Crafting a Winning Ivy League Application 🎓 | Expert Tips from Vihaan Gupta, Harvard '27

at the end of the day I realize how confusing the whole application process can be so trust me I'll make this one out of your Sunday worthwhile my name is vhan and I'm a guising sophomore at Harvard hello guys so we're from Tad's education we are thrilled to have you here um we have vhan from the har Club of 2026 who will be sharing his insights on his admission procedure and how Howard has been like we thrill to have you here um hi Kushi um hi everyone my name is vhan and first of all thank you so so much for taking times out of your Sundays to be here I know how important Sundays are and to spend time with some time with family members um but trust me um this 1 hour 45 minut minutes uh you know of an investment I'll try to make the best out of it for you all because uh at the end of the day um I realize how confusing the whole application process can be and that's why you know I decided to have um this webinar in association with tads to just trying to help you out uh so trust me uh I'll make this one hour of your Sunday worthwhile just stick throughout I'll try to make this as interactive and as um you know fun and engaging as possible um so first of all again thanks thanks to T ucation for giving me this platform and also thank you all again for joining it genuinely um means a lot uh then I'll start about start with introducing myself um my name is vhan uh and I'm a rising sophomore at Harvard that means uh I'm going to enter my second year in actually a week uh and I'm studying computer science and philosophy so Howard has this very fun uh system of you can mix and match different Majors even if they're not related so that results in very interesting combinations uh you know I know someone who's studying anthropology and Mathematics someone studying economics and history so there's always some different uh combinations people come up with and you know I came up I I chose CSN philosophy just because I've been interested in both of these subjects since I was um in high school um but that's just a short introduction about myself um I'll actually start with what we'll be covering in today's webinar so today's webinar we'll have just a few sections about the whole college application process first I'll tell you about my personal Journey where I'll tell you how I started how the thought of applying the Brad even occurred to me and um you know how I went about it how to decide if you should even apply abroad then the third part would be about essays then College interviews then academics and then finally I'll tell you about the colge experience um so yeah uh I think we can um move on to the first part which is uh my personal Journey so uh for some context I belong to a very simple middle class family of 10 people in jamu uh I spent all my life and schooling in a local cbsc school in jamu and even though both of my parents were doctors I had a keen passion for technology since I was very young um so this is something that defines my background and I think uh it's really important to know a lot about your own background because it will help you not only in your college application process just but also uh to present yourself instead of uh in in front of the admissions officers uh which I I'll discuss in the essays part as well but these are some key pointers that uh you know helped me construct the foundation uh to my you know college application process my background and my values so um my journey is uh an unconventional yet a very um normal one um I as I said I was I belong to a very simple middle class family in jamu and I told my parents in nth grade that oh I don't want to become a doctor I actually want to become an engineer because I just love creating stuff and they were like oh you want to become an engineer perfect we'll get you into an IIT right so that's I feel like what 99% of Indian families uh believe in they they simply think oh if my son wants to become an engineer giving the je and getting into an IIT is the only way of doing it which was naturally my parents process as well and hence they enrolled me in a j coaching to prepare for uh you know the IIT in ninth grade and you know naive me I just joined being like okay fine if this this is the only way of getting into an IIT then so be it so then I joined the coaching in 2019 then something that actually uh changed my perspective was in 2020 when Co hit and you know Co gave us a lot of extra time and on our hands and I started researching about uh different opportunities abroad and I realized that my potential would be better utilized um if I applied abroad now why is that the case because ever since a very ever since a very young age I was always a very um extracurricular focused student I loved making things I loved uh you know talking to people I loved uh writing essays so all these things were a part of the college application process abroad and even though my academics were fine and I was doing decently well in my J coaching I knew that getting into an getting into a college just because of my um academic Acumen wouldn't justify my potential and that's the reason I initially decided to look into studying abroad um then after years years worth of research in 2021 I finally realized that yes applying abroad is the thing for me to do so I left my J coaching in 2021 to pursue the US application process then subsequently I applied to 20 colleges in the US and six in Canada in 2022 and then finally in 2023 I appli to uh oh I think there's a tyo in 2023 I got into Harvard um and finally it's like you know joined the class of 2027 now um a very um important thing to note here is my decision of applying abroad was not an impulsive one uh and that's something thing I preach a lot which is some people have this dream of applying abroad just because you know they hear a friend applying abroad or they think Harvard sounds cool but uh for me it took me an Year's worth of research to finally come to the conclusion that I want to apply abroad and even then I did give the J as a backup because applying abroad is a very subjective process and there's a lot of variables at play and you can never really be sure if you'll get into an IV League or get into your dream school so it's always a good to have a backup and B good to know why you're applying abroad and if it's even worth it for you to apply abroad and hence I have the three following reasons that could help you decide if you should even apply abroad because I'll be very honest it's not a very simple binary decision of applying yes or no because at the end of the day there's a lot of sacrifices you're making you're leaving a you're leaving your family behind you're leaving your friends behind you're starting a whole new life in a country uh where you'll have to adjust to their Norms you'll have to adjust to their language you'll have to adjust to their culture so there's a few factors that I believe uh are the pros of studying abroad and if these Pros outweigh the previously mentioned cons for you then the answer is yes you should apply abroad then the first pro is a personal one which is apply when you study