I will be applying to numerous colleges in just a few months (Columbia, Cornell, NYU, GW, MIT, Baruch Honors, and a few other ivy leagues and top schools).
I’m a youth entrepreneur (started my first company in 3rd grade and have founder/co-founded 5 companies so far) who has been featured in many publications including Forbes, Inc, and others. One of the websites that I run is one of the largest in its sector and is utilizing Artificial Intelligence which I mostly developed. Also cofounded and am currently an executive at a new organization that helps college students and kids in underprivileged communities learn about entrepreneurship, STEM, and business through very unique classes. I’ve also written a lengthy essay that’s been featured in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I’ve also started a petition and written a lengthy article about a political topic that’s important to me and am currently pitching a Bill I wrote to address it to a member of Congress’ team.
I will have rec. letters from 2 very successful high profile people, in addition to teachers.
So far, I’ve taken 3 AP classes, but have a 3.4 gpa. I’ve done 6 school clubs so far.
What are my chances at Ivy League, top colleges like NYU and GW, and Baruch Honors and Macaulay Honors College? Thanks!
In all honesty, why is it important for you to attend a “top college”? You seem to have done extremely well as a high school student. What added benefit will a BA from an Ivy have for you, compared to another really good college?
Now regarding your chances, here is the thing - one of the reasons that colleges with low acceptance rates find GPA to be important is that they are a good indicator that the student is good at academics.
Now, while it’s obvious that you are very smart, you also don’t seem to find academics all that important, since your GPA is almost certainly the result of you prioritizing your other activities over your school work. That is absolutely OK, but colleges will look at this and may think that you will continue this behavior while at college.
Why should Harvard, for example, think that you would put more effort into your academics once you are in college than you did as a high school student?
Simply put, a 3.4 GPA will be a tough sell to any college with low acceptance rates. If you become well known enough, Harvard may decide that they want you, but for the other highly selective colleges (including the rest of the Ivies), GPA and class rigor are very important (Harvard has every single factor a “considered”, with nothing being “Important” or “Very Important”), and your GPA is at the bottom of the bottom 25% by GPA for most of the highly selective colleges to which you are applying. If the rigor of your course set is not the most rigorous that you high school has, it makes it even more of a very long shot.
Also, most colleges only look at letters of recommendation from your teachers and GC - they want to know how you are as a student.
Baruch Honors and Macaulay Honors would also be reaches, though you could also attend another CUNY and transfer. Baruch College itself is match, and you could transfer to Honors while there, as well.
You certainly have some amazing ECs. But as pointed out above, the main thing colleges will look at is your GPA. Your GPA is certainly not bad, but it is not in the range where you would be competitive at the top colleges.
Do you have access to Naviance or SCOIR? You can take a look at scattergrams and see how competitive you are based on GPA/ACT. ECs are a nice added plus, but won’t take the place of a low GPA.
Oh, and by the way, I would likely be applying to the Engineering (Computer Science) or Business schools at these universities. So, for NYU I will likely apply to NYU Tandon School of Engineering. What are my chances for getting in to NYU, Ivy League, GW, Baruch Honors, and Macaulay?
Great EC’s. Recommendations from well-known people not only won’t have impact they might actually backfire.
I think your GPA is extremely low for those schools. Since you have an obvious interest in being an entrepreneur have you thought of Babson and taking AI classes at Olin? Or many other schools. There is likely a fit with a college that has an entrepreneurial bent and also had classes in your area of interest. Or even a large university where you can take business and AI.
I think your GPA reflects you are more interested in doing than school. I don’t know if that might appeal to some college which will weigh your success in business against your low grades and come up with a yes. I think someone would but it’s unlikely to be Harvard. Lots of these schools would take you for an MBA ( since lots of the criteria is in the what have you done pool). Undergrad is going to be tough. Maybe a small school.
If you google the class profile for NYU or GW you will see that your GPA is low and your ACT is at about the 25th percentile. You can get this information yourself for other schools you look at by googling “XYZ university class profile” or “XYZ university common data set” or by looking at some college guide books. As you move through this process it is important that you do your own basic research.
IMO both NYU and GW would have to be considered to be reaches given your academic stats. It is fine to apply to some reach schools as long as your overall application list is balanced with match and safety schools as well. While you have accomplished a lot outside of the classroom you need to understand that admissions officers are charged with finding students who they feel confident will succeed academically at the college.
And while it is way too early to think about MBAs, I respectfully disagree with @Happytimes2001. The top MBA schools do look for strong academic performance as an undergrad and high standardized tests in addition to strong essays, great LORs, AND meaningful work accomplishments. As with the top undergrad schools, you need to have the whole package.
By and large, at colleges with direct admission to engineering, these programs are far more selective than the rest, since they are more popular. They also usually require strong math skills.
For Ivies, it won’t make all that much of a difference as to which major you put on your application, except that not having any background in you planned major may weaken your application a bit.
However, unless you have very strong math skills, you will not survive in an engineering program for very long. How are you at math?
In any case, applying for engineering will make it more challenging for you.
Again, the Ivies are all very high reaches, and you are very unlikely to be accepted to any. NYU had an acceptance rate of 15% putting also in the high reach range for you. Although NYU have their average GPA as 3.7, that include the many students who were accepted to Tisch, where the portfolio is the most important factor in admissions.
GWU is likely a solid reach or even a low reach.
Baruch Honors and Macaulay are low reaches.
If this is your application list, the most likely outcome is that you will not have any acceptances. You need at least one safety which you would be happy to attend.
Thank you for the response! Looking at NYU Tandon school of engineering, they’re acceptance is about 7x higher than NYU Stern. Why is that? Is it easier to get into? Do I have a higher chance of getting into Tandon than Stern?
Take a look at the Columbia 3-2 programs. You get 2 bachelors degree. The first from a liberal arts college, and then you spend the last 2 years at Columbia SEAS getting an engineering degree. They used to offer a guarantee for anyone with > 3.2 undergrad GPA to get accepted to SEAS. But they still have a good pipeline from many liberal arts colleges. Many of these LACs aren’t that competitive to get into. Assuming you did well for the first 3 years, you could transfer to Columbia.
The problem is that the most recent data for Tandon is from 2015, when acceptance rate for NYU was 31%. While Tandon no longer publishes its acceptance rates, since NYU has dropped from 31% to 15%, it stands to reason that the acceptance rate to Tandon is also likely around 15%.
I think your EC’s are very impressive. Whilst grades are important colleges want to see passion which you clearly have. You should be able to write some very amazing essays. Many people can get good test scores but not everybody can do the entrepreneurship you have done. I would say you have a very good chance.