Meet 3 Cr Indian Scholar in USA! Lehigh University! ‪@avneetgrewal114‬

which is almost above 3 CR rupes can you specify the amount of this SC it's around $82,000 a year like our generation they don't want to like do the work like uh internet is such a powerful resource and tool that everything is up there all you have to do is just look but no you're not doing that coming from a cbsc background it's very difficult as compared to you know students who come from IB V but if you're taking a gap here just to explore your passions and travel the world world it is very uncommon I did not know about us like I got to know about us in my 12th grade summer so by then I could not like make improve my profile I only had my YouTube channel or other extracurricular I also went to a government School in chundar it must be very affordable right government school because people spend up to 500 a year really 500 rupes wow so hello everyone today we have AIT here she got into Lehigh University one of the top liberal arts college of us plus with 100% financial aid which includes merit scholarship as well as financial aid and which is almost above 3 CR rupes can you specify the amount of the it's around $882,000 a year I'm very impressive so let's start with your background can you please share you know why study abroad and and how your journey started to apply for studying abroad and and in the end finally getting in okay okay firstly thank you so much for having me here I'm extremely honored to be here and I'm sorry but canot take a moment to appreciate you H from on behalf of all International flying abroad I wouldn't be hated if it weren't for you to be honest your videos gave me hope and informed me about the US like off they offer scholarship like for R and as a Punjabi I never consider that it's an option so we are extremely grateful for you P thank you so much and um Let me give a little background on myself hi everyone I'm AIT I'm from Punjab India and I'm an incoming freshman at leha University and I got truste scholarship which is almost 50 50% uh h of the tution and the rest I've gotten financial aid from the totally up to $88,000 a year and I'm not sure of my major yet but I in the public of business and interested in business Information Systems economics philosophy and I also want to minor in graphic design and film incredible so what are the three reasons you think you got almost 100% scholarship or you can say financial aid plus Merit B scholarship can you share three things three unique things about you which qualified you okay so number one would be hands down demonstr interest if you check lehi's common data set for previous years you'll find that showing interest is listed as important and I took it very seriously I participated in almost all the webinars asked questions and engaged with the missions officer via email I also did Ed to Lehi so which is a big sign of lii I remember my friend attending this Lehi prospective event students event and the international adviser uh for lii was who was Indian was there and my friend mentioned my name and she instantly knew who I was they knew me so I also feel like I went a little too far because I used to send a lot of emails but I didn't send them for the sake of sending them you know what I mean I genuinely loved VII and had so many questions so and the second reason would of course be my profile I would say it was very unique and I'll be biased I love myself I loved my profile when I see link other people's LinkedIn profiles I can tell they're going to apply to yes because everyone has done similar activities most of them had an NGO business published research attended a summer school Etc and I thought this is the profile of successful students but I had n of it and I was scared like oh my God my profile that's just no one and then I thought believe that's fine let's portray whatever you have so my profile was built around the narrative which could be summarized in one sentence which is like oh she is creative interested in content creation social media business and my entire profile revolved around that okay number three number three would be that I went above and beyond to get into this college I did not do just the P minimum of course writing good essays is essential but everyone inspires to do that so supplementing Narrative of my profile I added a YouTube link of my video introduction in the additional information section and it's on my YouTube you can take a look at it it fit my profile and I feel like it showed my personality way better than just words because I am a video girl and I express myself the best through camera not through worst words so yes I would say that those things sold out to the additional officer for sure and yeah you have great video editing skills too I've seen a lot of your videos and uh coming from a cbsc background it's very difficult as compared to you know students who come from IB board in Bangalore many students spend even in like chandigar where you are or in Delhi people spend 8 to 10 lakh Rupees to go to an IB board and W like the whole curriculum is design similar to International board because it is an international board at the end of the day and it's very it gives an an edge as compared to cbsc board so can you share what are things missing in cbsc board as compared to IB board and that you pushed yourself in it uhuh yep definitely so I feel like as a I've done cbsc so biggest thing lacking is hands-on experience and practical learning because personally I have tutored middle school students and they all depend on draw learning they don't understand a thing when kids don't have any extracurriculars besides school it gets boring and is not good for the the overall development of a kid and I think I have talked to a lot of IB kids and making projects creating projects and doing extracurriculars is part of their curriculum but for us it's not and in our school we had Sports as an extracurricular and that's it and I'm not a sport so I did not do any extracurriculars in my school except NSS which is like volunteering it's crazy all in school will study and occasionally participate