abroad there's a lot of personal benefits to it now what I mean by that is um a very random example is India is full of pollution you walk on the road uh especially in places like Delhi you can't even breathe properly well that's not the case in the US this the roads are clean the people are nice the environment is so you know the weather is nice everything just feels aesthetically pleasing and also uh you know better in a way there aren't any stray dogs you you know you can just ch still go to a cafe grab a cup of coffee and you know get your work done and I know these things sound so small and Niche but to a lot of people these matter a lot the US culture the US environment these things to a lot of people and not just the US abroad in general it allures people they just want to get out of this country which is totally fair and it can be one of the factors that might contribute towards you applying abroad that wasn't the reason I applied personally the second reason was actually the reason I applied personally which was the academic Pro of it so the academic Pro of studying abroad basically means that um universities abroad have a very different study and College culture as compared to Indian colleges for example once you declare a m uh first of all you're not even allowed to choose your own major in a college in India let's say if you go to an IIT they decide what you study based on your rank and that was the biggest problem I had with iits how can I let someone else deci what I'm going to be studying for the next four years right um I had a very deep passion for computer science and I knew that was the only subject I wanted to study even though people associate oh engineering is just engineering if you like computer science then you also might like mechanical engineering but what if I don't want to study mechanical engineering what if what if I have no experience in mechanical engineering I only want to study computer science well colleges abroad let you do that once you get into a college you can choose any major you like at Harvard if I feel like okay I don't feel like studying computer science anymore I want to study mechanical engineering well I just have to tell them that and I'll have to fulfill the requirements for mechanical engineering and I can just do that it's not that they'll tell me what to do it's instead if I take a follow a particular set of classes to fulfill the requirement I can graduate with any degree I want and um that is something that was a huge uh Pro to me when I applied the third aspect is the social aspect which I only realized after applying um after I got to Harvard was that there's a huge different in the social aspect so if you go to a college in India chances are most of the people around you are also going to be Indians they're going to be people who have a similar background to you have a very shared culture with you that's not the case in the US or abroad you'll meet people from around the world Howard has around 50 countries that it takes people from and once you meet people from such diverse backgrounds and cultures it opens up your mind to so many things it's actually lifechanging you listen to so many diverse perspectives there are people of every cast Color Race and like once you listen to people with such diverse perspectives it really gives you a sense of how big the world is and to me personally it motivates me a lot it motivates me to see the world talk to more people and just get to know them better right because there's just so much to learn um so these were the following reasons of why you should study abroad if any one particular reason really allur you then I would suggest that you should consider studying abroad as I mentioned there are obviously some cons to it as well like leaving behind your family and friends and your city but if these Bros especially you know appeal to you then definitely uh you should start researching about how to apply abroad and uh you know make up your mind then the first now we'll move on to the college application process itself how to apply and how to get in essentially right so the first part and I feel like the most important part at least for me that got me into Harvard were essays um and I think it's a very undermined aspect of the application um people often focus on academics people often Focus on extracurriculars but people often underestimate the value of their essays and personal statements so let's talk about how to write an IB League essay right so um here are some of the few key pointers um and I'm just I'm not going to read through them you can feel free to go through them I'll just tell you my general verdict which is essentially that uh writing an essay is a skill that you learn as you do what what I mean by that is um writing an essay is not a talent it's far from it um you know as you all might know when a baby is born it doesn't know how to write with a pencil uh you know your parents make you hold a pencil and they make you write for some time and gradually they'll start leaving your hand and gradually you do start writing but even when you do start writing your handwriting might not be the best you might not be the fastest writer but gradually the more you write the faster you get at it and actually the better you write in terms of handwriting so writing an essay is a very similar uh you know form of skill that you develop over time it's not that someone knows how to write an essay when they're born no it's something that you learn as you go so how do we learn how to write an essay is the question then right so first of all um reading other people's essays who have gotten into IV leagues is a is a great resource there are plenty of resources online and this is going to be a very common theme in today's webinar me telling you that go online and just search if you have anything that you want to find you just one click away on Google from it and I'm not kidding technology is such a huge uh Boon when it comes to finding resources that everything is on your fingertips you just need to access it and you need to tap it so uh reading other admitted essays is the biggest resource you can tap uh because you get to know what College admission officers actually like right and that's the that's that that's very important but as important as it as it is to read other people's essays it is by far the most important thing to not lose your own voice now what I mean by this is don't try adapting someone else's style of writing into yours that is a big no no because they wrote about something that they value and their writing style is very specific to them everyone has their own writing style everyone even if you've never written before you still have a writing style and that is your own personal individual voice that you should retain when you're writing an essay so don't compromise it just because you thought that the way someone writes looked cool but that's not you the way you write is the coolest way you can write it sounds very cliche but that's literally just how it is and then uh most importantly introspection is key now this is a very very important point where most people think college essays are about writing