So I’m planning on applying to Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, and Brown. Obviously, I don’t expect to get in since they’re so competitive, but I’m wondering if I even have a chance with my unweighted GPA being a 3.79. I had an unweighted GPA of 3.95 before and I was in the top 5%. I’m still in the top 10% of my class of 550 people, but not by much. I didn’t get any Bs until Junior year, and I only took honors and AP classes throughout high school. My weighted GPA is a 5.1 out of 6. My SAT score is 2170: 780 CR, 700 M, 690 W (superscored). I have only taken the world history subject test and I got a 770. I’m planning on taking biology, chemistry, and math II. My AP Test scores are: 5 on english lang, 5 on world history, 5 on US history, 4 on art history, and a 3 on chem (I had a horrible teacher lol). I have pretty good ECs: biomedical research internship, started a successful photography business, volunteer work at a hospital and my own science tutoring for the undeserved, academic decathlon, multiple awards and hundreds of thousands of views on my photography, etc.I’m sure I can get fantastic letters of rec from the professor I was working under at the lab. I’ve also had significant hardships during Junior year which have affected my grades. Just wondering if these other things still keep me competitive for Ivies despite my poor grades.
You sound like you have a chance. Your EC’s are really good, I wish I had those. Maybe retake the SAT to improve your chances and then apply RD? But your essays will probably be the deciding factor.
Would depend on the hardships. The High School transcript is definitely the most important for any school admissions, and yours seem to have lost the competitiveness for an IVY School, and might just show that you are not good enough to cope with a difficult curriculum in your junior year. If your hardships are significant enough to show that it was not your fault, than you definitely have a chance, as you have good ECs (your research kinda loses its worth cause of AP Chem tho). You will need higher scores to be competitive, but I am sure that you can manage.
Well I don’t plan on submitting my AP Test score because it was sort of an off test day for me. I’ve taken the a practice SAT chemistry test and gotten a 750, so I plan on taking the real one in October and submitting that instead.
Only if you apply regular decision. And depending on the hardship, it may give you some leeway with your GPA. Starting a photography business and getting a couple hundred thousand views is very impressive.
Are you a URM? Any Hooks?
And like @CaliCash said, going from a 4.0 to a 3.79 in one year is a very steep downward trend so your explanation of your hardships (whatever they were) is very key.