Hi everyone! I am a junior in HS and super worried about getting into college. I am an int’ll student in the US. I speak 5 languages. My freshman year GPA was 3.4 and sophomore year was a 3.3 UW (my school doesn’t go weighted GPA). My junior year GPA is projected to be a 3.7ish. I have excellent EC’s with a super unique background (will explain this in my essay), and I am very close to my college counselor (not sure if that helps). I am very passionate about social justice and my teachers know me as “the feminist kid”. The problem is, before starting school in the US, I didn’t know that my school sends the average GPA of all four years. And I just calculated my average GPA, and it would be around 3.5. I am very worried. My top choice is Yale, and I will be applying SCEA. Do you think I have a chance? Should I apply? I am taking two senior electives since my school does not offer any AP or IB. But all of our classes are technically “honors level”. Please help out an stressed out kid.
Oh, and I have attended a very selective summer program at Yale, too. Idk if that will help.
I would say your chances are slim at best. First of all, what are your extracurriculars? Generally, colleges say that extracurriculars are important, but your transcript is the single biggest part of your application. Also, I assume you’re talking about Yale Young Global Scholars when you mention Yale summer programs. One thing you should know is that the Global Scholars program has almost no effect on your admission to Yale. The acceptance rate is 30%, and Yale’s is 7%. Be sure to find safeties and other schools where you could picture yourself. Best of luck.
You shouldn’t be “worried about getting into college,” because you can certainly get into college – just probably won’t be Yale. Sure, go ahead and apply – it’s worth a shot since it is your dream university. But 93% of students who apply there do not get in, including many students with perfect 4.0 GPAs, perfect SAT scores, and a lot of other things going for them. There just are not enough spaces at Yale (and other Ivies) for everyone who wants in.
The best thing to do is to fall in love with some other universities that are more realistic for admission (and affordable). Think about what you like about Yale and other Ivies – aside from their reputations – and look for those traits elsewhere to come up with some more options. With your international background and language skills, you might want to also consider some universities in other countries.
If you’re “very close” to the GC, that’s where you start. He or she should be able to guide you. Plus you need to learn more about your targets, their expectations, more than your “dreams.”
You had a lot of high reaches on your list. Why do you feel you match what they look for? The competition is nuts, lots with 4.0, as mommyrocks said, you really don’t know if your ECs are excellent, in comparison, and the essay isn’t meant to explain your background.
So what do you do with this “passion” for social justice? The principle is, “Show, not just tell.” It means walking the walk, not just ideas, high school clubs.
I am president of the international students union, vice-prez of diversity and feminism clubs. And I am in a couple of more clubs. I have shown commitment to my ECs and just recently started volunteering at a local library. I also play baseball and do the costumes for our school’s fall play and have represented my school at a couple of conferences both at local and national level. I am not sure if these ECs are unique enough to get me in.
That’s a very helpful advice! I have been doing a lot of research and will try to look into my targets and try to “love” them as much as I love Yale.
With a 3.5 your chances at Yale are virtually non-existent. as stated above even perfect statted students are denied. You need to lose the notion of a “dream school”.
But in terms of “social justice,” anything in the community, with established advocacy organizations?
It’s not abut “unique,” but how you move forward on interests, not just in the hs.
So colleges like to see an upward progression in GPA with the most important year being Junior year, where the playing field has been leveled to the greatest degree. Some colleges won’t even look at freshman grades, like stanford. Ah, but 3.5, my first reaction was sure, if you’re a recruited athlete.
All you can do is put your best foot forward. Knock all the other parts of your app outta the park. Apply ED somewhere you truly want to attend. Like everyone else, apply to reach, match and safeties to colleges you would be happy to attend. Good Luck!
@lookingforward yes! I work with Girl Up (my feminism club).
Your chance is zero if you don’t apply. 
Just make sure you apply to matches as well.
@holdenc12 I have a good friend that is a current Girl Up TA. Are you one as well?
@FreePariah No, I am not. I just run one of the clubs in my city.
@holdenc12 If you were able to become a TA, I think it would help your application a ton.
I would agree with some of the above replies to expand your school list. Yale or any other Ivy’s aren’t the only great schools out there that will help to achieve your life goal. Unfortunately, the Ivys have an extremely low acceptance rate and even for well qualified kids with stellar grades will be denied admissions. Your upward trend of your GPA is a good sign, but you still have the SAT/ACT that you haven’t taken yet. So it is very hard to make any uneducated prediction of your chances. But an average GPA in an unhooked applicant would be very difficult receiving a yes from the admissions committee. I’ve heard that some athletes being recruited to Yale and Princeton with a 3.8 GPA was given a hard time by the admissions committee, and needed near perfect SAT and SATII to pass the preread for admissions.
Yale typically restricts international students to somewhere in the vicinity of 10% of the enrolled students. In practice, that makes applying as an international more competitive, with the odds of getting in significantly lower for an international applicant as compared to a US citizen. Absent something truly extraordinary beyond what you’ve listed in your posts, I think you need to look at some more realistic options. If you’re not applying for financial aid and get decent standardized test scores, you’d have a good chance at somewhere like NYU.
Athletes are different.