no they're about thinking you have to think what makes you you and then write on it so the way I divided my um college essay writing time distribution was simply that um oh give me a second yeah sorry so um the way most people think of writing a college essay is essentially we just have to write um I would say it's literally oneir one3 oneir one third of introspection that is one third of thinking what makes me who I am what keeps me up at night what matters to me all these things that happened in your life contribute so deeply towards your essays that they're the things you're writing about right you can be a great writer but even if but if you don't have good content to write about what will you do with a good writing style right so think a lot then the other one third is writing itself like yeah sure now you're typing you're writing that will take up about one third of your time and then the other onethird is reviewing which is once you've written go through your essay again find areas of improvement show it to some other people that you trust ask them for recommendations for me that was my mom I always showed my mom all my essays she gave me some recommendations and as uh I would also suggest your parents are the best people to ask advice from because they are the ones who've seen you grow up they're the ones who' have known you for these like 17 18 years they're the ones who will know if the essay is a good embodiment of who you are right and and hence I personally would suggest ask your parents for advice but even if that's not the case asking a friend or you know appear is also a good is a good idea but do ask for recommendations from other people because once you start getting um you know P different perspectives it really gives you new ideas and that can be really helpful now uh so this is actually the biggest motto that I believe in not only for essays not only for extracurriculars but the whole colle application process and that is don't fake it till you make it do not write an essay about something that never happened do not write an essay about something that doesn't matter to you if I and I'll try to keep this like as blunt as possible like you know if you fed stray dogs uh in a street just out of courtesy one day but it doesn't really matter to you don't write an essay about it just because you think admissions officers would care about it only write about something that truly moves you a lot of people can do charity on the face of it but and just for the sake of doing it writing an essay about it will in a way show that you don't care about it because you cannot write well about something you didn't care about right even if it sounds really good on paper I donated food for a thousand straight dogs if you if it didn't matter to you it will show in your college application it will show in your essays so don't fake anything don't fake your emotions most importantly don't try to show that oh feeding the stay dogs mattered a lot to me when it actually didn't right so don't fake anything and by faking most people assume oh I don't have to fake like my achievements okay fine no don't even fake your emotions don't fake how you felt about something think because they really want to see the real view so dive deep into your thoughts dive deep into what lies at the core of my heart and write about that instead of something superficial if that makes sense all right so now I talk about the second part of the college application which is college interviews um I'll kind of quickly move through this because most colleges don't offer an interview to students in India uh but if you're looking for uh applying to colleges like you know the IV leagues most IV Lees conduct an interview especially for Harvard this is like an Insider tip but Harvard doesn't take students without interviews so if you get a Harvard interview that's an illegal sign of you getting in and if you don't well as uh you know being completely honest uh if you don't get a Harvard interview before the decisions come out chances are they most probably aren't going to take you in because Harvard generally doesn't admit students with without taking at least one round of interview so but for most colleges that's not the case I think Harvard is the only college that has this interview required criteria for admitting a student not every College takes an interview um so as I said for some colleges it can make or break your chances of getting into the college um interviews are a great way of showcasing your personality values interests Etc it's basically a way for the college to put a name a face to the name because they've only read about your profile they've only read who you are they've never seen you they haven't for all they know you could be like a you know a 40-year-old man applying in the name of a student right so these interviews are a really good way of for them to ensure that okay we think this guy is like you know is decent enough to admit but let's just do like a ground reality check once let's just have a look ask him a few questions and let's see if all the things he wrote about if it reflects in the interview right because you can write about hundreds of things that are made up and this is why the whole don't fake it till you make it thing comes in because if you faked your emotions for an essay if you faked your extracurriculars it will show in a college interview because they can see they can see you and they can ask you questions and your answers will reflect what actually matters to you so don't fake it not just because oh it's bad but also because they'll just find out um so but they usually the college interviewers are super chill there are like a set of very cliche questions they ask you um you know as as we've moved forward in as a as a human civilization and as in society these colleges have pretty much you know stuck with the same questions uh since the past 30 years being like you know why this college what are some of the activities and clubs you want to pursue in college what would be your academic interests like what do you want to study what would be your major etc etc so my biggest tip for uh interviews would be to give mock interviews to someone like a parent or friend because you know you can they can they can tell you if you're speaking too fast if you're sounding inauthentic if you're sounding superficial so again asking for help really goes a long way ask your parents for help ask your friends for help really really definitely goes a long way uh then I'll talk about um the part of the college application process that I feel like is the foundation of you getting in like it lies at the Baseline what I mean by it lies at the Baseline is this is a bare minimum of what you need to do to get in you might not be a great essay writer you might not have Stell extracurriculars but if you don't have decent enough academics most colleges won't take you in simply because you lack the academic acument of surviving in college so you know the the question comes why do colleges even need uh you know academics the simple reason is they want to see if you'd be able to survive college and by surviving College I mean they want