Hey everyone!

I'm an Indian student in Class 11, and I really want to study in the US for my undergrad. Getting into an Ivy League university is a dream of mine, but honestly, my profile right now isn't great.

My grades haven't been the best, and I have pretty much no extracurriculars or major achievements to talk about. I know getting into these universities is extremely difficult, especially as an international student, but I still want to give it a serious shot instead of giving up before I even try.

I have around 10–15 days of autumn break coming up, and I want to make good use of that time. The problem is, I don't really know where to start or what I should focus on first.

I'd love to hear from people who've been through this process, especially Indian students who've applied to US universities or managed to get good financial aid.

A few things I'm confused about:

With my current grades, what should I focus on over the next year or two to improve my chances?

How do I figure out what I'm genuinely interested in and turn it into meaningful projects or extracurriculars? Are there any good ideas I could start working on during my break?

Since studying in the US is expensive, how does financial aid work for Indian students? Which universities should I look into if I need a lot of financial support?

I'm ready to put in the effort, but right now I feel a bit lost about where to begin. I'd really appreciate any honest advice, useful resources, or stories from people who've been in a similar situation.

Thanks in advance!

hey everyone,

I'm an Indian CBSE student finalizing my college applications, and I'd really appreciate some perspective from folks who've either studied in Hong Kong or transitioned from international undergrads to top US graduate programs.

My Profile & Plan

• Curriculum: CBSE (PCM)
• Stats: 10th: 95.6%, 11th: 82%, 12th Predicted: 97.4% (98 Math, 96 Physics), SAT: ~1510 (retaking).
• Target Programs: Double Major in Mathematics + Computer Science / Computing Mathematics / MIEG at HKU, HKUST, CUHK, CityU, and PolyU (Early/Priority rounds).
• Financial Expectation: Based on Hong Kong's merit formula for 95%+ CBSE scores, I'm tracking very high odds for a Full Tuition waiver ($0 tuition), with strong chances of a Full Ride (tuition + living stipend). Net out-of-pocket would be ~$0 to ~$8k USD/year at worst (if only tuition is waived and I pay housing/food).

The Long-Term Objective

• Graduate with a strong GPA (aiming 3.6–3.8+) and 2–3 years of undergraduate research/publications.
• Target fully funded graduate positions (Direct PhD or funded Thesis MS via GTA/GRA) in the US (Stanford, CMU, UIUC, Princeton, etc.) in Applied Math, CS Theory, or ML/Quant.

The Dilemma: Hong Kong Full Ride vs. India

My realistic alternative is staying in India (navigating the usual JEE / BITS / tier-1/tier-2 options).

On paper, Hong Kong feels like a no-brainer:

1. World Top 20–60 universities (HKU, HKUST, CUHK) with zero or near-zero debt.
2. English-medium curriculum, high-caliber international faculty with direct ties/collaborations with top US R1 universities.
3. Access to formal undergraduate research programs (UROP) from Year 1–2.
4. Heavy quant/finance presence if I decide to work before grad school.

My Questions for Redditors:

1. US Grad Admissions Perception: How do top US CS/Math graduate admissions committees view a BSc from HKU/HKUST/CUHK compared to an Indian tier-1/tier-2 undergrad (IIT/BITS/NIT)? Does the faculty letter-of-rec pipeline from HK hold weight in the US?
2. Research Access: Is it realistically accessible for undergrads in HK to get into active labs and co-author papers early (freshman/sophomore year), or is lab space fiercely guarded for PhDs?
3. Upper-Year Housing & Cost of Living: How difficult is finding off-campus shared flats in Years 3–4 once hall priority expires, and what does real out-of-pocket spending look like?
4. Is this an obvious choice over India? Anyone who made the choice between top Indian colleges and a HK full-ride—do you have any regrets regarding peer group, culture shock, or post-grad mobility?

Would love candid takes from current students, alumni, or anyone familiar with the grad admissions scene. Thanks in advance!

I know students ask this every year (I searched for the answer to this question), but I still want to confirm so it doesn't cause any issues.

I'm from Pakistan, and we give the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) exams, which are divided into two parts (Part 1 for 11th and Part 2 for 12th). The results for both parts are combined to give the HSSC score (which I believe is the Senior Secondary Leaving Exam).

I'm in 12th right now, and I have given the first part in 11th; should I report this?

There's also another school leaving exam called the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams, which is also divided into two parts (Part 1 for 9th and Part 2 for 10th). Will that also be considered?

