Chances to get anywhere in top 50

[krzyhuw]

Hello.

 

My name is Chris, I'm from Poland, Europe. Now I am on my second year (fourth semester) from 3,5 years engineering program (it is some kind of Bachelor from Eng). My faculty is Automatic Control and Robotics in 16th Uni in Poland (3rd Technical). Now my overall GPA is straight 3.0. I am doing my best and increasing it after each semester. I now it is low... but this is extremely difficult to get very high grades. We have grade scale from 2-5. Even one little mistake often lower a grade to 4.5 ... and this is B+ :/. I want to have at the moment of application GPA around 3.3.

 

I am preparing to pass my TOEFL and then GRE and GMAT. I have 18 months to admission. My purpose is good EE/EECS/CS/MEng program (one or two years). 

 

Additional info about me:

 

 

Graduated with distinction from high school with technician degree in Electronics Technology, specialization 'Networks and Computer Systems'.

 

Extra activities, courses and trainings:

- Cisco CCNA course,

- Writing a scientific research paper entitled 'TORUS - transmission system of fire alarms and fault signals' for 11th International Conference on Diagnostics of Processes and Systems 2013,

- Assistance with writing an academic textbook for 'Fundamentals of Automatic Control' course,

- Co-funder and member of scientific circle "MobileTech" (mobile devices programming),

- Working at Red Bull as Student Brand Manager (i.a. organisations of events, cooperation with student council, media contacts),

- Managing the numismatics web portal.

 

Scholarships, fellowships:

- Prime Minister Scholarship for the Best Student in High School (the highest average grade) - two times (2009/2010 and 2010/2011),

- EU Incentive Scholarship for the best students - European Social Fund - four times (1st, 2nd, 3rd and now 4th semester).

 

I was professional hockey player - my dream is to play in some Uni team.

 

Also

- Award for exemplary conduct and the best study results - Abramowski High School, 2010

- Award for commitment in social activities for Polish Lifeguard Organization 2008,

- Award for exemplary conduct and excellent study results - Jerzy Ziętek Middle School, 2006.

 

Also:

- Helmsman Licence,

- Professional Water Lifeguard (WOPR) with all three specializations,

 

- Social work as a WOPR Lifeguard at many pools,

- Student Council in High School - class chairman and board member for 3 years,

- Permanent cooperation with student governments at the Univerisity in organizing student events on the campus,

- Founder and long-term administrator on the biggest numismatics discussion board in Poland,

- Free service in valuation and identification of coins (via discussion boards and web portals) since 2009,

- First flag bearer of the Middle School (distinction certificate).

 

In the topic of numismatics, I am the co-author of numismatic book, published 2009, reprinted two times. 

 

Additional activities in the past: 

- contributor in ARISS Project (Amateur Radio on International Space Station) at Abramowski High School - conversation with an astronaut Soichi Noguchi from ISS. 

- three summer internships in some well-known company in 'Department of design and assembly of electronic systems'. I worked on ORLEN Płock refinery fire protection systems and electronic security systems and surveillance for emerging Alior Bank branches. 

 

 

I want to apply to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Penn, Georgia, Yale and many more to increase my chances... 

 

Any suggestions? How would you evaluate my chances? I'm doing some research as I write above and doing everything, but it's not so easy in my country.

 

GRE I plan to pass very well.

[tip3r]

I would say your chances are good if you are looking to get into a master's program without a scholarship. Some schools don't fund MS students. Other schools like Stanford prefer to fund their MS students and keep them for PhD. Keep in mind admission to all of these schools is very competitive.

[MikKar]

It depends on what program you are targeting, how they fit with your project, academic/career plans and other factors. I am in a relatively similar situation in that I will be applying to graduate schools soon and I am from France. We have the same situation grade-wise in that : it's very easy to fall from 20/20 to 13/20, so what can be a 4.00 becomes a 3.50... Bam ! Nothing can be done about that though.

 

I graduated back in 2008, and I have some professional experience so I hope this helps. TOEFL and GRE are not critically important to the application but they're seen more as potential reasons to cut your application off if scores are too low. Likewise : GPA should be high but it's not because you have 4.00 that you will have a guaranteed admission, far from it.

 

What can really make or break your application is the combination of SoP and your LoRs. For the SoP, you need to have a rock-solid project in mind and show how the program to which you're applying to is best suited to achieve it. tip3r makes a good point about not having scholarships. If you can finance yourself then the University don't spend a penny on you and you basically work there at your expense. So it's win-win for the University and you get to be in a program of your choice. Obviously this isn't as easy as I'm writing it but I think you'll get the idea.

 

Best of luck,