to see if you'd be able to understand the classes in college and you won't fail in college because that's that just looks bad on their college Z right so they want to make sure that the student they're taking in uh would survive the highly intellectual nature of classes that are offer offered in college so academics uh in the college application process mainly consist of two parts and this is specific to the US application which is your high school grades and your standardized testing so moving on to your high school grades first of all these just show consistency in your academics right and they are in my opinion slightly preferred above standardized testing because your academic GPA your grades of 9th 10th 11th and 12th op is consist see you know no like good student just gets good grades in nin grade and then Falls uh you know just Falls like see the drop in grades for 10th 11th and 12th if you're actually a good student you'll see a very good uh 95 Plus or 90 plus Trend throughout these four years so these school grades show a good uh you know they're a good measure of your consistency on the other hand the SAT or the ACT is just a test that you give on one random day uh and you can prepare for it in a month right so someone might be able to score well in the SAT but that just shows that they were able to put in the work for that one month but your school grades showcase that you were able to put in work for four consistent years and that means a lot so like stating the obvious they should be a priority if you're you know a lot of people come to me and they ask me um I have like 80 is in my school grades but I'm focusing on extracurriculars can my extracurriculars compensate for my low grades and what extracurricular should I do um to focus on my school grades and my answer is kind of a rude one but it's just the reality and my answer is the only thing that you should be focusing right now is your grades if if your grades are already in the 80s and you're stressing out about extra veric your focus is on the wrong thing focus on bringing your Gades to the bare minimum level now that doesn't mean 80 is not the bare minimum level sure for a lot of colleges getting an 80 percentage in 9th 10th 11th and 12th will work just fine right but if you're coming to me and telling me Oh I want to get into Harvard and I want the Harvard extracurriculars but I have like an 80% throughout 9th through 12th I will tell you first bring that 80 up to at least like an 85 and then think about extracurriculars because that's the bare minimum called even if you have studed extracurriculars and you're sitting at like a 75% they won't even have a look at your extracurriculars so what's the point right so if you have uh and like speaking of which even if you have a dip in your grades the common section the Common App has a section for you to explain it right so that's completely fine you know things happen if you ever felt sick if you you know if there was some family turmoil and due to which there was a dep inum grades for example that was for me um in in 11th grade uh I got Co and hence I saw like a dip in grades so you can explain that but a consistent trend of like low grades can really really be detrimental towards your chances of getting into a you know top top college so please do keep that in mind um then talking about standardized testing these are uh the SAT or the ACT depending on what which one you want to go with it's completely up to you if you're stuck on the question of oh which one should I give the very simple answer is give a practice test for each and decide which one feels more comfortable and which were which one were you able to score get a better score in right um there's a score conversion from your sat to an ACT score that you can find online as I said there's plenty of resources online so you can give the SAT calculate your SAT score give your act calculate your ACT score then you know compare those scores putting like there's literally a website called like the SAT to actd score converter so you can put your SAT score in it and it convert your SAT score to its AC equivalent and then compare both the scores and decide which one you want to give right very simple um if you're scoring both like if you're scoring decently well in both uh my personal recommendation would be to go with the SAT why is that the case is because if you feel if you feel like the pattern is similar enough and if you feel like both the tests you were able to score like a like a similar score in the AC has a more resources that is more people give the SAT which means that more people you know talk about it hence more people have created books about it more people have created websites about it similarly if you're in India it can be a huge pain in the ass uh finding ACT test centers because there are only a few ACT test centers in India right on the other hand there is an SAT test center in literally every other state although there wasn't an SAT Center or an act Center in my state um I'll give you like a point of reference for the SAT I had to travel to Amritsar which is a 4H hour 5 hour drive from jamu which was manageable but had I opted for the ACT I would have had to go to Delhi which is a 10 12 hour long drive from jumu so it I know the difference is marginal because I was in jamu and there wasn't any test centers whether the s or AC in jamu but if you if you're for example from like jaur there would be there are higher chances of you finding an SAT test center in jaur than ACT test center so do keep that into consideration then um these tests can be totally brute forced what I mean by that is uh they're standardized which means that every test follows a similar pattern that they cannot change because simply putting these tests are uh you know a template that they fill every time with different variables but the template never changes so once you give enough practice tests you actually realize that the pattern in these and you can crack it it's simply putting it you can very easily just practice practice practice and improve your score for reference um I started at a 1300 when I give my first diagnostic test like I gave a first practice test at home and I had a 1,300 and I prepared for two months and on the actual one I got a 1520 so I saw 200 Point rise which is actually uh very doable if you as I said Brute Force the test uh so simply putting a lot of people see SATs like an IQ test that you cannot change um something that measures your you know IQ or like how good your brain works no no it's purely an assessment of how fast you can learn the pattern and cck it simply putting it um so you know just practice assess learn repeat very simply putting it give a practice test do some practice questions find out where you made made mistakes assess those mistakes learn from those mistakes give more practice tests I know sounds very simple uh it's easier said than done but trust me there's nothing really do it it's just brute forcing constantly giving practice tests like and most people just focus on the giving practice tests part not the assessing part uh that's a huge mistake too give a practice test see where you made all those