in comp competitions like public speaking art and I think we need more options as a cbsc board and one very important thing they don't teach us is practical stuff we'll need in life like how taxes work budgeting our money investing the investing our money and what is the difference between credit card and debit cards talking to people like expressing ourselves and like of course being grateful but no we instead learn how to find the zero of polinomial like where am I going to choose it I agree so even us may as I like I I I was talking to many many of my friends who are who who who did their High School in the US they know about Finance they know about debit card credit card they are giving a credit card at the age of 16 use they independent some of them are bought a car at the age of 16 so so like I think you know the Practical hands-on experience is definitely more uh or I think uh the another thing you added that which is missing in cbsc board is even I came from cbsc the number of extracurricular opportunities is very limited like IB board may I think the whole curriculum is designed at least un you will have someone something like un for sure and in cbsc those are there but you have to goove above and schol but no one knew about it only the students who wanted to go abroad somehow community so can you share how can a student from cbsc match that level on their own I feel like you have to go above and beyond for that because you have to like go and research on Google and I feel like I think I'm going to talk about this in the next question or so but genz like our generation they don't want to like do the work like uh internet is such a powerful resource and tool that everything is up there all you have to do is just look but no you're not doing that so every effort counts can you please share what are the problems in genes you see genz I feel like we are very indecisive we don't know what we want but there's one thing that I love about jeny is that we speak up for things that are wrong we don't suck up to our seniors and are very vocal about our boundaries but again one thing a problem about ji is like we are easily influenced by social media and just not we don't think on our own so the algorithm is adjusted to our needs and interest you get what you want to see now the internet as I said is a great resource to find Opportunities but it's not going to recommend you things on its own right so you have to go out there and search for things on your own and people don't like to do that they have become lazying and I know a lot of people who use social media as a resource to like as a tool to become better version of themselves and I I also know other people who just use social media to watch RS like I hear people complain oh I didn't know about this how do I get the job how do I start earning how did you do this I don't have opportunities like you but bro you choose to be there like it's in your hands the internet is such a powerful resource and I cannot Str this enough like you can use it however you want but if you're complaining about things it's your fault you are still here and not doing the things that other people your age are doing so can you give an example of what are the things genes should be doing but are not doing I feel like being on platforms like LinkedIn it has changed my life like all the opportunities all the jobs I earn from like I have I in my Gap I've done a lot of jobs and internships so I've earned a very good amount in my Gap Year all because of LinkedIn because I applied for jobs through there I made my profile and I also connected with a lot of people and networking you can do networking through Linkedin you should should not be watching movies already it's okay yeah you can do that but you need to improve yourself as well so talking about Gap here Europe I saw not just people in their 20s 24 25 who are like you know starting to make money go for Europe D but majority in my Europe driven hostels majority of community is of people who are 18 who just complete complete their high school and high school they work in the US or Europe of wherever for 6 months collect $5 to $10,000 save with their own money um and then spend that money on a six remaining six months of of their Gap year and do a gap year and then at the age of 19 enter college and you have done similar because you have also completed Gap year abana in India is still there is a stigma Gap especially like you know especially by the way can you please sh Gap year accepted before getting accepted to college or after okay so applied to colleges while I was in 12th grade so I applied to 44 in that cycle and then I did not get a full right right so I got two three politicians and so I could not so I decided to tr Gap here and then I applied to Lehi ed1 and I got in oh so you applied for the second second opportunity like okay got it so now why Gap here and what was the journey to go through a gap here in India okay so firstly I answer your question that no it's not normal it is normal if you're applying if you are preparing for J or neat or those entrance examinations then you can take three Gap years it's fine Society will not maty but if you're taking a gap here just to explore your passions and travel the world it is very uncommon and for me why I took it I said like I didn't know what to do with my life I hadn't gotten a full ride and my but like I got full tisses but my family could not afford them so I decided to apply again next year because I genuinely believed like I could improve my profile I made a lot of mistakes in the first season of applying and from the experience I learned a lot and then I applied ed1 as a set I got in and the second reason was that I was burned out all my life I have been studying trying to get 100 on every exam I was not ready for college because I didn't know what I wanted to study or what I wanted to do so in my Gap year I tried out different jobs and experiences to help me explore my interest passion so and I soon realized 95 is not for me I was I cannot do it and in my Gap year I was also prioritizing my mental health and I took the opportunity