BENGALURU: Students from Bengaluru are racking up seats in top universities across the world, show results of the early decision (ED) placements of foreign universities.
From Stanford to Brown and Johns Hopkins to Imperial College, London, they have been getting offers from various institutions. ED admissions are binding on students. Those opting for it cannot back out of the process once admitted into a university.
Sachin Singh, a student of Inventure Academy, will be joining Stanford University next year. “I am still to decide on the major, but it will be an intersection of science, politics and literature. My interests are broad and that is why a school like Stanford is the right fit for me. They emphasise on interdisciplinary education. My willingness to explore science and humanities helped my application stand out,” said Singh.
Counsellors point out that with the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores becoming optional, essays have received importance like never before.
“In my essay, I wrote about how I like to write and how I developed the process of writing over time. On the personality front, I showed how fun and light-hearted I was. The university as a whole has an upbeat culture… The most important thing that many people miss is to be likable, rather than brag about one's achievements. Stanford is looking for flawed humans, people who are ready to own up their fallacies...,” Singh said.
Honesty the best policy
Chhavi Nahata of Mallya Aditi International will major in English literature with creative writing or psychology as minor at Stanford. A Bharatanatyam and ballet dancer, Chhavi also sent a seven-minute video of her performances along with her essays. Being a writer, Chhavi enjoyed the 12 essays she had to pen for Stanford. “I tried to be as honest as possible,” she said about her essays, adding that the one she wrote for all the colleges she applied to was called Metaphors of Love, in which she compiled many instances of her life and connected those with love.
Pratibha Pradeep, a student of Indus International, has made it to Johns Hopkins University for biomedical engineering. “While I loved physics, chemistry, maths and biology, I was never able to make up my mind on which subject to choose. Biomedical engineering was, in fact, a marriage of all these subjects,” said the 17-year-old.
Pratibha said in her essay she combined her experience of growing up in India and the healthcare system here. “I wrote about my growing up and how a dengue outbreak had affected the communities. I linked that to my growing interest in diseases, recoveries and vaccinations and this led me to biomedical engineering, where various subjects are integrated to solve different problems...”
Mallya Aditi International said their students have made it to Stanford, Brown, Duke, Imperial College and Georgetown varsities, among others.
“Unlike the last cohort, where a large number of students aspired to join US universities, this time, we are also seeing an equal number for the UK. This, we want to believe, is because of the changing policies of both the countries and the proximity to home...,” said Kalai Selvi, head of school, Vidyashilp Academy.
Among the 15 ED offers, one of the students has also completed her interview for Cambridge University, the results of which will be out by January. “While students choosing US universities are flexible with the courses they want to pursue, those applying to UK universities are very sure about their specialisations,” Selvi noted.
Uma Ravitharan, head of senior school at Indus International, said: “SAT was made optional. So, the only true picture colleges could get of students was through their essays.”
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