mistakes check all your answers assess why you made those mistakes you know why did I answer a instead of B what made me think that way do I need to change anything about my thinking and once you ask yourself these questions you realiz that you might be making some common mistakes um for example for me I was making a lot of silly mistakes in the math section uh and you know just giving myself some extra time per question to make sure that I didn't read the question wrong and didn't make the silly mistake helped me achieve um you know a perfect score on the math section so you can do that too um also there's no such thing as a Target score that fits for all schools right for example if you're applying to a state school let's say Arizona State University having a, 1400 is a very is a is a very good score they'll take you in um on the other hand if you ask me is a, 1400 enough for U you know applying to Harvard sure there are people who get into the, 1400 but um if you see the distribution curve uh the median score would be around like a 1520 so that's the average score so if you have a 1400 although yeah maybe 1% or 2% of the admitted class for Harvard might have a, 1400 but you're seriously seriously uh you know harming your chances of getting in so then I would recommend taking a retest um right so check your school specific median SAT scores and aim for that SAT score for the school you want to get into right for example as I said like for Harvard the Medan is around a 1520 so I appli to the 1520 so I lied exactly in the middle of the distribution curve I was like the average some people have like a 1580 so they like above the average um but in general for each top schools other top schools like you know Harvard Stanford Yale MIT MIT might have a higher average SAT that might be the one exception from what I've heard MIT has a very strict sat U consideration for like only students the 1550 plus uh and that's also what I've seen from all the people have metm it like every single person has metm it has a 1550 plus um but don't quote me on that um but yeah most top colleges Harvard e pinston Stanford having a score in the 1520 plus range would be a good score even a 1480 plus 4090 plus would be a decent enough score to apply and when it comes to and yeah the most important thing being like don't overthink about your score once you've given like one or two attempts what's done is done now because the thing is I had this issue with myself of comparing my own s score with a lot of other people and these other people have like 1580s and 1590s well it does make it make your life better to have a higher score but it's not a necessity Howard doesn't have the strict policy of oh you need to have 1580 so it'll take you well literally a person in my class had a 1450 and they got into so you definitely can get into the 1450 as well so once done don't overthink about it um now when it comes to you know how to prepare for the SAT uh you know platforms like KH Academy then using past papers also this black book I used for math was really good um there are some good resources that you can use uh as I said everything is available online you can find the SAT past papers you can find you know the black book um legally or illegally if you want and also so KH Academy is free of cost so if you want you can pretty much prepare for the SAT free of cost um if you find the right resources online that is uh I am a huge prop I I I'm I'm strongly in proposition of not going for an act or act coaching because I feel like these are the things you can prepare by yourself for free online so if someone's making you pay for them it's not really the most preferable thing to do but if you feel like that works better for you then you can of course go ahead with it um then this uh the parentheses are wrong but whatever this is about uh the section is about AP tests and they're purely optional so what are exactly AP tests AP tests stand for advanced placement tests and they're a part of the US curriculum where if you give a few AP tests you can get college credit in high school which sounds crazy right uh but essentially how it works is uh for example for one AP you approximately get around four to six college credits and an average college year has around 32 credit R requirements so for example if you give eight APS while you were in high school you get 4 into 8 college credits which is 32 college credits and guess what that's the amount of college credits you need to you know complete one college year so once you enter College you'll already have those 32 credit hours that means you can graduate one year early and I cannot even count the number of people I know who are doing this especially if your family is on a constrained budget having this one less year uh of college can be a huge availability uh in both fees and time you're spending one year Less in college you'll graduate in three years and you'll only have to pay three years of college fees that can make a huge difference like for uh for reference if you're going to like a college like uiu for example that's the difference between paying like 1.6 crores versus 2.2 crores saves you a lot of money so do consider this giving like seven or eight AP tests uh is uh a lot of academic uh commitment I won't lie these tests are not easy as mentioned they're definitely harder than an average s or act these are tests that are specific to a subject so you have like an AP math like AP Calculus test and an AP Physics AP Chemistry so you'll have to know about the content matter when you give an AP test you cannot show up to an AP Psychology exam without knowing anything about psychology but if you do have the time to commit it is a great way of not only um you know getting college credit but also it shows extra commitment towards learning out of a classroom this is something I learned when I read my admissions file at Harvard so what they basically do is we have the option of reading our own admissions file when we get in so in my admissions file they did specifically mentioned that they really like the fact that I gave APS because it showed that I have my certain classes in my school which is five but I'm giving these extra tests to prove that I really know chemistry I really know uh you know physics and if you're like a CBS or icsc student it really helps to show that even if my you know board isn't like an internationally recognized one I can give the AP test and score Val on them that means I know my content matter I know about chemistry I know about physics so also please do keep this in mind a huge ASX all colleges might not accept AP credit sadly Howard happens to be one of them but it's fine because me give all those AP tests did count for them considering me highly because that showed extra commitment from my end um finally I'll end with uh a few things firstly an important note um while it is great to aim for a specific top school and set a goal in mind it is also important to be open-minded about the whole process the application process is very subjective you never know what might or might not click with an aniss officer on that particular day the goal is to find good an affordable