to engage in activities that I have always wanted to do but could not to school and other things and moreover I said I did not feel ready for transition to college especially living far away from parents for the first time because in India I don't do anything like everything's done for me I am the youngest child I have an elder sister she's the one doing everything for me so I did not know I did not know how to go to life like go to college and be on my own so in my Gap year uh I participated in this program called take action lab which is an immersive leadership program in Cape toown South Africa focused on creating a positive impact on human rights issues and I was working at Capon TV a nonprofit Community television station like dedicated to providing alternative media Outlet allowing for representation of local voices events and stories that may not receive coverage from mainstream media and in fact I was like I just came to India a month ago I was doing this past spring so I was in kown for 3 months living with 52 other individuals from 208 different countries I got the international exposure I needed learned how to take care of myself be independent got to know how to budget my own money I really needed this before College like I also got the full scholarship to attend this program which allow Ed me to attend it without any stress do you think he Gap year boosted your profile or or it didn't have any influence it definitely boosted my profile like I said when I was applying to college I did not know about us like I got to know about us in my 12th grade summer so by then I could not like make improve my profile I only had my YouTube channel or other extracurricular so I did not have anything because in my school we don't have extracurriculars I also went to a government School in jigar so we did not have anything like we did not even have un or anything like that so in my Gap year I did a lot of internships and jobs so it definitely puts it my profile because imagine being rejected from 33 universities and then getting into ed1 next year it's crazy so government School in ch someone from government school getting into abroad so is that a great school you will Define okay let me explain so I was in private school in my 9th and 10th but then I changed to government school because it was it was a reputed school in chandigar so I went there because one I did not want my parents' money to be wasted because in 11th and 12th you study on your own you have to take tutions no matter what subject you take like imagine paying for a private school and then paying for a tutions I was like no I cannot so in my government school because I also knew I wanted to focus more on my YouTube channel which was a big commitment back then so I knew like in in my school I went like twice a we or so so exceptionally to go to tution classes so you went to tution classes I went to tution but like near me so it was like 10 minutes walk from my house so of course tution for my I studied Commerce with math so I took tution for Math and economics so you will say that your schooling was hectic or easy for you my ninth and 10th again I made it hectic for myself because I thrive of academic meditation I was someone who was like I need 100% I have I should not Market this but I have my like this my 10th my 10th grade boards reaction video and I cried I got 96.4 and I cried because I did not get 100% so you can imagine like I was always in my books studying wow you should not do that you should not enjoy your school life please didn't put Financial pressure on your parents 11 12th uh I think it must be very affordable right government school because people spend 500 a year really 500 rupees wow it's not easy to get into that school you have to get like 90% of something in your 10th grade so to get in so study abroad community in a government School I was the only one applying to us so it was really hard to get letters of recommendation explaining them common a I was the only one in my school so how you got the motivation to apply abroad you your videos I said in the beginning of the video yeah like I I was like I would I cannot I cannot stay in India I love India but I knew like I did not know what I wanted to study right so in India you know you have to choose one degree and you have to stick with it for the rest of your four years of your education but I was like oh no I want to do so many things I wanted to study graphic design and film I wanted to also do business Information Systems also do philosophy also do uh economics I have I wanted I want to study so many things but in India the options are very limited so I was like okay let me see what other countries are there like if I want to go study abroad I did not want to go to Canada so that was out of my list because and my entire family is in Canada I don't want to go to my family I don't I want to be independent so I was like oh what are my other options so I started looking because I knew my family cannot about it so I knew from the beginning I'm on my own so I started researching then I found your videos then like my guardian angel I saw all the video interviews of other student then I was like oh my God then I researched also I want to make this a point that I was not focused on us I was like as long as I get a full right I'll go to that college country so I also got like applied to Bon University in Italy which like I would have gotten a full because this need based Aid there and you can easily get it based on stats so I applied and I got in and I would have studied there if Lehi had not worked out for me Italy right Italy that is very very inspiring I'm very intrigued now one tough question so since you use all the best resources you knew about common data set you knew you know how to figure out what are things important important for every University now in terms of your journey because you have applied twice what would you have changed in the first attempt that you have learned from your second attempt so that you could have gotten accepted right after 12th grade rather than having a gap year uh I would say I would still take a