Source
r/ApplyingIvyLeague•
Brilliant_Usual_6802

I was in the Epstein files (not as a victim, as a culprit >:)

Mb for the title broskies was just trying to get your attention.

Please help chanceme waiting for decisions is frying my brain.

Demographics:

  • Gender: Male
  • Race/Ethnicity: Asian (Indian, born in the UK, moved back to India for primary school, and have been living in Singapore as an expat for the past 8 years due to my dad's work)
  • State/Region: N/A
  • Type of School: Small private international school (relatively new as well, only began operations in 2017 and my batch will just be the second-ever to graduate from here)
  • Income: Middle class. My mom runs an educational-consultancy business but she only just started 2 years ago and it's about breaking even really so we aren't profiting anything out of it as such. My dad's the main breadwinner and he earns around 130,000 USD annually from his job as an IT professional.
  • Hooks: None

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Intended Major(s):

  • Computer Science
  • Data Science
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Physics and Philosophy

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My_Qualifications:

1. Standardized Testing:

  • SAT: 1540 (790M, 750 RW). My first attempt as a sophomore. I tried improving it by retaking once at the end of 11th grade, but my math stayed the same and my RW went down 20 points. Didn't try again and (wherever I could) only submitted my first attempt.
  • IELTS (just in-case): Reading-9; Speaking-9; Listening-9; Writing-8; Overall-9
  • JEE-Main 2026 (Session 1): Haven't written the exam yet, but will do so in one week. Aiming for at least a 99%ile or above score.

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2. GPA:

  • UW: Really don't know how this will be calculated for me. I asked my school if they could do so and they said they don't provide GPA of any form for any students and that I should just explain this to colleges.
  • W: N/A
  • Rank: Ok, so this is a bit weird. I emailed my exams coordinator after IGCSEs asking for the class rankings, and she confirmed I had the highest number of cumulative As/A*s in our cohort. But 2 years later when applying, the counselor, who'd only joined 4-5 months ago, said that our school would not be doing any form of ranking, and so on my CommonApp I selected n/a, since on his school report I'm pretty sure he'd be saying the same thing.

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3. Coursework:

  • 9th and 10th grade (IGCSEs), A*-G: 1. Business Studies - 0450 A* (93)
    • 2. Chemistry - 0620 A* (94)
      1. English - First Language - 0500 A (85)
      1. Geography - 0460 A* (96)
      1. History - 0470 A* (93)
      1. Mathematics - 0580 A* (98)
      1. Mathematics - Additional - 0606 A* (96)
      1. Physics - 0625 A* (95)
      1. Information and Communication Technology - 0417 A* (96)
      1. Economics - 0455 (self-studied, will write in 06/2026, but likely an A*)
  • 11th grade (AS-levels), a-e: 1. Chemistry - 9701 a
    • 2. Physics - 9702 a
      1. Mathematics - 9709 a
      1. Geography - 9696 a
      1. Mathematics - Further - 9231 a
  • 12th grade (A2-levels), A*-U: 1. Chemistry - 9701 A*
    • 2. Physics - 9702 A*
      1. Mathematics - 9709 A (I was literally 2 marks off an A* I'm actually so mad)
      1. Geography - 9696 A*
      1. Mathematics - Further - 9231 A*

For a bit of context, I know I royally messed up missing that A* in Mathematics, but I applied to these colleges with my predicted grades, and they were A*A*A*A, where the A was in Chemistry, and not Mathematics. A much more tangential subject for CS and DS.

My school was unable to provide me a predicted grade for Further Mathematics as I'd self-studied the subject, along with Economics and Additional Mathematics.

