Sachchit Balamurugan
Book a free call with SachchitSachchit’s intro
I'm a bioengineering student at UC Berkeley, where I'm a Regents' and Chancellor's Scholar. My work sits between machine learning and medicine. For the past three years I've been running independent cancer research, building CNN models (ResNet50, MobileNetV2, ConvNeXtTiny, and a custom architecture) for early detection of adrenocortical carcinoma and six secondary tumors, and identifying two novel biomarkers across seven cancer types. That work was published in the International Youth Research Conference peer-reviewed journal and selected as one of 27 projects worldwide to present at the University of Tokyo. It's been covered by Forbes, D Magazine, Dallas Innovates, and Spectrum News. Alongside research, I've built production infrastructure at State Farm across two paid software/data infrastructure internships, working in AWS with OpenTofu and Python, and building LLM pipelines for their internal Test Case AI model. I've also done NLP research at UT Dallas, quantum chemistry work at SMU, and completed NASA's Moonshot internship. I was a Global Nominee for NASA Space App Challenge 2 years in a row and won the People's Choice Award. I was a RISE Global Finalist for my cancer research and OCD/Depression Management App. I founded YOTI, a nonprofit that has taught coding to 100+ students globally, and I've built apps in the mental health and sustainability space, including one published on Google Play. Eventually I want to start my own biotech company.
Common questions
Before you book
What does this cost?
We are flexible, and there is a plan here that fits your family. You hear your number on the first call, before anything is agreed. What changes between plans is the kind of experience in the room: a current undergraduate at a school your student is applying to, someone who interviewed applicants for a university as an alumni volunteer, or a former admissions officer who read files and sat in committee. Every one of them is somebody we would put in front of our own family.
Do we need to know what we want before the call?
No, and most families book before they have decided anything. That is the useful time to talk. An hour, no charge, and you will come off the call knowing what we can do for your student.
How many students does one counselor take?
Few enough that the person you meet is the person who reads the drafts. Every counselor sets their own cap and prints it on their page, so you know exactly how much of their year you are getting. If your first choice is full we will introduce you to someone on the roster who suits your student just as well.
Our student is already a senior. Is it too late?
It is not too late. Several counselors here run compressed engagements and take seniors into the autumn, and there is usually more still open in a file than a family expects. Tell us where your student is on the call and we will tell you what we can do with it.
Book a call
How the call is booked.
Sachchit books the call, and it runs an hour on the phone.
Book a free call with SachchitSachchit works from what you tell us about your student, so the call starts there rather than at the beginning.
If something changes
The agreement is held by The Scholar’s Bureau rather than by Sachchit personally. If Sachchit cannot finish the cycle we move your student to another counselor on this roster at the price you were already quoted, and everything written down so far moves with them.
The Scholar’s Bureau is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by University of California or any other institution named on this page. Sachchit Balamurugan is an undergraduate at University of California, speaking only as an individual, with no role in its admissions office and no influence over any admissions decision.