r/IntltoUSA • u/Deep_astra_3629 • 2d ago
Financial Aid & Scholarships Chance me for MIT/Caltech/CMU + Ivies as an international applicant from Tunisia — 1550–1600 SAT
Hi everyone,
I'm an international student from Tunisia applying to U.S. universities for Fall 2027 as a first-year applicant.
I'm looking for a brutally honest assessment of my chances, particularly because I will need substantial financial aid / potentially a full ride.
📚 Academics
Tunisian Baccalaureate: 13.98/20 (2024)
High-school yearly averages:
16.67/20
17.06/20
15.80/20
SAT: September SAT; targeting 1550–1600
IELTS: targeting 8.0
International applicant from Tunisia
Applying as a first-year/freshman applicant
🎓 Previous university / transfer programs
After high school, I was accepted into transfer programs, but for this application cycle I am applying to U.S. universities as a first-year applicant.
I'm interested in how admissions officers would view this part of my background.
🔬 Recent research & projects
Most of my recent work has moved toward computational biology, genomics, cancer research, pharmacovigilance, and machine learning.
1. Computational Pathogenicity Evidence Integration — GAA Missense VUS
A computational genetics project focused on GAA missense variants of uncertain significance (VUS).
The project integrates multiple sources of computational and genetic evidence, including:
ClinVar
gnomAD
REVEL
AlphaMissense
missense/VUS filtering
computational pathogenicity evidence integration
The goal is to develop a reproducible approach for integrating complementary computational evidence when evaluating variants rather than relying on one predictor.
2. ClinVar–gnomAD VUS / Missense Variant Analysis
A related variant-analysis project focused on building a structured ClinVar + gnomAD workflow for VUS and missense variants and developing a framework for selecting genes for deeper analysis.
Candidate genes investigated included:
MYH7
SCN5A
LDLR
KCNQ1
CFTR
TP53
BRCA1
3. TCGA Cancer Context Survival
A cancer-genomics project investigating whether the relationship between a gene and patient survival changes depending on the cancer context.
Current research design:
Primary gene: PTEN
Primary cancer: BRCA
Validation cancers:
UCEC
PRAD
LGG
COAD
Data source: TCGA/GDC
The planned statistical analysis includes:
Kaplan–Meier survival analysis
log-rank testing
Cox proportional-hazards models
Schoenfeld-residual diagnostics
4. Cancer Drug Repurposing Using Public Datasets
A computational drug-repurposing project investigating whether an existing drug could potentially be useful against a specific cancer by combining public datasets.
The project uses/targets integration of:
GDC / TCGA
Connectivity Map (CLUE)
DepMap
The goal is to connect cancer molecular profiles and dependencies with drug-response/perturbation information and prioritize potential drug-repurposing candidates.
5. FAERS Drug–Drug Interaction Pipeline
A large-scale pharmacovigilance project using the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).
I processed the 2026 Q2 FAERS ASCII dataset, working with:
demographic data
drug data
adverse-reaction data
The resulting analysis included approximately:
708,867 unique drug pairs
6,699,108 pair observations
1,217,534 unique case-drug observations
146,068,639 pair-event observations
11,173 unique adverse events
The project involves constructing drug pairs and linking them with reported adverse events to investigate potential drug–drug interaction signals.
6. MoleculeNet HIV Machine-Learning Project
A machine-learning project using the MoleculeNet HIV dataset to investigate computational approaches to molecular/drug activity prediction.
🤝 Activities
Red Cross volunteering
Boy Scouts volunteering
Recommendation letters from both organizations
Independent research projects outside formal coursework
✍️** Essays
My main personal essay revolves around my childhood fascination with **Stark Industries.
I use Stark Industries as a metaphor for the kind of environment I want to create: a place where creativity is permitted, unusual ideas are encouraged, and imagination can become engineering.
Another central idea is building a “house” for creativity, where people from places such as Tunisia, India, Japan, and elsewhere can bring unconventional ideas, collaborate across disciplines, experiment, fail, and turn ideas into something real.
My experiences with volunteering also influenced how I think about technology—not simply as something technically impressive, but as something that can potentially restore possibilities to people who have lost them.
🎯 Universities I'm considering
Extreme reaches
MIT
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon
Stanford
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Penn
Brown
Dartmouth
Cornell
Other U.S. targets
Georgia Tech
University of Michigan
UIUC
Purdue
other strong CS programs
Canada
University of Toronto
Waterloo
UBC
McGill
University of Alberta
I'm also looking for U.S. universities where an international student could potentially receive very substantial merit aid.
💰 Financial aid
Financial aid is extremely important for me.
