

Type of school: Very competitive magnet school (top schools in country)

Hooks: N/A

Intended Major: Chemical Engineering (I’m afraid that my ECs don’t reflect that)

Academics:

GPA: 3.96 UW, 4.6W (2 B freshman year in APES)

SAT: 1500 (730 rw, 770m), retaking in August

12th Grade Classes: AP Literature, AP Chemistry, Calculus-Based General Physics DE, Calc III DE, Engineering Design, Biotech Capstone, Software Design

School Doesn’t Report Rank

11 APs (APES, World History, Precalc, CSP, CSA, Lang, Physics, Calc BC, Stats, Chem, Lit)

Extracurriculars (for this post, I’ll be avoiding certain details to remain anonymous)

1. Independent ML Researcher, PFAS Bioaccumulation Python Modeling Using Public US EPA Data (RandomForest), mentored by University of Oxford PhD

2. Developer & Tester, Homemade Creation of Organic Fertilizer (~35% better than commercial brands, conducted testing across 15 gardens)

3. YouTube Media Manager, local cultural nonprofit (gained +130k views, 800 followers, 4M impressions)

4. UI/UX Intern, small startup creating an iOS accessibility app for deaf community

5. Finalist, Non-Trivial Foundations Spring Research Program (4-10% acceptance rate, researched on industrial emissions and PFAS mitigation)

6. Daily, lifelong Hindu prayer since grade 9

7. Biophysics Summer Intern at department of physics at local university (project on cancer cells, ongoing)

8. President, Indian Student Association (grew membership from 15 to 40 students, raised $2k)

9. Workshop Manager, MedicalTech Club (taught kids fruit DNA extraction labs & led assembly for prosthetics)

10. Co-President (12), Treasurer (10-11), USA Biolympiad

Awards/Honors:

1. Non-Trivial Foundations Certificate
2. Sci-MI Ethics Distinction Award
3. CIF-SS Academic Award for Track
4. USABO Merit Certificate
5. AP Scholar with Distinction (or Honors)

College List:

UCLA

UC Berkeley

UC San Diego

UT Austin

Cal Poly SLO (MaterialsE for this school)

UC Irvine

Purdue

UIUC

UC Davis

UC Riverside

Cal Poly Pomona

UC Santa Barbara

Princeton

Stanford

Carnegie Mellon

Thank you for reading this and hope to hear your responses!

I’m on H4 living in California and have decided to apply to schools in the US. However for some privates and OOS, I noticed almost all of them are need-aware (aiming for T20s), and I know income plays a role in international admissions. Also, I’m afraid I am not full-pay, most likely need financial aid but def not a full ride (about annual ~200k)

Im a rising senior who goes to a competitive high school and finished 3 years of Spanish (Spanish 1-3) and I was thinking of stopping there. But I am considering taking the 4th year of Spanish, which in my school is AP Spanish. That is ranked as the hardest class in my whole high school, even heritage speakers average a B-/C+. I am a below-average Spanish speaker myself, but I was wondering if I was should take Spanish 4 (idk the exact name) at a local CC for the 4 years of Spanish. Overall, I’m concerned whether 4 years of foreign language is useful for top colleges, and if that makes me standout when most people stop at 3 years at my school. Thank you.

For reference, my senior year workload is AP Chemistry, AP Lit, Engineering & Biotech Capstone, Physics C Mechanics (S1), Calc III (S2).

I’m on H4 living in California and have decided to apply to schools in the US. However for some privates and OOS, I noticed almost all of them are need-aware, and I know income plays a role in international admissions. Also, I’m afraid I am not full-pay, most likely need financial aid but not a full ride.

anyone got an email?