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4. Awards/Honors:

  • Singapore Math Kangaroo Contest (SMKC): 22' Gold (26th); 23' Silver (27th); 24' Silver (17th); 25' Exemplary (4th). [National]
  • SG Math Competition (SMC): 2024 Exemplary Award (Intl. Rank 14/2001); SMC 2025 Perfect Score (Intl. Rank 1/2726). [International]
  • Silver Award in the finals (second round) of the Singapore National Olympiad in Informatics 2025. 57th/786 in qualifying round. Essentially the qualifier to the IOI, where had I done well enough in the second round (probably Gold or higher) I could've been selected for the IOI training camp. [National]
  • High Distinction on 2024 and 2025 Sir Isaac Newton Exam by UWaterloo. Full marks + intl. rank 44/3808 in 2025 after being selected for hand-marking. [International]
  • Singapore Physics League 2025. Finished 22/554 teams in the Grand Finals @ SUTD. Platinum Award. Problems set by past IPhO competitors and were designed to mimic the style of the contest. Institute of Physics Singapore (IPS). [National]

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5. Extracurricular Activities:

  • Research - Published Sports Analytics Research, MIT-SSAC (Sloan Sports Analytics Conference); JHSS (Journal of High School Science) | Built an ML pipeline w/ novel features + streamlit deployment; AUC~0.9; published in JHSS; selected for MIT-SSAC's in-person conference; 400+ reads and 10 bookmarks on JHSS.
  • Computer/Technology - Lead Developer, ML Engineer for SignSpeak, IngeniumSTEM Summer Hacks 1.0; Devpost; Singapore Association for the Deaf | Built real-time SgSL-to-text synthesiser w/ CV + CNNs; led model dev & GitHub; custom dataset augmentation; won SummerHacks 1.0 (300+ participants), and product in beta-test at the moment.
  • Research - Lead Pipeline Developer, from EDA to Evaluation; Self-directed Research on Meta Learning Techniques | Investigated efficient techniques for fine-tuning LLMs w/ TIFU dataset. Implemented BERT for text generation; optimized hyperparameters-87% F1 score. Peer-reviewed by Oxford professor Dr. Pramit Saha as part of a cohort-mentorship program and published in the International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP). Indexed on ResearchGate.
  • Other Club/Activity - President and Co-Founder, Competitive Chess Player, School Chess Club; Singapore Chess Federation | Ran weekly strategy sessions, lessons, and games; led club’s first national inter-school event; placed 10/400 in SCF-affiliated OTB qualifier vs IMs.
  • Internship - Academic Content Manager, ZNotes Education Ltd | Streamlined academic resources; led notes-dev hiring; managed 20+ subjects for 100k+ users; handled queries and routed technical/accuracy issues.
  • Computer/Technology - Lead Developer, ML Engineer for FitMaster AI, Independent; Self-directed AI Fitness Project | Built real-time OpenCV fitness tracker (push-ups, squats, sit-ups) w/ form checks, MP4 sesh logs + cues-chatbot; consulted physio for form guide. 300+ active users.
  • Athletics: JV/Varsity - Soccer, School Football Team Vice-Captain, Central Midfielder, Athletic Conference of Singapore International Schools (ACSIS); [Redacted] International School | Co-led School to ACSIS Div3 bronze + promo to Div2; ActiveSG & AfroAsia FA youth player w/ multiple Best Player awards; Ro16 in Dana & Gothia Cup, where Xabi Alonso and Dejan Kulusevski played as kids.
  • Community Service (Volunteer) - Volunteer, NYAA (Silver) Recipient, NYAA National Council; Special Olympics; Krsna's Kitchen; Food Bank SG; Ride for Rations | 120 hrs: served 1k+ migrant workers; coached ~20 SO athletes; ran 600 kg sch food drive for 50+ low-income families; cycled 300+ km for RfR.
  • Debate/Speech - Youth Delegate, Debater, International Youth Conference 11 – Digital Innovation & Transformation | Engaged 30+ delegates on AI governance policy on transparency, accountability + equitable access; ideas presented at 79th UNGA Summit of the Future.
  • Other Club/Activity - Math Tutor, Founder, Head of Operations, Middleton Math Club | Led peer-tutoring prog; personally tutored 6 students (over 2 yrs); ran wkly mtgs; org annual Pi & Fibonacci Days + schoolwide quiz. 300 attnd; shift in school culture.