Hi! I completed two years of medical school in my home country with around 140 credit points, but my transcript includes low and failing grades. If I start over at a U.S. community college in Computer Science and earn a 3.8–4.0 GPA over 60 credits, will my previous grades still hurt my chances of transferring to a competitive university? Are there universities that focus on the most recent 60 credits or exclude previous international coursework from GPA calculations?

Hi there! I'm an international student from India. I'm currently in my 11th grade.
High school stats:
9th grade(CBSE): 96.5%
10th grade(CBSE): 99.3%

I switched to the Telangana state board(I live in Hyderabad, Telangana) in 11th grade because I wanted to prepare for Indian entrance exams but by July my mind changed and now I want to apply to the US.

I took the SAT this year in September and scored a 1480 (800 math and 680 R&W). I will retake the SAT next year sometime around June to push my score above 1500 and possibly above 1550.

Because Indian state boards are considered somewhat easy when compared to National Indian Education boards such as CBSE and ICSE, I have booked 3 AP exams to showcase my academic rigour which I'll be taking in May 2027. The 3 AP exams that I booked as an external candidate are: 1) AP Calculus BC; 2) AP Computer Science A; 3) AP Physics C: Mechanics
I'll study hard to get all 5's.

Extracurriculars: Played in my school's handball team and competed at the national level twice ( once in 9th grade and once in 10th)
Wrote a research article about data centers and it has been accepted in the curieux academic journal.
I have been accepted to intern for 3 weeks at an AI startup next year.
I co-designed a fully functional website for family's pharma business which has over 100 transactions till now.

Major Applying to: Computer Engineering/ First year Engineering(or general engineering equivalent).
Term applying for : FALL 2028

It would be really helpful if you could give me some university suggestions in T200/T100 globally.
Regarding finances: I do not require a full ride but a partial merit scholarship might be needed( I can fund ~150,000 USD comfortably; anything above that and I'll have to take an education loan).
Could you also could suggest me some globally reputed strong universities in other countries( such as Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Canada) where I have a good shot at getting accepted.

Hey everyone,

​I'm an international student aiming for a full ride (100% financial aid) at need-aware US liberal arts colleges. I plan to major in Astrophysics and apply Early Decision (ED) to maximize my chances.

​I know the competition is brutal for internationals needing aid, so I want brutal honesty based on real admission data and your expertise. Would the following 3 core components of my profile make me a competitive applicant?

​Stats: An SAT score of 1450+

​EC 1: A physics-focused programming project.

​EC 2: Organizing and independently funding a local astronomy exhibition for school students to inspire them to pursue science.

​For context, the rest of my application will include:

​A strong Personal Statement (I'm working on it with the guidance of an expert counselor).

​Several high school academic excellence awards.

​Strong Letters of Recommendation (LORs) from my teachers.

​Is this enough to secure full aid at need-aware LACs, or is it considered average for this demographic? Any advice or reality checks would be highly appreciated.

​Thanks in advance!

For those who don’t follow the Inside Yale Admissions Podcast https://admissions.yale.edu/podcast, the latest episode they posted gives such great insight into the process. If you are applying for or interested in admissions to a selective/competitive US school, you really should check out the whole series.

Here are some really key takeaways from the episode which was posted at https://admissions.yale.edu/posts/2026-09-01-what-yale-looks-for-part-1-academic-strength :

