Students should attempt to strengthen their profile with the goal of making themselves more attractive to admissions committees. Beginning a social service or academic project outside of curricular work will help in this regard. It is best to design such projects keeping in mind that the colleges are looking for initiative, leadership, social consciousness, temperament, local and global engagement, and perseverance.
As such these projects should aim to combine the student’s personal interests with issues of local importance that can be tied into global concerns. These projects should be developed over a multimonth timeline that demonstrates the ability to plan, execute, and carry out a complicated project. If required, they can work with others and demonstrate managerial ability. It is advantageous to ally student projects with student academic interests as this will show commitment and perseverance.
Students should not undertake walks, factfinding, or any social service project that is short-term (less than three months) as these appear to be obvious CV-stuffers to admissions deans. While doing an academic project, the student must remember that it will be judged by worldwide standards. It should be unique and require research and expertise of an advanced nature. It is best utilised to showcase ability to undertake advanced undergraduate work.
However, when applying to more selective colleges it is important to remember the huge advantage in resources available to American students throughout this process. For example, many of the students applying to colleges such as MIT and CalTech have won global programming competitions and undertaken very high level research internships with NASA, CERN, etc. For Indian students it would be preferable to use this opportunity to reflect on issues central to the Indian experience. One of the essential facts to remember when applying to the US colleges is that our student is offering their student body a fresh perspective.
Keeping this in mind will help us overcome the American student’s advantages in available resources. By focusing on the uniqueness offered to our student by living here, we will be able to best situate their project for positive feedback from US universities. It is essential that we convey the vast difference in admission rates for international students requiring and not requiring financial aid. International students not requiring aid are admitted at roughly the same rate as domestic students (with lower rates for top universities that have a limit on the number of admits from any nationality).
However, international students requiring aid are admitted at a maximum of two-three per cent (and that too in the few colleges which offer financial aid). The admission rate decreases with each dollar in funding required. Thus, it is important that the student and their parents sit down for an honest conversation about the aid required or not required. Parents should be advised of this discrepancy as early in the process as possible.
Once this information is understood, we may begin short listing universities which are a complicated and research-intensive process. If done right, it can maximise the student’s chances of finding their perfect fit.
Short listing of universities should be conducted keeping in mind the student’s academic, professional and personal interests, temperament and family finances. Balancing these five variables requires a significant amount of expertise, often unavailable to the student or their parents, and may be used as a selling point for our product.
(The writer is co-founder, Collegify)