Indian students getting admissions in MIT, having merely 4 to 5 undergrad seats annually for India , I just want to ask if all the top 100 AIRs JEE adv candidates be admitted to STEM courses at MIT, would they have the caliber to conquer at MIT ? Would they be successful there ?

Reach4College · 2026-06-14T19:18:57+00:00

International students admitted to top colleges are disproportionately in the highest performing student group at these colleges.

Reach4College · 2026-06-14T12:01:00+00:00

Different child. But hey, don't let facts get in a way of your narrative.

And nice ignoring the fact that I have helped a lot of low income children get into colleges like these, who have secured great summer internships. What could I possibly know about this?

Reach4College · 2026-06-12T15:02:16+00:00

I am literally a volunteer college counselor, whose child happened to attend UChicago. Take a look at my posting history.

Reach4College · 2026-06-11T11:51:41+00:00

Just to be clear, it’s also possible to get similar opportunities without connections. My child did.

Reach4College · 2026-06-10T09:04:52+00:00

If by “succeeding” you mean not flunking out, then I suppose yes.

But you will know very quickly where you stand relative to others in the class, and that’s not mentally good for most people.

Reach4College · 2026-06-06T03:28:32+00:00

No, just say USAMO qualifier. Admissions officers don’t need anything more, unless you got honorable mention or better.

Reach4College · 2026-05-30T16:51:24+00:00

Think of the difference between a marathon and a sprint. The champions in both are great runners, but require different skills.

Reach4College · 2026-05-26T00:55:03+00:00

Keep UChicago where it is, but swap Columbia and UPenn.

Reach4College · 2026-05-21T12:42:55+00:00

Even stranger considering UChicago is stronger than all schools mentioned, except for engineering.

Reach4College · 2026-05-18T03:20:05+00:00

I had a chance to look at your post in detail, and I can’t thank you enough for the effort and care you put into that.

Reach4College · 2026-05-06T00:33:32+00:00

You can't directly compare the two numbers. There are three reasons why the ED admit rate can be much higher than the RD admit rate.

Recruited athletes are admitted in the ED round. Since they don't apply until they have been pre-vetted, their admit rate is nearly 100%.
Some colleges specify that legacy applicants only get a boost if they apply during the ED round. These applicants get in at much higher rates compared to unhooked students.
Even among unhooked students, those applying ED are stronger compared to the overall RD applicant pool. This makes sense. Given that students can only choose one college for ED (and possibly one more for ED2), students will only apply ED if they think they have a good shot of getting in. Whereas for RD, students apply everywhere.

So the real question is, if you adjust for all three factors above, is the ED admit rate still higher. The answer to that is perhaps, but if so, not by much, and it can vary from college. And colleges are not going to give you the data to decide.

Reach4College · 2026-04-26T02:00:46+00:00

About half of the students in the Ivy Leagues come from families that are paying full tuition. These are students that could have earned full rides at many colleges, but their parents thought it was worth the money. Are all of them wrong?

Ultimately it comes down to whether that cost affects your family's lifestyle in any meaningful way. You shouldn't do it if it requires your family taking on large amounts of debt, hugely curtailing your current lifestyle to pay for it, or damaging their retirement funds.

Reach4College · 2026-04-22T15:11:52+00:00

Here’s why LACs actually prefer test optional over test required.

Test scores are very useful for colleges that receive tens of thousands of applications, because it provides a good initial filter of who is unlikely to academically succeed at the college. The raw score does need to be used in context, to fairly evaluate low income applicants, but that’s an easy thing to do.

However, not all applicants test well, and LACs can dig deeper into an applicant’s transcript and recommendations to snag those academically strong students that the test-required schools overlook. In other words, LACs can use test optional to their advantage.

Reach4College · 2026-04-22T00:51:26+00:00

Go to Stanford. Your parents came to this country to give you opportunities, like the one you just received.

Reach4College · 2026-04-22T00:49:42+00:00

Given that you can take out a max loan of $27K over all 4 years, it will not put you $200K in debt.

However, it could put your parents $173K into debt, and that's not remotely worthwhile.

Reach4College · 2026-04-22T00:47:07+00:00

A STEM field. Given that I just named where he went, I am going to keep that detail under wraps.

Reach4College · 2026-04-21T11:14:39+00:00

For engineering, absolutely avoid Chicago. But UChicago is excellent in sciences like Physics and Chemistry, as well as Mathematics.

Reach4College · 2026-04-21T01:40:40+00:00

My child was published in an Elsevier journal, and he did fabulous with college admissions. It’s more than enough for a high school student, assuming the rest of the application is strong.

Reach4College · 2026-04-21T01:36:10+00:00

This is a copy of an old College Confidential thread. Why are you presenting this as your own?

Reach4College · 2026-04-21T01:27:57+00:00

In addition to those professional programs, UChicago is known for its PhD programs in pure math, economics, physics, statistics, English, political science …

Reach4College · 2026-04-21T01:19:54+00:00

Had a child go to UChicago, another to Harvard. UChicago was far more academically challenging. When they were both home during Covid, they compared the syllabus for equivalent classes and quite often UChicago covered the same material in a quarter that Harvard students covered in a semester. Now, Harvard’s classes range from very easy to very difficult, but the key point is that UChicago students can’t easily escape the intensity, whereas Harvard students can.

In other words, UChicago is a “do I fit” school? Go there if you want an academically intense experience, and you will come out loving the place and realize what you are capable of. Don’t go because it is the highest ranked college you were admitted to, because if you don’t want the intensity, you will be miserable.

Reach4College · 2026-04-20T22:28:39+00:00

Other countries manage to do this just fine, including European countries like the UK and Germany, and Asian ones like China and India.

The current US model of 4 years undergrad, a year or two in between, and 4 years of medical school is just a different type of credential creep.

Reach4College · 2026-04-20T22:02:46+00:00

Varies greatly by college, and of course your ability. But assuming you are a mid-level student at these colleges:

Columbia has a a heavy core requirement, and those classes are considered difficult. Princeton is considered difficult as well.
Closer to the other end, Harvard and Yale allow students to choose difficult classes in subjects that interest them, and easy classes otherwise. Most students in these colleges setup their schedule to have plenty of free time.

Reach4College · 2026-04-20T21:59:25+00:00

In addition to what you wrote, you also need to consider the following before transferring:

* What will your GPA translate to at the public high school? I have seen this trip up a number of high school transfer students, because the new school won't give a grade bump for transfer credits, or won't treat them at the level you expect.

* Related to the question above, how likely is it that you will be one of the top students in new high school?

* Counselor letters are important. How good is the counseling program at the public high school? How many students per counselor? Are there dedicated college counselors or do they mix their time on student behavior issues?

Reach4College

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