• Establishing that you as an applicant are well prepared to succeed in Yale courses is the single most important component of our application review… And it's also not the thing on its own that is ever going to get you admitted…It is the most important component that we'd consider necessary but not sufficient. In other words, if you aren't academically well prepared, it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what your other talents are. You will not be admitted.
• First, you have a record of strong, consistent achievement in your high school courses across all sort of the core disciplines. So math, science, social studies, languages, and literature. And then that record from your high school is supported with evidence from one or more standardized tests that reinforce what your transcript tells us… we can't pinpoint a minimum GPA or a specific number of advanced courses or even a specific minimum test score… It's our job as admissions officers to manage that complexity that we get from applications coming from 10s of thousands of high schools from all around the world and interpret what we're seeing in your application.
• Looking at your academic record, we want to see that you have consistently challenged yourself by taking the most rigorous coursework available in your high school. We also want to see that you have received consistently strong grades in all of those courses… one grade of B is not going to undo your application. But we should see that you are consistently excelling in all of your courses. And that's going to be true regardless of how your school grades or regardless of the grades that your peers received as well. This is going to be about you and your academic performance over four years.
• And then when we look at your standardized tests, whatever those tests are, so the SAT or the ACT, which as a reminder we now require for Yale, plus anything like AP or IB exams, those test scores should communicate that you are among the most well-prepared students for college.Testing does not tell us everything or even all that much about your academic strength, but we've got lots of data and analysis that tells us that it is a very good predictor of your academic performance at Yale… the overwhelming majority of Yale students scored in the top 5% of test takers on either the SAT or the ACT. And those who didn't, they're typically very close to that level.
• Your high school transcript still stands as the single most important piece of the application. And that's true even though research has shown that test scores are actually a greater predictor of a student's success at Yale.
• So when we're talking about standing out academically, one of the first things that comes to mind is that the student is a good academic fit for the Yale College academic program specifically. So that means they are both prepared for the specific types of courses they can expect to take at Yale and their academic goals and interests align with what we actually have to offer at Yale… and regardless of what major you put on your application or what you eventually select, every student at Yale has to take courses in the humanities, the social sciences, natural sciences, writing, quantitative reasoning, and foreign language. It is a fully liberal arts immersive experience. So we need to see evidence in your academic record from high school that you're ready for college level work across all of those areas… A student should be really broadly curious about many different areas, not just fixated on one field or one topic. That's not what your academic program is going to look like at Yale.
• A good liberal arts college student is 1 who views the college learning experience as an end in and of itself, not merely just as a kind of stepping stone as a professional credential for use after graduating… And we see lots of applications from students who are very, very academically impressive. But Yale may simply not be the right place for them because their goals, their strengths, and their interests just don't align with what we have to offer… our job as admissions officers is to enroll a group of students who will thrive at Yale specifically… Our job isn't to pin laurels on the world's youth or tell them that they are better than somebody else.
• Oftentimes students think I need to present myself as capital P passionate about this one particular academic area. And so my transcript needs to be doubled and tripled down in this one particular area. Maybe it's math, maybe it's science, maybe it's history, anything. And then I want to show that I have every imaginable academic activity that you could do in that area I am so passionate about. That's all that I'm doing. Sometimes there are students for whom that's just what animates them. You are running a risk of potentially presenting yourself as not a great fit for a liberal arts college. You have narrowly defined your academic interests already. So when we talk about this, we hope that it is a reflection of just your excitement and interest in learning in different contexts and not some sort of strategy.
• It is absolutely A-OK if you are the kind of student for whom the activities that you pursue outside of the classroom are not fundamentally or even primarily academic. If what excites you is your athletic endeavors and the teams that you are part of or service or the arts, and that's really what we see filled up on your activities list, that is absolutely fine. That is demonstrating other important considerations and dimensions that we care about.
• A great college essay will show us a little bit about how you think and how you engage with the world around you. Even if you're not writing about something that is academic, it's going to give us a sort of view into the way your mind works… [it’s not that] the essays demonstrate your skill as a writer… [it’s] that we're going to get a sense of how you can analyze something, how you can investigate something, how you can break something down and how you can communicate about it. Those are really important just mental skills that you're going to need to activate in just about every class that you are at Yale. How you break something down and talk about it in your essays gives us a great sense of how you would do that in lots of different academic contexts… these essays are not meant to be sort of academic in their nature, they are meant to be reflective and personal.
• Probably the most important next to the transcript and the test scores would be recommendations. We get a lot of really important academic insights from the letters of recommendation that we will receive from your teachers. That's why we ask that they are from core academic subjects. And the best ones tell us much more than simply that you did well in the class.. What we want to see from your teacher recommendations is how did you reach that grade that you got? What kind of student were you in the classroom? How did you deal with challenges that might have come up? What do you bring to the table in the classroom?

Hi everyone,

I’m applying to US MBA programs for Fall 2027 and would appreciate honest advice on whether I should retake the GRE or focus my time on strengthening other parts of my application. Scholarships are a major consideration for me, and ideally, I would need a full-tuition scholarship or a full ride to make the MBA financially feasible.
Profile:
Nationality: Indian
Gender: Female
Work experience: 6 years
Education: B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IGDTUW, Delhi
Undergraduate score: 71.29/100
GRE: 329 (Q166, V163, AWA 4.0)
Current role: Management Consulting Analyst at Accenture Strategy & Consulting
Work experience:
SAP EWM consultant doing warehouse transformations
Accenture Technology: Promoted once
Deloitte: Promoted once
Currently working at Accenture Strategy & Consulting