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6. LOR's and Essays:

  • STEM LOR: 9-10/10. My math teacher, who I I've had for four years now, ever since the start of high school. She's openly called me her best student ever in private and I've also worked with her for our Math Club events. I feel like she would have a lot to say and would write me a really good LOR because she personally wants to see me do well.
  • Humanities LOR: 8/10. Also taught me geography for four years since freshman year, and one of my essays was also about pursuing geography as an A-level despite pressure to not mix humanities with STEM if I'm aspiring to be a STEM major, but deciding against it due to my passion for the subject. It'll be relatively strong but I've never been as exceptional in his eyes as I was in my math teacher's. He just liked me and I was a good diligent student who did my work (mostly) on time and did well on exams and tests.
  • Counselor LOR: 6-7/10. Probably some generic stuff honestly. This dude was in our school for one year and then left as well so now I have to coordinate everything with a completely new counselor too. I've heard colleges anyways weigh your teacher recs more because they know counselor's usually just rehash your resumes. Mine mostly just wanted to emphasize my workload and how I self-studied Further Math, even though I tried telling him we could just explain that in the Additional Information section and that he should focus on my character and initiatives like Math and Chess clubs.
  • Supplemental LOR: 8-9/10. From the editor and reviewer of the journal where I submitted my sports analytics research. He talked about my work, my 'gap-filling' initiative, and that he's seen work from many-a exceptional students over the years and mine ranked among the very top. His final line was, 'I'll let his work speak for itself'. Kind of tuff.
  • Essays: My CommonApp was quite personal and about my Chess Club basically and how I'd failed to create an inclusive environment due to being caught up with the 'logistics of a fledgling club', leading to our first and only girl member leaving within a month. How I was being 'complicit in the rampant everyday culture of discrimination without even realising it', and that then prompted to make reforms to our club's culture + the positive effects of that. A very high-risk high-reward move because the beginning is kind of me being a douchebag. Hopefully the ending and body makes up for it. Would be unfair for me to rate my own essays, so I really don't know. All I know is I wrote the best I could.

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Colleges:

  • Harvard
  • Yale
  • Princeton
  • Stanford
  • MIT
  • Cornell
  • Caltech
  • UCB
  • UCLA
  • CMU
  • NUS
  • Imperial College London
  • Cambridge (rejected probably because my TMUA was only a 6)
  • King's (accepted)
  • Edinburgh (accepted)

Oh, and wherever I could, I submitted my sports analytics research as a separate STEM/research supplement/portfolio where I could so I could have the manuscript/pipeline read and reviewed by an actual technically-proficient faculty member. For example, for MIT I submitted a Research Supplement, and something or the other similar for Yale, Caltech, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton. Last three only allowed me to submit abstracts and not entire portfolios though.

I also gave links to everything I could, like my github profile, my research papers, and projects.

And I've also submitted the following updates around a week ago:

  1. A month ago, I joined better.sg, a volunteer-run community that builds open-source tech-enabled projects to address social and societal problems throughout Singapore. Pitching my virtual personal trainer app-FitMaster AI-on their Slack channel, I successfully recruited twelve members willing to help out my cause. From avid gym-goers beta-testing the form-correction algorithms, to product developers turning the prototype into a public-facing mobile app. Already we've identified and fixed errors in the squat depth range through a refined feedback loop, as well as camera field-of-view calibration issues between different devices.
  2. I also presented my SgSL-to-text synthesizer, SignSpeak, at better.sg's annual Pitch & Demo Night on February 4th. The industry panel voted my project as "Best Demo," while I also connected with two contributors who'll assist with an upcoming beta release for the deaf community in Singapore.
  3. Lastly, I've been selected as a fellow for the Non-Trivial Fellowship and will be looking to conduct research on AI safety and security. Specifically, I hope to work on techniques for embedding ethical constraints into a model's latent space. The program formally begins on March 9th.

Side Note: I asked for need-based aid basically everywhere, because around half the schools I applied to (HYPM) were also need-blind for internationals, but am aware that some such as UCB, UCLA and CMU explicitly don't provide any aid to international students except certain extremely selective scholarships (honestly if I just get in I'll be eternally grateful).

Posted Feb 23, 2026, 6:08 AM UTC

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