<p>Your friend has an IPhO golden medal and he’s sure he’ll get admitted to MIT but that means nothing. He’s a student- he doesn’t know how the admissions works. I was like your friend. I had a perfect score on the SAT, perfect GPA, IB classes, and came 1st place at a national science competition, and 17-year old me (who didn’t know any better) thought I was definitely going to get into at least once school out of Harvard, Princeton, Yale or Stanford. I got rejected at both places, but people that didn’t have perfect scores, grades, or international medals still got in. MIT is a top-10 school- its a crapshoot as far as admissions goes. No one can be sure that they will get accepted to one. You can only apply and wait til decisions come out.</p>
<p>As far as IBO, the biggest way it helped me is non-admissions related- it helped prepare me for the rigor and work in college. I’m at UCLA right now. For admissions, IB helped me in the sense that it showed that I took advanced classes in high school. BUT, IB isn’t the only source of advanced classes. There is AP, and in Turkey there is probably something else I don’t know about (A-levels maybe?..idk if you have them). It may seem like IBO seals the deal 100%, but theres probably more to it. And even if there isn’t, things are different in the U.S.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that, I always thought I lost many things by not going to IBO. And you’re right, preparing for it really helps. We read all the books being studied in all the colleges’ (in Turkey) genetics and biology programs. It’s a great start to college. </p>
<p>About the IB thing, I’m in a science school in Turkey, and it’s really, really hard to get in. There is an high school entrance exam which you can take only once, and you should do nearly perfect to go there. They don’t offer any IB or AP or anything but we have a different curriculum; we have 20+ hours of maths and science every week, and they are advanced. But, I’m still self-studying for the APs. </p>
<p>I have one question, which books do you read for, let’s say AP calculus? And where can I find a list of AP curriculum, I mean which topics should I know to have AP physics? </p>
<p>UCLA is a great school too, congrats!! I hope I’ll get in some good school too.</p>
<p>Thanks! Oh ok. As far as the whole IBO thing, part of it has to do with the fact that IB is really prestigious and taken very seriously in other countries, but in the U.S. it can be a joke since many high schools don’t take it too seriously. The teachers here don’t really do the best job preparing students for the IB tests, and it seems like their goal is just to make sure that the students pass the tests and get the diploma (you need 24 out of 45 points to do that). As a result, the IB classes here aren’t really as hard as they are in other countries, so its basically at the same level as AP (if even that). There’s a huge debate about whether AP or IB is better here, and while colleges more or less look at it evenly, AP gets you more college credit (I entered college with 52 credits…44 AP and 8 IB…weird I know) since SL classes in IBO don’t count for college credit and also because IB has special classes that really don’t align completely with college courses (in other words, I took IB History of the Americas but since there was no similar class at my college, I didn’t get credit for it where as AP students could take AP World History or AP U.S. History and get credit).</p>
<p>I’ve even noticed the difference between IB in other countries and IB in the U.S. I met like around 30 international students at UCLA, and a lot of them did IB. For most of them, their overall scores were like 38-43 out of 45 which is pretty impressive, but in my high school, most students got overall scores in like the mid to upper 20s and the lower 30s (I got like 33 I think), and only a few people got higher scores like 35-37. Its probably prestigious because they really make it rigorous over there. Sadly though, most of the focus in the U.S. is on AP so IB takes the back seat.</p>
<p>As far as studying for the APs thats probably a good idea. Are you able to take the tests though? Or are you just studying the material to be prepared? If you google “Barron’s AP (insert subject here) Book 2010” you’ll find some helpful review books that will show you what you should know. For calc, it was stuff like limits, derivatives, integrals, applications of them both, calculating rate and area, vector and polar equations, and sequences and series. Differential equations too. Also know different methods to find derivs and integrals. We didn’t really use a book in my AP calc class. I haven’t taken Physics yet so not too sure about that. They have a Barrons book for that too so that might help.</p>
<p>I think the schools in Turkey do the same thing too for IB. Only private schools offer IB and they divide their students into two; the ones who want to study in US or Turkey. Since they want all of their students to get in good colleges (so they can go on TVs and newspapers) , they give extra extra extra points so IB doesn’t mean anything. I know some friends from different schools who take IB and their level is way too low. But I’m sure it’s very valuable in other parts of the world. </p>
<p>OK, I can study from Barron’s I guess. Thanks. </p>
<p>Actually, I checked some questions from internet and they’re similar to our exams in school, I mean nearly the same difficulty. Maybe I won’t even study for calculus, chemistry and biology, but I need some time for physics and computer programming. </p>
<p>Oh, and did you take AP Latin? I know little Latin, do you think I can handle it by studying on my own only from Barron’s ?? And for any lesson, if I only study from AP book without any knowledge before, can I handle it??</p>
<p>I have one more question about this GPA thing. </p>
<p>In my country; here is the system:
100-85 –> 5
84-70 –> 4
69-55 –> 3
54-45 –> 2
I don’t know the line between 1 and 0.
It may seem generous to you guys but in almost every exam our school average is between 55-50. I think between 90 and 100 is A(4) in your system? </p>
<p>So according to this system; my GPA is 5 out of 5 and 93 out of 100. (I’m fifth in my class, first person have 95 GPA.) </p>
<p>How are my scores do you think? Is it enough for Ivies or MIT, Stanford… ??</p>
<p>Hmm… So what I understood from this thread is that MIT and Stanford are high reaches so if I don’t get in, I can wait one year.</p>
<p>Also if I don’t apply for financial aid, Berkeley and CMU can be matches- low reaches… Right? </p>
<p>So, how is this for a list?</p>
<p>High reach-dream schools:
MIT
Stanford(early application, no financial aid)
Ivies…</p>
<p>Reach:
Berkeley
UPenn
Brown
JHU
UChicago
UWashington
CMU</p>
<p>Match:
???</p>
<p>Can you recommend match schools for me? I know I don’t have a SAT score right now but I’m pretty sure it will be equal to or more than 2200.</p>
<p>And please consider that I’m international and I wouldn’t live abroad if I don’t be admitted to a good place. So my safety school is the best medical school here.</p>
<p>Hey I am also an incoming freshman at Stanford,
You have the talent and the accolades. You just have to really tie it Together in your essays. Go to the undergrad admissions page and read their description as to what they want from an essay. Its a competitive school, the Essay needs to be whats makes you stand out. Rather than a list about your accomplishments. Find a personal anecdote that explains what molded you into this successful individual. Maybe socio-economic, cultural, or political factors played a role in your life. They need to get a feel for who you are by reading the essay. the trick is being concise in a 1 1/2 pg essay
good Luck
Deadline is Nov 1 if I am not mistaken, so get started ASAP!</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess I should admit that my ECs don’t have anything in common when I state them like this. You’re right, I should tie them together in my essay and I have some ideas. Hope it will work… </p>
<p>And one more question, what is the minimum score I should get in October SAT to have some chance at Stanford EA? </p>
And you’re right, preparing for it really helps. We read all the books being studied in all the colleges’ (in Turkey) genetics and biology programs. It’s a great start to college. </p>