I got 1500ish in SAT out of 1600, and found a company who recently do textilee business. My freshman GPA was 3.85,
in sophomore year my father forced me to do IB program, and unfortunately I got 3.3 gpa in sophomore year and in junior year I dropped the IB out and took 4 APs and got 4.00 gpa. So is it possible for me to get into Harvard or any other Ivies?
Possible, yes. Absolutely NO ONE can say anything more definitive than that.
Does your 3.7ish GPA place you in the top 10% of your graduating class?
According to Harvard’s Common Data Set, 95% of admits were in the top 10% of their graduating class. (Only 5% of admits were NOT in the top 10% of their graduating class.) So if your 3.7ish GPA does NOT place you in the top 10% of your graduating class, your overall chances become quite diminished, no matter what your test scores: https://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2016-17.pdf
@kurdum Does your school report class rank?
The OP is asking the wrong question and has, unfortunately, buried the lede.
So to answer his/her question: The 3.7 will be viewed in context of your school. Given the fact that you are an international student and in the IB program, I question whether the 3.7 is really your GPA or if you attempted to convert. If the latter, don’t convert. AOs are familiar with international grading standards and are also aware that there is grade deflation in many countries outside the US.
That said, the challenge you you getting accepted to an Ivy League school is that for most schools of this tier, the acceptance rate for international applicants is roughly half the overall rate. So not only do you need to be the best in your school, you really need to be one of the top applicants from your country.
That 95% percentile includes using the SAT or ACT percentile so if your school doesn’t rank, competitive colleges use the test score percentile to rank you so I would not stress over ranking. It really is your WCS whole candidate score, the overall package who you are. Deep talent in few areas with deep quality in those areas. Your essays and recommendations matter a lot! Plus hitting most of the courses schools like to see with grades that are not perfect!
Good luck!
@TroopDad: When a high school doesn’t supply ranking to colleges, nothing precludes an admissions office from placing all applications from a specific high school in GPA rank order, thereby obtaining a “relative ranking” of all students applying from a specific high school. As such, if many students from the OP’s high school are applying to the same colleges, an admissions office will note the “relative ranking” of the OP without including the SAT or ACT percentile into their calculation.
@gibby While true, as this student is an international applicant, it’s possible/likely to be the only application from that school.
gibby. That maybe true if his/her records is all from the same school. There’s complexity when the student has attended 3 upper schools giving less reliability and linear comparison with the Senior class at each of those schools. Some kids move around because their parents are diplomats, military, and dependents of multinational company executives. Such has been the case with my DS and many around my DS peers.
So many of the schools my DS applied to are referencing his ACT/SAT test score percentile to build a ranking case on his Apps. This is confirmed by many of these schools’ admissions.
^^ @Troopdad: Best of luck to your DS, but many selective colleges, including HYP, recognize that an ACT/SAT test is a **3-HOUR WINDOW ** into a student’s academic potential, whereas a student’s GPA and their associated course rigor is a **3-YEAR WINDOW ** into that same potential. As such, a high test score does not compensate for a less than stellar GPA – nor does a high test score “boost” a student’s ranking, or increase their chance of acceptance. In fact, Yale says as much on their admissions website: https://admissions.yale.edu/what-yale-looks-for
@gibby Makes sense. Grades are such a reflection of the whole student. How involved is the student in school and how does that take away from their study time? So hopefully admissions are using a holistic approach where OP could get in with a lower GPA if he has a solid package.
What is a 1500ish on the SAT? Sounds like you might be rounding that score up. Agree with all the above and the biggest gauge is where you are among your peers. Even in schools that don’t rank, students have an idea if they are a standout student or an average great student.
Is it possible for you “to get into Harvard or any other Ivies” ?
Based on your scant posted data, while possible, it is unlikely.
Highly unlikely for Harvard, Yale, Princeton & Columbia. But this assessment is based on your posted information which is unimpressive in the context of Ivy League admissions.
Brown, Dartmouth College, Cornell & the University of Pennsylvania are ultra competitive–as compared to insanely competitive for the other Ivies–and would also be unlikely to offer admission.
An important factor is that when you faced the most challenging curriculum, you did not do well.
What is your “great EC?” I did not understand the part of your post about the business. Is it something to do with textiles?
More importantly, why do you want to go to Harvard or other Ivies, and how much do you know about the many other wonderful schools in the US. At there excellent universities where you live?
You can certainly apply to any school you want, but I think a good strategy to avoid disappointment is to learn more about your other options and avoid having much hope for admission to a place like Harvard- like anyone.
Guys let me answer your questions one by one:
-my sat score is 1530
-I wasn’t in the top 10% in both sophomore and freshman year but I was in top 10% in junior year
but the thing is my school is one of the top 3 schools in my country. Student get selected by certain tests.
-I can take recommendation letter from a american-kurdish billionaire
-I found a company that produce merchandise for certain social-media celebrities.
-The reason why I wasn’t in the top 10% in sophomore year was because I wasn’t happy with both teachers and program itself. It didn’t challenge me, I didn’t want to do it.
-and also I was national mma(mixed martial arts) champion.
FWIW: while admissions will notice your upward trajectory, everything counts — meaning that two years of not being in the top 10% and one year of being in the top 10% probably averages out to “below 10%” or “on the cusp of 10%.” That, coupled with the fact that you are an international student and Harvard limits international enrollment to about 10% to 11% of the incoming freshman class means your chances are below the line (sorry).
@gibby did you conveniently ignore the fact that Harvard explicitly states on their common app that class rank is not considered?
Also saying that 95% of admitted students to Harvard are in the top 10% of their graduating class is incredibly misleading due to the simple fact that only 36% of students submitted their class rank.
At the risk of putting word in his mouth, he did not “conveniently ignore” the fact. Harvard says they do not consider class rank because more than half of US high schools do not provide a cardinal/ordinal rank. But make no mistake - the AO can gauge the rank based upon the high school’s profile. Additionally, if multiple applicants from the same HS apply, one should assume that the AO will sort by GPA. This is probably not applicable to the OP, though
Regardless, the bigger hurdle, as @gibby points out, iand as I said upthread, is that the OP is an International applicant.