Here is my profile:
GPA- 3.5 out of 4.0
SAT - Math- 770 Eng- 760
Ecs-
Built own website
built own apps
Published a research paper
Graphic Design
Teaching in my own school (English)
Published own E-book on Amazon
Sold my skills on Fiverr
Made many songs, published on Spotify (Learned FL Studio, Ableton) (Digital Audio Workstation)
Created Content on YouTube
Learned Python
APs - 9 AP Classes (No scores for my finance problem)
Major: Computer Science and I will give my application on this November 1 Early action.
Well…I’ll give you some numbers to consider. Over 90% of applicants to Harvard are NOT accepted…and amongst those rejected are a lot,of very highly qualified applicants.
Unfortunately Harvard just accepted 3.4% of applicants and your GPA stands out as very low for many of the top schools.
So I’d guess your odds are less than 3.4%.
That doesn’t mean there’s not other schools out there that you couldn’t thrive at. Nor does it mean you won’t get into Harvard. You have to apply and see.
But for even the best students on paper, Harvard is near impossible.
@chandanpodder,
Knowing the profiles of a couple of kids I know personally that got into Harvard, I agree with @skieurope that your chances are almost zero. I’d say the same even if you were a domestic applicant.
I’m not saying this to sound harsh, but so that you can redirect your time, money and energy towards more realistic schools.
We can help identify other schools, but first we need more information from you:
Can you confirm whether you’re an international student?
How much can your family comfortably afford to pay each year?
Are there other factors that are important to you, like location, urban vs rural location, size, etc?
Why do you want to go to Harvard? It may not be the best school for CS anyway. Are you doing a lot of your activities in order to increase your chances? I hope you can just do things you are really interested in, and have down time too
If you are international and have financial need, or domestic US and have financial need, that is really the only reason to prioritize a school like Harvard, in my view.
Zero. Dont waste your time, money, and early app shot. But harvard isnt tops in comp sci. You need to consider money, comp sci, and intl vs usa status. If money is no object, look at 2nd tier comp sci programs. If you need money and are intl, acceptance anywhere is much less likely.
I wouldn’t get hung-up on Harvard or the Ivy league schools. There’s nothing you can get at these schools that’s not already available at literally every other school in the country.
Except for need-blind, full-need-met financial aid for international students; that may be the draw here. (Although it’s also why the odds of acceptance are near-zero, unfortunately)
I don’t usually comment on these types of forums but the overall tone of this discussion chain horrified me. For context, I got into Harvard this year RD for economics. I think that despite your GPA, your extracurriculars show a lot of innovation and creation, which is a pretty desired trait these days. A big thing for Harvard admissions is measuring your possibilities and pairing what you’ve done with what you can do in the future. In all honesty, I think that your app more suits MIT which looks for a lot of innovation-type activities. However, although I don’t know the specifics of your activities I think based on how you package your essays and frame your application, you definitely have as much of a chance as anyone else as you’ve definitely put in the work!
Is that your real GPA OR did you convert it randomly from another country’s grading scale?
Are you considered a good student or an exceptional student?
To give you an idea of the US grading scale, someone with a 3.5 GPA has zero shot at Harvard and is in the bottom of admitted students for Penn State.
The OP has not been back to CC since April 28, so I will set this thread to automatically close in the near future.
I’m not sure what is horrifying about honesty. I read every post here and no one is saying anything rude or nasty.
I think this statement sums up why people are often blunt here. We have seen countless students pin their hopes on a dream that most likely won’t come true.
There is nothing mediocre or horrifically lacking in this student’s profile. Parents who have little to no experience hands-on in the college admissions process who say that self-publishing a book on Amazon is “nothing special” are simply proliferating the stress of students going through the hardest time in their lives. This is no longer a world in which a 4.0 GPA makes or breaks your admission status, it’s instead what you can bring to the table for colleges and how you can make your own impact. In what world are we classifying a student who has done a vast number of activities that show their own creativity and drive as someone who has “chances close to zero.” There is nothing unrealistic about him shooting for a school as high as Harvard because Harvard looks beyond just someone’s stats but also their ability to make something of themselves and parents who judge simply off of one’s GPA shouldn’t try to classify someone’s worth.
So you think which school you get into determines your worth? Someone who doesn’t get into Harvard isn’t worthy? Really?!
No one is judging OP’s “worth” - just opining on his chances (and not simply based on GPA - not sure where you got that). Saying chances are low is accurate because they accept only a small percentage of the tens of thousands of brilliant applicants that apply each year. It also does not mean chances are zero.
The Common Data set would beg to differ. Sure, not everyone has a 4.0, but obviously GPA at or near 4.0 is a major part of getting accepted at Harvard.
As noted above, the OP hasn’t been around. One question to ask if they do re-appear is what does a 3.5 out of 4.0 mean at their school. If it puts the OP at the top of the class, that helps, but schools like Harvard are just simply very hard to get into for anyone. Congrats to you for doing so.
On the issue of self-published books, I guess that’s fine. But, it’s very different than an independently published book. There are far too many “pay to play” opportunities out there, and I suspect admissions officers are very well-versed in sorting through these.
If OP can make the case for admissions, they will get in; if not, they won’t. It’s not complicated, and it goes right to the heart of the points made here: these highly selective schools are exceedingly difficult to attain regardless of your academic stats.
These “top” schools are looking for what THEY are looking for. Nothing is impossible, so by all means, the OP should try. But being realistic about the chances, which are close to nil for ANYONE, is being realistic.
I don’t see anything horrific in the advice the OP has been given.