gap year take a gap year it's important it's good for your like personal growth and everything but H when it comes to application season I didn't know much because I only had done like six months of research and my profile was not good so a good profile demonstrated interest and qu quality over quantity I feel like as an international student you have to sometimes compromise on quantity or quality because the more Coles you apply to you have more chances of getting in and you never know it's sometimes luck as well so demonstr and profile of course good essays now let's talk about common data set so you studied the common data set for University you applied do you think students should focus do you think you focused really hard on that data and you know you think that really really matters to focus on things that are very important for the University because common data set also changes every year it it does but I don't think they change it like every year drastically they will change like one or two things but no I don't look at entire common data set it's so big I only look at one section I don't know which one it's like C4 or C9 like I will send you a screenshot of like they have a table which they put very important important and everything they rank things like that so yes you should look at that because I'll tell you a story funny I applied to Skidmore in my first year of applying I ed1 there I knew like I have researched I knew they only take uwc kids from India and it is very rare for them to take someone from India who needs like a full right but I was like it's me of me why will they not AC me and I applied and they rejected me so please do your research and stick by it stick by it and listen to people who know more than you don't be naive like me got it so let's talk about what do you think about the US what picture you have in your mind about your first year of college in the US at Lei okay that's like two different questions for I think of you let me answer the first question which is like what I'm like first year at least okay I am looking forward to studying I as I said before I thrive on academic validation and being in a gap year I haven't really had a structure like a school to study academics so of course I'm learning new things but it was very different I cannot I can't wait to go back to school and I've already started prep preparing for math one because I'm scared of math and the next question for you you asked me was us like what I think of us right so everyone knows us is the land of opportunity I have when I was applying to us I was listening to these songs welcome to us no Welcome to New York part in the USA like they motivated me to write my essays and and I feel like it's land of opportunities and it's it's on you how you utilize them and I'm so so so grateful to be attending the because I K you not every day I find a new opportunity through lii that I would have never found if I stayed in India but also I don't like us in terms of work life balance I feel like they are too focused on work and not living their life I'm someone who cannot give away my life just to make some money I need to do things I like and live a slow life uh so I'm not sure if I'm going to work in the states after I graduate but again I don't know I what I'm going to do and it's okay and trust me us has problems as well you mentioned the opportunities you got in India by using the brand name Le and right you when you were applying you emailed to Lei as well and you got a reply right before getting into Lehi to show interest so can you walk us through that email and how at the age of like you know 18 19 getting the reply because it's extremely difficult most of the genzies struggle to get a reply from an instructor because they haven't written many cold emails abana what was the Journey of doing that this is where I don't really to other genes I am Shameless so if I need to ask someone something I will go ahead and ask what is the worst that can happen they will say no or they will not reply to me my life is not going to change or like it's not going to affect me right so I was like I'm going to email everyone and I I have questions so I think it's easier to get a reply because us admissions people are so sweet I love them with all my heart Robert Bruce Sara at Le I love them like whenever I had any questions of course I used to attend webinars and then I used to ask questions in the webinar and then if I had more questions I used to email them like followup email to the host of the webinar so they were very happy because not a lot of people engage in the webinar and they're like they're just here to listen so they were they were like oh someone's interested in our College because demonstra interest matters a lot so I used to email I just used to hi I'm a meet I'm a prospective student from India and I want to apply to Lehi so yeah that yeah I think common interest and common space where you can ask questions is important just if you try to email every single person at Lehi you will not get a response but if you go to the place where people are willing to reply especially like a webinar where people want you to ask questions that's a perfect place you you need to find the exact place where opportunities are there where these events are happening same with jobs people recruiters are going to hire if you email there they will reply as compared to very just randomly female yeah yes now let's get into your profile can you walk us through your extracurriculars your achievements what shaped your profile for getting in okay so let's talk about stats first because they matter a lot and so I that's SC yes great uh I submitted my 490 score to lihi I took it again after that and got 1510 but I had already gotten into Le high before the results came out so I did not submit it so I submitted my 1490 and the 15th percentile it's also important to note the 15th percentile so it was like 14 20 14 50 to so I was above the threshold and I had 95 in 9th grade I had 96.4 in 10th 85 in 11th I'm not proud of and 93.2 in2 like percentage and I applied to DEH my Gap year as I said and I did