education not just a dream college or brand name I'll be very honest this is a very important note for a lot of people who you know and this was me as well um I went out with the goal of getting into St Stanford when I was in 11th grade Stanford was my dream school I'm not even kidding I was like a Stanford Fanboy I had a Stanford picture on my on my study table I used to Fascinate about you know being in Stanford I used to watch college campus videos all of that stuff uh well guess what I got rejected from Stanford but I got into Harvard um had I just applied to Stanford being like this is the only school I want to get into I would have gotten rejected and I would have just I don't know stayed in India or go gone somewhere worse than Harvard well even though I got Reed from Stanford the fact that I applied to other colleges you know made it possible for me to get into Harvard right so don't move forward with this closed mindset of this is my dream college and this is the only College I'll go to uh be open to attending any college the goal as I said is to get a good and affordable education and that you can achieve even if it's not an IV League school a lot of non- IV League schools have great affordable programs that you can get into and you'll do just fine so the dream is not to achieve a Harvard or Y the dream is to you know as I said good and affordable education and I'll end with a small positive note since uh you know that's the goal of this webinar I'll talk about I'll talk a little bit about my college experience at Harvard this is you can see this as my way of motivating you of what lies on the other side and you know probably help you stay motivated about the whole college application process so there is a lot of amazing stuff waiting I'll tell you college life is the best life I've lived so far even though I've only been in college for one year it's been a it's been a great great journey you know college has given me some of the best people I've ever met some of the most important learnings of my life and some of the most memorable moments of my life right you'll learn so many things when you get into college like you know we have this thing of we cring at our past selves well that happens for a good reason because we've grown so much as as people that the past version of ourselves make us makes SL that's going to happen a lot in college because you're going to grow so much each and every day that you know your opinions will change your uh your experiences will change and that's completely fine that's what makes you uh you know the best version of yourself essentially so it's amazing it's an amazing amazing uh experience the sense of freedom and responsibility that colleges instill in you are skills and experiences that you'll carry with you lifelong you know the freedom of you know making new friends whever you want there's no restrictions in the colleges abroad you know that's that's a very good feeling to have you don't have to be answerable to anyone you don't have to uh you know be accountable to anyone and that's a good way of becoming a responsible and also uh you know just learning how to live your life as an adult and it's truly an amazing amazing thing to learn um so with that uh I think that pretty much ends the thing the the presentation from my end uh I hope you all learned something even if you retained 5% or 10% of what I spoke I feel like I would have achieved my goal um simply just you know trying to uh help you out even if this meeting contributed one person or two person towards your application process I feel like that's a great addition right because no one gets into Harvard or Stanford in one day it's a sum of all the efforts you put in every single day consistently that get you in so yeah with that thank you so much for attending today's meeting um I really really hope you all learned something um and yeah thank you so much um if you have questions I think Ana has a question Ana has a question you can go ahead hian I'm an so I'm in 11th grade and I'm preparing for J but I have the same problem with I you mentioned at the beginning uh so I'm finding it kind of difficult to actually manage my J prep with profile building and I'm not able to prioritize one of it so what do you prefer what would you prefer the J prep or like being in school and actually uh studying there and then also doing the extracurricular and stuff yeah that's a very very good question um because I personally was also you know encountering the same dilemma of should I prepare for J or should I apply focus on my application overall well I would say there's always a ratio of um how how passionate about are you about each each of the things right so for example um what would you personally prefer getting into an i or getting into a college abroad I think I'd prefer getting into a college abroad okay perfect so essentially that's something you should be putting more effort towards now there's always even if you're working on two things simultaneously you have to consider one of them as the priority and the other one as the back that is always always like the most essential part of your application because if you think that you can carry both of these things simultaneously you cannot you always have to put something on top and something on the back end because otherwise you won't know what to focus on so do focus on what matters to you more which in your case as you mentioned is applying abroad do go to school more uh I understand uh the J prep is isn't something you can really put on the back burner and let it but do keep this in mind you have have to score well in your 11th and 12th grade as well right and once you study 11th and 12th grade academics well you're also simultaneously in a way preparing for J so it kind of you know the Indian education system works in a way where even if you're purely studying in school and not going to your coaching that's just my opinion um in 12th in 11th grade I left my coaching and for 11th and 12th I was just studying in school I feel like if even if you're just studying in school you can get a decent enough percentile in je that you'd be able to secure a college provided that you were sincere in your studies in high school in 11th and 12th grade so I would suggest do prioritize the US application process but uh prioritize even if you're prioritizing your academics in school you're in a way uh still preparing for the je you might not be preparing for like a top IIT the 99th percentile but you still will get into a decent enough College if you prepare well in 11th and 12th grade all right thank you so much no problem I think we have a few in chat box yeah so okay I'll just yeah go ahead aan is asking what is your opinion regarding the economic situation in the US and the job crunch do you still think us is better for job CR um the answer is uh yes and no the thing is the US specifically is on a as you said a job Crunch and recession has hit a lot but if you see a lot of countries like India most countries even if you're there there was a shocking statistic being like um two out of 10 I GR graduates are still unemployed which is crazy so it's not like the US job recession