[original post removed]
ive been thinking too much about this question.
Unpure thoughts? haha
If you want to go to those schools and are not an Asian prince, you should first be in the top 0.1% of Chinese students. Then, find some way to pay for university and put together a very polished application. Many Chinese actually hire professional editors and have tons of real or fake school activities to make themselves look more interesting.
assuming we are talking about top U.S schools what percentile do you have to be in U.S schools ( good state school) to get into a graduate program in these elite institutions?
Assuming you are talking about PhD graduate school, the most important factor is faculty recommendations. So essentially, you should get a job in a lab, or on a long term research project under a well regarded professor who will recommend you to his colleagues in other universities. Obviously, your grades should support any good recommendation. I don’t know how to rank this in terms of percentiles, since academic careers are chosen by relatively few students. However, to gain the professor’s respect, you most likely have to be in the top 5% or better.
^I see, I guess the same would kinda apply to a masters program too.
I couldn’t agree or disagree more.
No, Master’s programs are different. For these, you still need some faculty references, but these will not make or break your application like in PhD programs. GPA and GRE have much higher weights for Master’s programs.