Aussie IB Student – What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I'm an IB student in my senior year of high school in Sydney, Australia. I'll be sitting my final exams this month. Next year I'd really like to study in the US. Could you please tell me my chances of gaining admission into the following universities:</p>

<p>Reach:
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
UPenn
Columbia</p>

<p>Match (I think?):
Cornell
UCLA
UC Berkeley
NYU
UMich
UChicago</p>

<p>Safety:
UT Austin</p>

<p>My SAT score is 2060 with CR-680, M-730 and W-650.</p>

<p>My predicted IB score from my teachers is 43.</p>

<p>To be more specific:</p>

<p>HL English - 6
SL French B - 7
HL Economics - 7
SL Biology - 6
SL Maths Methods - 7
HL Computer Science - 7
Extended Essay/Theory of Knowledge - 3</p>

<p>I think I can realistically pull of a 41, as it really depends on the specifics of the exams themselves.</p>

<p>My co-curricular activities and leadership roles in and out of school include things liek school prefect, year 9 monitor (like a pre-prefect role), yr 11 peer-support leader, house vice-captain, varsity sports teams (rugby, soccer, cricket, basketball - not all at the same time, lol), intramural swimming and tennis, saxophone, guitar, school's symphonic wind band and concert band, 60 hours of community service in my senior year, graphic design, painting, student leadership group. I focussed on music, sport and community service mainly, aside from my prefect role.</p>

<p>Awards - high distinction in a national maths competition, won a state-wide french competition two years in a row, distinction in other national maths, science and english competitions, 1st in economics, computer science and french (french in grade 9 and 10, econ and computing in grade 11 and 12), received multiple school academic citations, proficiency prizes.</p>

<p>In college, I'm hoping to major in Economics/Business and minor in English Literature or French. I'd probably take advantage of the extra credit schemes most universities have.</p>

<p>Since my exams are over fairly soon, I'll probably start my own online business (IT consulting) and do a semester of university here before starting university overseas.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Dhruv</p>

2

<p>anyone out there?</p>

3

<p>bump 10 chars</p>

4

<p>I think you're a strong candidate at these top level schools. However, this is how I'd relabel your listed schools.</p>

<p>High-reaches:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Columbia</p>

<p>Reaches:
Cornell
UPenn
UChicago
UC Berkeley</p>

<p>Strong chance:
NYU
UCLA
UMich</p>

<p>Safety:
UT Austin (don't really know much about it sry)</p>

<p>Obviously the chances at each school you've listed tend to vary by what program you're shooting for. (for example, you'd have a much more difficult time getting into NYU Stern than CAS, or the Mich Business school, or w/e you get the point)</p>

<p>If I were you I'd try to pick 2 from each category I've listed here (meaning that you should find yourself another safety school too). I don't think it's worth applying to all of them; it's more effort than it's worth.</p>

5

<p>Thanks! Would you recommend any other safety schools? I'm really keen on princeton, columbia, stanford (all 3 really hard to get in, obviously), upenn, berkeley, ucla and nyu. But I want to be able to keep my options open; that's why I'm applying to the other universities. Will being an int'l student increase/lower my chances for admission?</p>

6

<p>Do you need financial aid? For internationals applying to anywhere other than HYPMD+AWS that is an important factor.</p>

7

<p>Yes probably, but my parents and I can probably make most of the tuition every year.</p>

8

<p>bump 10 chars</p>

9

<p>You definitely have an advantage as an international student, but it's hard to say how far that would carry you. I'm an admissions newbie myself, but I would guess that you'll get into most of the universities but have a tougher time with the ivies. NYU seems like it might be a good match.
Hope this helps!</p>

10

<p>Thanks a lot, mate.</p>

11

<p>Keep in mind that your chances decrease significantly if you are an international student applying for financial aid.</p>

12

<p>Oh, okay. I have the impressions that most schools, int'l applicants need to prove that they can pay for the whole tuition/living costs, while they can also tick a box saying they need financial aid. But, do you think that because I'm doing the IB would give some universities an incentive to offer me financial aid, given my predicted grades?</p>

13

<p>bump 10 chars</p>

14

<p>UPDATE: Just realised I forgot to give my GPA/ranking info. If converted, my average GPA from yrs 9-12 is 3.9 (RAW mark, no scaling, unweighted). My ranking in my school is top 5%, but my ranking in my state is top 0.7% according to the IB score conversions in Australia.</p>

15

<p>sat, GPA and class rank are a bit low for international...but everything else is great...the problem is that applying for financial aid as an international and being white makes it almost impossible 4 u man when it comes to upper ivys.....but IB 41 score is damn good!</p>

16

<p>An insider source from Yale once said that the Ivy admissions officers do not consider the IBs as highly as APs. Have you done any APs? But otherwise, grats on an excellent IB score.</p>

<p>You have a decent shot at all the schools; don't be put off by some of these people on this forum. I'm an Australian too, and this fact will make me at a slight disadvantage, because our educational system is misunderstood. To get into those very high Ivies we need to have that extra shine, whether it is an extremely high SAT score or fantastic ECs.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you mate and good luck.</p>

17

<p>Haha, thanks for the IB cred. I'm actually not white, I'm Indian, Aus. is very multicultural. I honestly thought I had a good shot at Cornell, but now I'm starting to wonder.. The issue is really whether to apply for financial aid because 3 months ago, tuition would've been fine where 1 AUD = 0.98 USD, but because of commodity prices falling, the Aussie dollar's gone down, so tuition prices have gone up because now 1 AUD = 0.69 USD!! It sucks...</p>

18

<p>The Ivies that are "need-blind" (as in they don't consider financial aid in your admission decision) are Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. Princeton is the most generous of the four, whereas Yale is the most stingy.</p>

<p>However, it is well known that although schools may declare themselves to be "need-blind", it doesn't mean that they aren't "need-aware". They will put all the internationals seeking FA into a separate pile, and because international pools are uber competitive, your application will have less chance of succeeding. In other words, putting down FA will indirectly disadvantage internationals like you and me.</p>

<p>Have you actually wondered why you want to go to the Ivy league colleges in the US? Is it for the prestige? In many ways, it would be better to stay in Australia, especially if you're not gonna do Engineering. Engineering is the only good reason why Aussies should try to go to the US.</p>

19

<p>I went to the US to check out the ivies a year ago. From what I saw, liberal arts colleges offer a lot more freedom to their students than Aus. unis. I'm currently more interested in studying at Stanford, UCLA, UCB or NYU. Those are the universities I'd actually like to go to, preferably NYU. Issue is, Stanford is need-aware and NYU and UCB don't offer any fin. aid to int'l students. However, UCLA offers some aid to students, but a little is enough as the cost of going to UC is much cheaper than any other private university.</p>

<p>Anymore people want to chance me? bump..</p>

20

<p>Hey! thanks for the advice and help!
Not too sure about the IB program, but i'm assuming 40+ is pretty good, and your GPA is also pretty decent.<br>
Reach:
Harvard- low-reach
Princeton-low-reach
Yale-low-reach
Stanford-low reach
These colleges will like your EC's, but i'm not sure if your international status will help or hurt you, i guess it depends on the other international applicants.</p>

<p>UPenn- low-reach
Columbia-low-reach, columbia seems to reject a lot of harvard, yale acceptees.</p>

<p>Match (I think?):
Cornell- high-match (still an ivy :P)
UCLA-match
UC Berkeley-match (harder than UCLA though)
NYU-in
UMich-in
UChicago- high match</p>

<p>Safety:
UT Austin- match/safety? I'm not sure because it's a state school.</p>

<p>Good luck on your apps! your EC"s are pretty spectacular!</p>