I am an international student and I am currently applying to Harvard Stanford and Yale, I have very low grade on SAT and I had very low grades in the school. Plus I went back to China during christmas break and there was something wrong with my passport, so I had to stay for one more week in China and when I came back I had to take the mid-term test immediately with missing two weeks of school. So my grades are even worse now. But I have other things like I created a computer programming club when I was in my high school in China, I was in student union and I also was the PIC of a scientific level research. I am now inventing a application which is about sharing business cards wirelessly. I am also a varsity basketball player in my high school, and I have a strong personality and leadership. Do you think I still get a chance to get accepted by those school? or what should I do right now to explain the grades situation? How much does those grades weight in Colleges’ admission decision?
We need more information than that, but based on what you said, no it doesn’t sound like you have a chance at those schools.
Define low grades, low SAT? But, generally: if your grades/scores are truly low, you have no shot. Starting a club and creating an app isn’t unique enough to overcome low scores, especially for an international. Grades and scores are the most important metric at Ivy Leagues–you have to meet the minimum threshold and only then do ECs matter. Now, if your definition of “low” is a 3.8 or 3.9, that’s another story… but anything under a 3.6 or a 2100 SAT, you have basically no shot, especially with a downward trend, IMO.
What senior grades do colleges look at? I am applying to UIC, UMN, UCBerkeley, UWI, Stanford, Harvard, Yale and Drexel university
what do you mean what grades? what classes? they look at all core classes, and what i mean by that is they don’t look at grade in pe or band or something.