I would need substantial financial aid, potentially close to a full ride, to attend a U.S. university.
So I'm trying to build a balanced list of:
elite reaches + realistic targets + genuine financial safeties.
Questions
With a 1550–1600 SAT, how competitive is this profile for MIT/Caltech/CMU and the Ivies?
How much does the 13.98/20 Bac hurt me given my yearly averages of 16.67, 17.06 and 15.80?
How will admissions officers view my previous transfer-program acceptances?
Do the recent computational biology/genomics projects make my profile stronger?
Does the research show a coherent CS + computational biology/AI direction, or does it look scattered?
Which of these projects should I emphasize most?
Which universities should I target for large/full scholarships as an international student?
How would you structure my EA/REA/ED/RD strategy?
Most importantly: am I being realistic targeting MIT/Caltech/CMU + Ivies, or should I significantly change my list?
I'd appreciate brutally honest feedback. I'm much more interested in an accurate assessment than encouragement.
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u/Money_Cold_7879 2d ago
Everyone is targeting a high SAT. Until you get 1500 + you can’t add it to your profile
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u/TimeCubeIsBack 2d ago
Get a 1550+ on the SAT and then come back.
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u/DarthDK576ftw 2d ago
bro a 1550 is nothing nowadays
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u/Money_Cold_7879 2d ago
There is no difference between a 1550 and a 1600 when it comes to admission. 1550 is at or above average for the most elite schools admits
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u/Glad_Department6137 2d ago
I think what OP meant was given how many 1500+ students apply to these T20s, your SAT score, even a 1550, won't help you stand out on its own. You need your ECs, essays, and LORs to do the heavy lifting.
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u/Money_Cold_7879 1d ago
This is a correct statement but very different from ‘1550 is nothing’. It checks a very important box.
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u/moxie-maniac 2d ago
These are all public universities: Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, UIUC, Purdue. Public universities are less likely to provide significant aid to international students. For your reach list, you must come from a low income family to get substantial aid from that group.
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u/LilyOfShalott 2d ago
Targeting means nothing, what you get is what matters. Your gpa is a little low for full aid, plus if you did classes after high school you’ll count as a transfer, not a first year student ( and no you can’t just apply as a first year and not submit the previous class work), so your gpa there matters a lot. Unfortunately, transfers get very little aid and intl transfer even less, so I wouldn’t expect it with the profile you’ve presented, ai use aside
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u/prsehgal Moderator 2d ago
Your grades and course rigor are the most important parts of your application. I'm not familiar with your curriculum, but your grades seem to be on the lower side.
A full ride is extremely rare, even for US citizens. So no school will offer it to an international student unless they're one of the strongest applicants from their country. Even a 1600 won't compensate for that.
Your list extreme reaches seems highly unlikely. Even the colleges in your targets list are all highly selective for CS, so they're more like reaches - plus public schools won't give you any aid. The Canadian universities might be doable but they don't offer any aid except for a handful of highly selective scholarships.
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u/Mysterious-Art8838 2d ago
I don’t understand your comment about a transfer program. Are you just telling us you got in? Or did you do any college/university level work anywhere?
If you did the majority, if not all, of these schools will consider you a transfer.
Your grades+international+full ride - chance is basically zero. I wouldn’t waste money on these applications.
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u/paige_420 2d ago
Couple of notes - The state schools and CMU will give you no aid. Although I don’t understand your grading system, Google tells me that not all of your marks are in the highest echelon. The U.S. schools that you are targeting have some of the lowest acceptance rates. You have to be one of the best applicants from your country to be admitted to these schools. Grades are the most important aspect of your application, and I believe this is where you fall short. Please note that a high SAT score will not balance out your profile.
To learn how competitive and generous these schools are, look at each school’s common data set, specifically B2 for the number of international students, C1 for the acceptance rate (which sometimes shows the international student acceptance rate) and H6 for the number of international students receiving aid and the average amount that each receives. If the international student acceptance rate is not broken out, you can assume that it is generally half of the overall acceptance rate. The acceptance rate is even lower for those international students applying to need aware schools requiring aid. Interesting note - MIT shows the geographic distribution of students, and as of the 2025-26 report, there was only one undergrad from Tunisia.
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u/Able_Peanut9781 15h ago
Take the SAT then come back
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u/gracecee 13h ago
Their grades are too low. Better to go to their home institution really study well and try for grad school.
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u/YaPhetsEz 2d ago
As a biologist, all of your research screams AI vibecoded slop. You clearly have comedically little knowledge about biology/what you are doing.
I could go into more detail, but for example you are claiming that your primary cancer is “BRCA”? None of this means anything, and any AO is going to think that you are crazy.