not take any APS because they were expensive now coming to my extracurriculars my first e is that I'm a freelance video editor social media manager and content creator I've been earning from this and had a lot of global clients so I put this first and second I put my YouTube channel now hear me out at the time I only had like 2,000 subscribers and 800,000 views and my friends told me to put it on fourth or fifth position because the numbers were not that impressive but if you know me make you you know that YouTube is my entire personality it is such a big part of me because I have been making videos since I was in sixth grade and on my channel ofal I have been consistent since 2021 and it took up the majority of my time I spent like three four hours making the video creating content 10 hours editing one video so and back then I tried to upload one video a week so it was a commitment and I actually enjoyed doing it so also my main Common App essay was about YouTube so it made sense for me to put it second and then I had a bunch of jobs like video editing intern at an Indian startup Mar in coordinator at an Australian firm the head of AR of codit NSS volunteer summer intern at rsip Round PE summer immersion program now see I told you I wait I don't think I told you this um oh wait I think I have oh I already forgot that a lot of people like they have similar activities on their profile so I was like let me also do something similar because none of the activities on my profile were matching of those of successful students who had already got in for rights so I was like okay I Al let me do one thing at least let me do a summer program so I did it because of the peer pressure you don't have to do it telling just telling and other than that my profile is very different I said uh for Honor I I put all the academic Awards public speaking art competitions and and also I was the best actress in a school place so I put that and honors was not my best section but it's okay and in the additional information section I said like I put the video link I also explained my family situation and mentioned that the startup I was working at Indian startup inter turning atart uh for fact I was the youngest there at 18 they offered me a full-time job but I did not accept accept it so I explained everything and my essays they were not perfect but they were very genuine and showed my story so I think that's what matters so can you sh about the startup you applied which startup you working at and how you got that opportunity oh okay I applied to it through Linkedin and it was in the fio every every e is listed on my LinkedIn again so if you go to my LinkedIn you will find it there and yeah I was interning as a video editing I was also doing social media work but video editing intern was the official name very impressive profile very intrigued important question comes about cost so people think that you know preparing for sing abroad it's a you know lacks of rupees industry already applying is a different industry going there cost crores of Industry you know cres like there so can you share what is the cost it took you to apply to 50 plus universities you you applied and also U reaching this far to get a scholarship because many students I have heard that Common App they get the waiver they don't pay for common app so I really want to highlight what cost they have to keep in mind so I applied for free to almost all the universities I applied to free for all the universities I'm not someone who would pay to apply to University if they don't give a fee like right they don't give a fe I was like I'm not going to apply like they're not going to accept me if I cannot even afford a application fee so I did not apply to those universties I did not give a fee waver I applied to free but I had to pay CSS waver to some universities I because most of them will give you a waiver but some of them will not like Drexel comes in mind so it was like $16 so I I spent like $50 or something on CSS because two three universities did not accept the wer and then I studied for I took SV for free I got like 90% scholarship as you know bu for study scholarship you might know and so I I got 90 so it was like 100,000 rupees for SD and yeah I think that's it so 1,000 rupees for sat and that's all to reach this part $50 for CSS waivers yeah so can you define CSS waivers why they are needed so when you apply to a school you have to give them your financial information like you entire your how much your family makes money like everything they have this form called CSS which you have to fill out for that you have a different fee now you can ask College to give you a CSS profile waiver which will w PVE the fee and you you can submit CSS form for free but some universities don't do that some universities have an alternative which is called Isa I don't know the full form it is isaa and Lehi had had that so if you cannot afford CSS you submit Isa but it depends on University so you have to just email and ask very impressive like it's it's spectacular like thinking you it costs less than to apply in India like I remember I paid 1,000 rupees for my J entrance fees bit stat Etc and spending less than that to you know apply to 50 plus us universities and getting accepted into 10 plus it's mind-blowing what a journey any advice for all the kids who are watching right now and want to prepare I feel like I have given almost all the advice in the video I I yep a lot guys I'm so sorry if the interview is too long but advice would be to your best don't be lazy start early clich advice but it's so important that early and one thing don't be focused on a school like your self- worth is not does not depend on a school like if you don't get in it's fine like apply to a different school they they don't deserve you if you don't get in so please don't like I have seen students get depressed they love one school and then they don't get in like don't do that you are better than them awesome thank you so much for your time update it was pleasure talking to you and I hope this video helps everyone thank you thank [Music] you with me just take my hand