I’m targeting US MBA programs, primarily within the top 15, but I’m open to selected top-20/top-25 schools if the scholarship opportunities and overall ROI make sense.
My main questions:
Given my profile, how much would increasing my GRE from 329 to 330+ realistically improve my chances of getting a substantial scholarship or full ride?
Is a 329 GRE already competitive enough, or would a higher score make a meaningful difference for an Indian female applicant?
How much weight do schools give to GRE scores when awarding merit scholarships?
If my primary objective is securing a major scholarship, should I invest more time and money in another GRE attempt, or would strengthening my applications and applying strategically to scholarship-friendly schools be a better use of my time?
For anyone who received a full-tuition scholarship or full ride at a T15/T25 US MBA program with a similar profile, could you share your GRE/GMAT score, background, and what you think helped most?

I’d particularly appreciate candid advice from applicants who received significant scholarships. I’m trying to determine whether retaking the GRE is genuinely worth the investment rather than pursuing a higher score just for the sake of it.

Thank you!

On applycarolina it says they don't give out fee waivers for internationals even though it's stated otherwise on common app. Is there a solution?

Hey everyone,

I’m an international student from India (ICSE board) planning to apply for my undergraduate degree in the USA for Computer Science / Data Science. I am seeking realistic advice on my chances of getting a substantial scholarship or financial aid, as I cannot afford to study abroad without funding.

My stats are a bit all over the place, and I know US admissions look at things holistically, so I want to know where I stand:

• 10th Grade (ICSE): 69% (Had a really rough year due to personal reasons, but I worked hard to turn things around).
• 11th Grade: 93% (Showed a massive upward trend and academic bounce-back).
• SAT: 1140 (Should I submit this, or go test-optional for competitive schools?)
• ECs / Spike: I founded my own AI company/startup. It is fully live, functional, and currently has 7 active users. I built the tech myself. I also have a few other coding projects and tech-related achievements.

Given that I am an Indian applicant needing heavy financial aid/merit scholarships, how much will my low 10th-grade score hurt me? Will universities value the practical execution of building a live AI platform with active users over my standardized test scores?

What tier of US universities or Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs) should I target that are generous with international financial aid and look favorably on entrepreneurial profiles?

Any insights, college recommendations, or harsh realities would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Hi guys, I am a German former student who wants to apply to US Liberal Arts colleges via the Common App as a first year applicant.

I briefly enrolled at a German university after graduating from high school but discontinued my studies during my second semester without completing any coursework or earning any credits. Would I still be eligible to apply as a first-year applicant?

I have read somewhere that, for some reason, many colleges consider you a transfer and that means less opportunities for scholarships and everything. Now, if the colleges usually don't accept you as a first year then, is there any way they can check or inspect your foreign college history or could I theoretically leave it out?

Hey everyone,

I'm in an urgent situation with my application deadline coming up on October 19th, and I really need some help.

I need to submit an English proficiency score for my submission, and the Duolingo English Test is accepted. I spent days following up with my university administration trying to figure out how to get a fee waiver, but they kept delaying their response. Today, they finally informed me that our university isn't even affiliated with Duolingo.

When I asked if they could look into getting affiliated, they told me I would need to write a formal application, route it through the admin and HOD, and wait for approvals. That whole bureaucratic process will take at least two weeks, which is time I simply do not have before the October 19th cutoff.

As a student on a very tight budget right now, paying the standard test fee out of pocket is really tough.

Does anyone happen to have a spare coupon code or know of any quick workaround or legitimate program offering fee waivers for applicants?

I would be super grateful for any leads or help with this. Thank you so much in advance!

Hey guys I got a 3.36 and 3.68 GPA in the final exam of my grade 11 and grade 12. I have really mid ECAS, but I have locked in hard for my SATs and want to get a full ride as a nepali student. If I do get a 1530+, will that cover for my mid GPA as a Nepali student?

Is it really possible to get a good aid package in richmond univeristy? not the richmond scholars or other merit based scholarships

I’m currently an English Lit major at a university in South Korea. I've always wanted to transfer to a US college and stick with English Lit, but the thing is I really need a full scholarship (or full financial aid) to make it happen.
Has anyone here done something like this, or know if it’s even realistic? Are there any schools that are generous with aid for international transfer students in the humanities?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, advice, or any school recommendations.

I want to talk to a student that went from Pakistan to the United States of america. I'm on my 1st gap year, and I eagerly want to get into a US institution. Am i supposed to be exceptionally good to recive 100% scholership? Is it even possible for a lower middle class student from Pakistan who's starting from scratch?