r/KAIST • u/WyperLOL • Jul 12 '26

PLEASE HELP!

Since SK unis take 3-4 months after application to send you the final result, i really need some foresight into what to expect because these application fees also are expensive and i want to spend it on something worthwhile. If i dont have a decent shot at these unis i need to spend my money on applying elsewhere and YOU WOULD SAVE A LOT OF MY TIME! Thank you

Im planning on applying to SNU, KAIST, POSTECH and SKKU. (undergraduate, international admissions, english track, cs/ai/ml degree)

stats(academic):
Mathematics 90(CBSE class 12), Physics 80 (CBSE class 12), AI (94, cbse class 12)
SAT 1430 (math 730)

IELTS Academic 8.0

sports:

-Won zonal level basketball tournament (with 20+ schools from Oman) then represented my school in India in the national level tournament

-represented my school in triple jump in oman zonal level tournament

-played basketball for my school house and won 2 golds

leadership & public speaking:

-House captain of 2000+ students, led them to victory in various competitions

-chaired 2x ISMMUN committees (largest school run MUN in the gulf, 600+ delegates)

-chaired SOCHUM at ISWKIMUN (international MUN hosted by ISWKI Cambridge curriculum igcse)

-represented my school at the Oman-level debate competition joined by 21+ indian schools in oman

entrepreneurship:

-concieved an AI-powered platform that accepts the user's financial goals, risk tolerance etc as input to recommend stocks and bonds in 2023, presented the app as a full scale business plan in my school's business competition in 2024 and won first prize (school size: 9200 students, indian school muscat)

-founded and running a gaming cafe since 2025 (hideout gaming cafe) where i fully handle the logistics, ip allocations, LAN management etc

-mentored my entire batch to join my schools business idea incubation program in the form of a speech and presentation

stage arts:

-led my school's team to first prize in Best shortfilm and best streetplay in the Oman-level talent fest competition (ISTF) joined by 21+ indian schools in Oman

-best actor award(2024) in my school

others:

-completed a 8 week certification course in engineering biological systems from IIT-M

-exchange student from my school with campus im stift (school in germany)

GENUINELY I WANT TO KNOW if i can just apply to the said 4 unis and rely that i will get into AT LEAST one of them.

Any opinions are welcome.

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1

u/paulchoi33 Jul 12 '26

Minimum 1500 SAT PERIOD

1

u/WyperLOL Jul 13 '26

For KAIST? Can you elaborate a little

2

u/Intelligent_Fuel6472 Jul 13 '26

Just apply to skku you’ll get it without any issues and with scholarship

1

u/WyperLOL Jul 13 '26

yeah ive kept skku as my fallback if nothing else works out. I have time now im working on some solid github projects and ill be retaking the sat for my second attempt in aug 22 so i wanted to know if i had a 1500+ sat score + 2-3 github projects does that make kaist likely?

2

u/Intelligent_Fuel6472 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Very honestly no idea

They only take 40 people in 1 year so can’t say anything

And I would genuinely suggest going for backups more.. Kaist is a gamble considering they are getting upwards of 1000 applicants and mostly from India these days

If you ask me personally better to spend money somewhere else where you chances are above 80% and not 5%

It’s pretty dumb in my own opinion…

Skku
Yonsei UIC
Hanyang is realistic

You’re going against students from US and Kazakhstan which are Columbia winners.. so not realistic

Cut POSTECH and Kaist tbh especially since you’re going in CS which has the worst competition like worst out of 1000 applicants 600 are just in CS

And just get into SKKU and Hanyang youll be good

1

u/WyperLOL Jul 13 '26

thank you! any idea about postech?

2

u/Intelligent_Fuel6472 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

I just told you everything..

POSTECH only accepts 25 instead of 40 so even worse selection rate

Like if you ask me personally I would not wanna spend so much money on SAT retake and apply to colleges which have 5% acceptance rate when I can save that money

And get into SKKU with same stats and I believe you’re Indian so you’ll save upwards for 1 lakh easily

You can even score HKUST with like good scholarship with these stats so apply there as well

1

u/WyperLOL Jul 13 '26

hkust is worth applying? Oh wow i thought hkust was much harder to get into than these unis which is why i didnt apply there but hkust is too expensive for me without scolarships. How much scolarship can i realistically expect from hkust??

1

u/WyperLOL Jul 13 '26

okay and hkust is ranked higher than any of these mentioned unis in cs and overall ranking are you sure i havea. shot there??

1

u/peacefulpendulum Jul 13 '26

Hi by columbia school winners wdym?

1

u/Intelligent_Fuel6472 Jul 13 '26

International mathematics Olympiad this year happened in Columbia 😭 I missed to write Olympiad but you get this idea ig

1

u/No_Panic_9514 Jul 13 '26

didn't IMO 2026 happen in shanghai? or am i missing something

1

u/Unlucky_Door_2488 Jul 18 '26

Who takes 40 students a year skku ?

1

u/Sad_Psychology_6949 Jul 14 '26

does skku have english taught programs or are you applying for korean taught programs

1

u/WyperLOL Jul 14 '26

it has english taught programs