For Indian parents and students aspiring to study in America’s Ivy League schools, Viral Doshi is the go-to person. Known as the Indian guru of Ivy League, he has over the past sixteen years, mentored and counselled more than 15,000 students and has sent a record number of students to the eight Ivy League Universities, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge. He is also an advisor and on the board of several educational institutes in India and overseas and writes regularly on careers and education for magazines, newspapers and online portals.
| Country | US | Canada | UK | Singapore | India |
| Issues | |||||
| Study – No. of Years | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 or 4 | 3 |
| Flexibility to Change Majors | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Academic Assessment (Each Year) | Continual | Continual | Final Exam | Semester Exam | Semester Exam |
| Job Placement Score (1 – 10) | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
| No. of Applications | As many | As many | 5 | 3 | As many |
| US $ Cost (4 years) | 4,00,000 | 2,80,000 | 2,10,000 | 1,80,000 | Up to 37,000 |
| Financial Aid | Some | Possible | None | Possible | None |
| Admissions Weightage | |||||
| School Grades | 60% | 80% | 90% | 95% | 100% |
| SAT / ACT | 20% | 15% | |||
| LOR / Essay | 10% | ||||
| Extra-Curricular (CV etc.) | 10% | 5% | 10% | 5% | 0% |
• Send your child to a college where they will be HAPPY.
• Choose a college that is a good FIT for your child.
• Choose a major (subject) that your child is going to ENJOY. All liberal arts (humanities & science) subjects are good.
• Reading books is a very good habit as it will ALWAYS help your child with essays and writing reports in college.
1. Psychometric tests (Aptitude / Interest) – Helps you select 2-3 major (subject) options where you child is likely to do better at college.
2. Try and apply for a major (subject) where your child had “good grades” and also “enjoys”. This improves the acceptance rate.
3. If you have the opportunity go and speak to professionals in the areas of your major interest and shadow them for 2-3 days to understand what they actually do and then answer the question: Do you actually like what they do? If you do, then that is very good.
1. Best time to take them are in Class 11 – In December and / or March.
2. SAT is generally better for liberal arts students and ACT for science students.
3. Take these tests only “when you have prepared and are fully ready”.
4. On average 70% take SAT and 30% take ACT.
5. Advised not to take more than 2 attempts. Scores generally do not improve after 2 attempts and the study pressure on your child can be unproductive.
Most students do not take these exams. It is completely optional. For top students applying to top universities this could give them an edge and advance credit for college courses.
1. Top 5-10 universities require score of 4 or 5 / Top 11-30 universities require score of 4.
2. If ISC / CBSE students want to take AP’s – take 2 AP’s in Class 10 (May) and 3 in Class 11(May).
1. IB – Helps you fit seamlessly in the US system. ISC – Also good but with a few challenges in writing subjective answers.
2. India – IB Schools – Going from 210 to 400 in the next 3 years. Third after US and Canada.
1. Do two things but do them “in depth”. Work for community outreach for 6-12 months and spend quality time over the vacations. Admission officers are looking for “passion and leadership”.
2. Summer school (to discover yourself) – Do in Class 10 & 11. Going to fancy Ivy League schools do not count for much unless you are taking something very specific that helps build your profile (CV) in more ways than just the summer school.
3. Class 9 / 10 – Exploration / Class 11 – Consolidation / Class 12 – Apply.
1. ED – Only apply if you have a sterling application and SAT/ACT scores above average for that university. This is a September application. UPenn ED %: 2009 was 37% and 2023 was 15%.
2. EA – This is an October-December application.
3. Regular admission – Note this % includes ED/EA, so subtract this to get the real regular admission %.
4. US Admission process – If the university receives 50,000 applications for 1,000 seats, they first eliminate all but 2,500 students by ONLY looking at their school grades and SAT/ACT scores. So it is very important that these grades/scores should make the first cut. For the second round they start to look at all else.
1. For top ranked US universities the acceptance percentages have been dropping. If 15 years back they accepted 20% of students, now it would be 10%.
2. Applying for Computer Science – Most difficult to get in to the US. Too many very smart kids applying. Strategy would be to apply for engineering or related area and transfer later. Must take Maths and Physics at school.
3. Actual seats open are considerably low because: a) Minorities get 12-15%; Sports get 15%; Legacy gets 5%; Donors get 5% and kids of Staff (professors etc.) get 5%. So nearly 40% – 50% seats are reserved.
1. Scholarship – Apart from the very top US universities/colleges that offer scholarships, the rest call it financial aid and consists of grants and work study programs with limited funding.
2. Unless you are a super star student, applying for scholarship/financial aid in the US can reduce your acceptance significantly as 80% of universities will mark you down even though they say this is only considered after you are offered a position. Canada is different and do offer good scholarships to students in need.
1. Most important grades – Class 11 and first semester Class 12.
2. Common app essay – Write from the heart. Focus on content, style and being personal and truthful.
3. Predictive scores (British concept) – Nothing like this in US. Not important. Only ACTUAL grades count.
4. US – How many colleges to apply 12-15 (including UC’s and 5 safety colleges).
5. US – Students with Undecided Major – 70 %.
6. For US – Must take Maths unless you are going to study creative arts.
7. For UK – Liberal Arts – Can do without Maths. They usually ask for three subjects of interest.
8. Deferred Admission – Improve your chances by writing to the college to show that you have done something productive in your major subject since you applied to college.
9. Liberal Arts includes all humanities and sciences except professional subjects like Engineering, CS, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Teaching and Business.
10. Job opportunities after liberal arts undergrad are immense. So many new fields of application have opened up in communications, technology, law, environment, banking etc.
11. Networking – US and UK provide global reach. Europe and Singapore provide local reach.
12. Disability students – US and UK are very supportive. Autism kids should stay back and not go overseas. They need a more secure and settled environment.
Colleges typically ask students to self-report their AP scores on applications. As a result, they will see any scores you choose to report (and won’t see any you choose not to report).
The follow-up question, then, is this: Do colleges care about AP scores? Although AP scores are far from the most important part of your application, high scores can act in your favour, whereas a number of low scores can be a red flag. This is especially true at selective schools.
Finally, AP exam scores can sometimes get you college credit or allow you to skip prerequisite classes in college. Not all schools do this, so be sure to check with the colleges you’re applying to!
For more on the above issue of AP Scores: https://blog.prepscholar.com/do-colleges-look-at-ap-scores-for-admission#google_vignette