is specific to the US the UK is doing much much worse than the US India is also not doing the best in terms of employment so things like these hit all countries agreed the US recession has been something that has been concerning for a lot of long a lot a long time but you know that's just a very Tech specific recession that people associate with oh I'm a CS major I won't get a job but first of all there's a lot of other Majors too you can be an economics major and environmental science major and those areas are doing relatively well despite the recession and as I said other countries are also going through similar recession and similar issues with unemployment so it's not specific in the US um there's another question that says could you highlight a bit more about ECS MH yeah okay so um extracurriculars was something that I didn't specifically mention in the uh in the presentation because I feel like they're highly specific to yourself uh there's no one broader paid formula for okay I should do this to get into Harvard um you know in general there are a few themes that should that you should keep in mind when you're um doing extracurriculars that is a your extracurricular should in a way be connected to your major um even if you're not fully um you know acquainted with those skills it's completely fine but if you're applying as a CS major and you have zero extra curricul regarding CS that's not a good look I was actually one of the applicants who had a lower amount of Cs extracurriculars than an average CS applicant I applied for for the Cs as a CS major and I only had three CS extra curriculars out of 10 which might not seem like a lot but I at least had three which is first of all the most important thing at least have a few extracurricular related to your major secondly showcase leadership skills they're very important especially colleges like Harvard emphasize a lot on leadership skills and thirdly U this was also mentioned in the presentation was don't fake it till you make it don't do an extracurricular just for the sake of doing it don't do something just because you saw someone else doing it and get into Harvard what worked for them might not work for you do what actually moves you what actually keeps you up at night and what you're passionate about I know it's the most cliche line ever but don't copy someone else's extracurricular uh that's the biggest blunder you can make because what worked for them most probably in fact won't work for you so just be authent stay authentic to yourself is would be my biggest advice someone is raed yeah um um yeah um hi I was just wondering like I'm with Humanity subject in class 12th with economics as my optional so I was wondering that do we need mathematics for pursuing economics and high studies abroad or is it like just okay without match as well um being honest uh I have my my best friend at Harvard is studying economics so I do know economics in the US is kind of math heavy agreed but it's you don't need to know maths to get into the college uh you know even if you're applying as an economics major and you didn't have math as a subject in high school that's completely fine I know someone who had PCB that is say his chemistry and biology Medical in high school and they got into a US college for computer science so it's literally uh you don't need maths to get into the college while yes once you do get in and once you are studying economics knowing math would be helpful but you can cover that up while you're in college so if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about maths right now because even if you would need math in high school in in college to to to study economics you can cover that up when you reach College itself thank you so much no problem someone has asked can you please share um your E's and test scores will help a lot yeah sure uh so uh I'll mention the few of my more important extracurriculars and as I said uh you know you can always take inspiration but don't try to replicate those because what worked for me might not work for you right so for my extracurriculars I made a web app application that had 10,000 plus users from like 50 different countries so you know making an app in high school is is is a good enough extracurricular then secondly I did a lot of internships I had two CS internships in high school one was in um a hospital and one was for a multinational company so that might have also you know contributed a lot then I had a mental health nonprofit um where I had podcasts with psychologists and psychiatrists I had uh you know a website for the same so I had a mental health nonprofit then I also did public speaking I was in debate and I did model UNS uh so that was that and I was the team captain of my squash School squash team and we did play on a state level so that showed some sport extracurriculars as well so yeah that was like those were some of my major um extracurriculars on the application and my test scores uh I gave the SAT and I got a 1520 uh and I gave six APS I gave physics physics mechanics physics electricity and magnetism uh Calculus BC psychology chemistry and computer science and I got a five out of five in all of those um then ello we have can you suggest like when I have to take my first attempt of my SATs okay um I think it's a highly subjective question um depends on when you think you'll be you'll have time so for example a lot of people um give me a second okay yeah so it's a very subjective question I feel like um you should find a Time window of like two to three months when you won't be very occupied with school academics for example if you're in 12th grade and you let's say want to give the sat in September uh you do have to check if the dates clash with your midterm exams because then you wouldn't be able to give your best right so in my opinion and this is purely subjective the best time to give an the SAT would be in 11th grade because that is when you don't have the pressure of the board exam you know the board exam pressure also somewhere around I give my in August of 11th grade which is because a you'll be done with your sat before your midterms begin B you'll have your whole summer vacation to prepare for the SAT and C even if you mess up your sat the August of 11th grade is still soon enough that you can apply for the second attempt so do keep these variables in mind although as I said it's slly subjective if you're already in 12th grade and you haven't given the SAT don't stress out too much you can still give it in 12th grade just find a Time window when you think you'd be able to manage it s raised this hand yeah so you were in a cbsc school right and 11th 12th key studies in cbsc school is quite rigorous if we say so how did you manage your time in 11th and 12th because uh I see uh almost all the applicants reducing their sleep time who has on to IV leagues but you but you used to go to the gym so how did you make make time for yourself um yeah I I won't suggest reducing your sleep time compromising your health all of that like genuinely please don't things like these are very temporary your health is something that's going to accompany you for the rest of your life um do not