Expert: Todd Johnson - 7/10/2009

Question
QUESTION: hey ....
Please try to reply fast because I want to apply for the spring session.I am from India....
I have got a score of 1650 in SAT I -
Math-710
Writing-530
C.R-410

I got -
84% in 10th
81% in 12th
<Indian CBSE board>
I always stood in top 10% in my class.
I have not taken TOEFL yet < But I took many mock tests under the guidance of a teacher and mostly got above 100 in iBT>


I have always been an active participant in various extracurricular activities< I have won various awards for that> and was an important member of my school cabinet team.
I am a basketball player and was a part of my school team. I have played that on district level.
I have done about 250 hours of community service and I am associated with 2 NGOs.


So, please help me choose the best ones among good universities of USA...........< Engineering>.....................
thanks


ANSWER: Aayush,

I am afraid that I can not answer your question with the information provided. Choosing a college is a very personal decision as there are over 3,000 colleges in the US. You need to decide what you want from a college first, size, location, learning style, that sort of thing,  and then find a college that fits your needs.

Anyone who suggests a college without knowing more about you and what you are looking for is not giving you good advice.

Once you have decided what you might want from a college then I would suggest that you go to the website College Navigator. http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

This website allows you to put in information about what you are looking for in a college as well as information about your test scores and it will give you a list of colleges that meet your needs.

I hope that helps you find the right college for your needs.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hey ,
the college size , location , learning style ,that sort of thing doesn't matter to me.The thing really matters to me is the quality of education and its world ranking.
Here's the list-
Brown U
Cal Tech
Chicago SU
Columbia U
Cornell U
Dartmouth C
Florida SU
Georgia Tech
Harvard C
Johns Hopkins U
MIT
New York I Tech
New York U
Princeton U
Purdue U
Stanford U
Texas A&M U
University of Texas at Austin
U Calif Berkeley
U Calif Los Angeles
U Calif San Diego
U Calif Santa Barb
U Chicago
U Illinois Chicago
U Illinois Urbana
U Michigan
U Pennsylvania
U San Francisco
Yale U
Please help me figure out among these universites,the universities I can get based on my profile.
My GPA is around 3.25. But will universities consider that from which country student did his schooling ?  


ANSWER: Aayush,

Forget world rankings because there is no such reliable ranking. Any ranking that does exist only applies to the criteria that the designer of the ranking wants colleges to rank well for. For instance, Harvard often ranks 1 in rankings but senior administrators of Harvard have said that they wish there education was as good as that provided by small liberal arts colleges that aren't ranked on a world wide basis.

Unfortunately, there is no way to just say that a person with certain SAT scores and GPA will be admitted to this college or another. It is unlikely that with your grades and test scores that you would be admitted to most of the colleges on your list. Harvard for instance only admits about 8% of US students applying and a smaller number of international students. Of those admitted very few have more than 1 or 2 B's in their classes and almost all with have SAT scores in excess of 2100.  Even among students with those kinds of grades and test scores very few are admitted.

Universities do consider where you got your education but for most international students, it is more difficult to get accepted than for most US students.

You best bet if your only concern is ranking is to go to the college navigator website I mentioned before and using your list, find colleges that have SAT scores similar to yours.

I would also suggest that you pick some colleges where you are fairly sure of getting into and add them to your list.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ok......
my SAT teacher told me that I have fair chances to get into Purdue University , Univ of texas at austin and Texas A&M University.....
What is your opinion based on my above profile?
Can I try?

Answer
These are just my opinions, no guarantees here. Your critical reading score is low for Purdue but otherwise it looks like a match school. The fact that you are interested in engineering helps because of your higher math score but because Purdue is known for engineering, the average scores for engineering applicants tends to be higher than for the university overall.

I think the University of Texas at Austin is a reach. You may get in but good chance you won't.

Texas A & M is probably a match school but again, I think you would be more competitive with a higher critical reading score.