Hi!
I’m currently very anxious approaching Ivy Day. In my opinion, in self evaluating myself, I believe I’d have somewhat of a shot competitive applicant but I’m wondering if you believe my GPA is a deal breaker when viewing my application holistically. My GPA issues are due to severe adverse living & family conditions junior year that I explained very thoroughly in the application, but nonetheless has served as an inspiration for my future aspirations and something I also mention in my essays as it’s an important part of my life.
Demographics:
Black, first generation in the US (parents are immigrants from Africa) From Florida. Computer Science applicant
GPA:
3.6/4, 4.1/5 currently, started low freshmen year, increased a lot sophomore year, lots of adversity that affected my ability to succeed in school junior year and had a low gpa that has continued this year.
Rank: About 10%
SAT:
1540 (790 math, 750 English, 22 essay)
ACT:
N/A
Subject tests:
Math 2: 800
APs:
13 APs total in high school.
5s: Spanish Lang, English Lang, BC Calc, Comp Sci, US History, Phycology.,
4s: World History, Biology,
Senior Year APs: Microeconomics, Government, Statistics, Spanish Lit, English Lit, Physics C
ECs:
- I’m really passionate about STEM, Politics, and just volunteering, and hopefully my ECs convey that?
- Founded nonprofit (STEM tutoring + provides computers, really eyeopening experience working with underprivileged students that I can relate to as well)
- I'm a national board member in a huge international organization (sorry keeping anonymity, but this EC is huge to me and the process to get to this point was a lot of hard work and dedication to this organization.)
- President Programming Club
- VP Debate Team
- President Politics Club (do grassroots political work, voter registration drives, etc)
- Robotics team member
- NHS, Habitat for Humanity, Key Club member
- Lead organizer and founder of project to increase voter participation, founded with support of Mayor + City Council (big city)
- National Society of Black Engineers (Member + Tutor)
- Total approx. 450 hours volunteering
- Work Experience: Interned twice at a global/top technology firm in technical programming/developer role. Nearly all funds spent to support living expenses + fund nonprofit activities.
Summer Activities:
A prestigious STEM camp at top universities (attended through scholarship), volunteered as mentor at local youth university programming camp, internships, most of my nonprofit work during this period
Awards/Honors:
- Questbridge Finalist
- State/National debate awards
- Couple of general state speaking awards
- Awards at regional programming tournaments (ranging from 1st-5th)
- Won 1st place at a huge hackathon
- Won student of the year (10th grade)
- Won 1st place in an international STEM competition (sorry for vagueness, but it’s really competitive, and it’s not SIEMENS)
- Awarded Civic Engagement + Leadership award on behalf of city for grassroots work in nonprofit + voter project (typically given to adults)
Financial status: 50k for family of 4 with no assets or savings, but parents don’t support me financially either. Overall, family situation is really messed up which I explained in app and hurt my grades.
Recs: I feel like the teacher recs could be generic bc my school is huge, but I’m not sure.
STEM Teacher: 8/10, knew pretty well. She’s active in our STEM clubs as well that I participate in.
STEM Teacher #2: 7/10, knew really well but my grade was a low B in this class.
Additional rec: 11/10. From my employer, former alum to Stanford/Princeton and also interviews students for Princeton. I read it and was ecstatic by the depth and quality of her description.
Essays:
This depends on the school, but I definitely think my best writing was for Stanford and Harvard where my CA is a 9/10 and overall I believe I described myself with genuine passion for STEM and a heartfelt analysis of my high school years and life in supplements. But of course, no one really knows what these schools like to hear exactly.
Info about high school:
Really large and one of the most competitive publics in the nation from a large city. I believe there’s a bit grade deflation, if that impacts your opinion on my GPA/Rank. There are several other applicants from my school.
Thanks in advance guys! I’m really just curious if my GPA alone takes me out of the consideration from these schools, or can I make up with my essay writing, ECs, and test scores? Sorry about the ambiguity - I know a lot of people from my school are on this forum (because of all the competitiveness lol), so if you need clarification to base your response, please ask.
You have a really strong application and your GPA should not affect that