listen to that Hustler mindset of I used to sleep for 3 hours a day for month that is literally biologically harmful um and you know it just won't help you out what I would suggest how I managed my time it's an unconventional advice but only do those things that matter to you and not those things that people tell you to which what I mean by this is my attendance in high school for 11th and 12th grade was like 30% and I'm saying this outright and I know that's not a good thing to say but I simp found that going to school was a huge waste of time because I'm spending like 6 hours a day you know going to and from school and I was learning stuff that I could selfstudy from YouTube and stuff right so prioritize saving time in those things where you don't need to you know where where you can like these micro optimizations in your day help a lot right if you go to school and study I realized going to school takes up six hours of my day on the other hand if I stay home and I study the same material that they're going to teach in school today it takes me 3 hours so I'm saving those extra three hours that I can put towards my extracurriculars right similarly let's say if you're any another random example which I also had I used to play squash and my squash Center was like a 1 hour drive from my house so I used to go for squash I used to play Squad I used to go one hour of a drive to the squash Center play one hour of squash and then come back that cost me three hours right just shifting my squash where I went for practice I went to I chose a location that was 5 minutes away from my house then it just took me 1 hour 15 minutes right I know these are like such micro optimizations but these are things that will help you make time out of your day these micro optimizations of being productive like they really really go a long way when it comes to you know making extra time so don't compromise things like sleep and stuff compromise on things that are compromisable in my opinion um so someone else has raise their hand yeah hello sir uh did you get any financial aid after getting into Harvard um yes uh that's a really good question and that's I understand a very important concern most of us have when we're applying abroad so Harvard has this need blind um College admission process where they take you in regardless of how much Finance you you're asking them for right so even if you're asking for full financial aid versus someone who is asking for no financial aid if your application is stronger than them they'll immediately take you in that is not the case with other colleges right and I have to if I have to explain this in like like in short it's basically like Harvard is a top school it produces rich people who graduate from it when rich people graduate from Harvard they donate that same money back to Harvard hence Harvard has more money to give financial aid right so the better the college is the Richer the alumini are the Richer the alumini are the more money the college has to give out financial aid that is the reason why most top colleges like Harvard Yale Princeton Stanford MIT all of these colleges have I think Stanford doesn't but Howard year Princeton MIT have a need blind college application process where they will give you as much financial aid as you need right for example I'll give you one example right now I had around 80% Finance rate when I got into Harvard last year um this year my family had some you know um like we there was some things that happened in my family that affected my family's finances I updated those finances to Harvard and now I'm on a 95% financial aid so they have this very good system of they won't make you pay more than what you can pay they'll have a look at your finances they'll have a look at how much your parents earn they'll have a look at your assets and based on those numbers they'll decide how much you are able to pay and that's what you'll have to pay so in terms of top colleges the education is like super super affordable 20% of the Harvard students study on full financial aid and that is a crazy number like one out of every Five People You Meet in Harvard they are on full financial aid they're staring for free so yes they're very generous at financial aid and definitely apply to these colleges if you want generous financial aid there I'm more in the chat Bo um are there any other cors other than being away from your family and friends or cultural barriers in starting abroad um I think cons are very subjective I know I'm tired of saying this but uh to me this the biggest con was just staying away from my family um I'm a very family oriented person I love being close to them so just being away from them was a huge huge gone for someone else it might be the cultural barrier the language barrier you know um h is my first language and I feel like I'm the most comfortable in expressing my emotions in Hindi so making friends is obviously a little harder because you have to communicate in English and English Communications don't feel as natural to me as Hindi Communications just because I've grown up speaking Hindi that's one of the barriers that's that's one of the cons then also adjusting to everything by yourself you have to uh if you're for example living in an apartment you have to cook your own food you have to wash your own dishes you have to do your own laundry these things we generally take for granted a lot when we're home but I think these things are not us specific that you know you'll have to do these things in any college anyways for us specific cons away from family away from home if you're sick your parents can't just come to your college and take care of you you'll get less time you you you'll have less opportunities to go back to home because a flight from the US to India costs a lot and it's a 24-hour long flight so even going back home is not a decision you can take casually like I have friends who study in Delhi who come back to jamu like you know every two weeks because they can just do it it's so cheap and you know easy to do I only come back to India once or twice every year because you know it's expensive and it takes a lot lot of time so these are just few of the cons I can think of on the top of my head there's one um do you think taking AP would help my credits if I'm already doing ipdp oh yeah that is um an as I should have mentioned no you shouldn't do AP if you're an IB um I like I know some people who have done that um I'm not particularly aware of how it contributes or why you need to do that um but I don't think you should give AP if you're in ibdp if you're in cbsc and I that I would highly recommend them yeah I think that's it these are if anyone has any other questions you can go ahead or can yeah if you have any questions you can raise your hand okay I don't think anyone has but if they do then they can always send a message on the group thank you so much this was really insightful I think people had many questions so it was really good thank you so much and if you problem yeah and if you have any other questions youall can um send it on the group through we will be having webinars every Sunday so you can stay up to date with these thank you