@sattut Should I apply to john hopkins, in terms of my chances of admission? What can i improve (not gpa) to atleast get considered? and what schools do you think I have a good shot at?
Yes, I think you have a shot at getting into Hopkins. I would apply to several schools about that level, some harder or easier to get into.
Do you have any safeties?
@suzy100 yes I do, this thread is specifically for reaches only
Bump
Do colleges recalculate gpa to get uw gpa or do they just use the one that the school sends? because my school sends weighted only and that hurts my profile a lot unless they take transcript and trends into account
varies by college. some also recalculate using just core academic classes (ie, taking out PE, etc.)
@collegemom3717 Are any of the colleges listed like that?
It doesn’t really hurt you that your school only sends weighted grades, b/c what they do most at all those schools is look at you in the context of your school (at one point, MIT looked at the applicant GPA compared to the highest GPA in the class, but that was a number of years ago & idk if it’s still true). the selective schools you have listed look at the headline number in context of your school, the rigor, progression, etc. They are fully aware of the wide range of GPA calculations systems (for example, some of our lot applied to colleges where the “average” GPA of accepted students was higher than it was possible to achieve in their secondary school).
The policies on GPA calculation change and they mostly don’t announce the changes, so even direct info from a year or two ago could be out of date. I believe that it used to be that Columbia did not recalculate at all and Penn and JHU used only ‘academic’ class grades- but I wouldn’t bet on that info being either current or accurate. Your GC may have up to date info, and you can certainly email them asking what their policy is, but imo your energy will be better spent on what you can still change.
Reality is, for Princeton / MIT / Harvard / Columbia, you want to be one of the ‘stars’ in your year at school, both academically and in ECs. Look around your class- is that you? For Cornell, JHU and Penn you still need to be a star, but there’s a tiny bit more room to have it weight more toward academics or ECs. Is that you?
nyu, bc, and lehigh seem within reach, but all the others are hard to predict because of your gpa and the fact you’re an asian female. check out the university of rochester and case western reserve university. both have strong pre- emphases (case western reserve is right next to cleveland clinic), and both are highly underrated in my opinion.
For schools like Princeton/MIT /Harvard/Columbia/Penn, the reality is much more than just being a star in your school. It is being a star in your state, your region, your country. Particularly if you are unhooked.
Princeton has a nice graphic with the number of students from each state on their Class of 2021 admission statistics site: https://admission.princeton.edu/how-apply/admission-statistics. I don’t know what state you are in, but let’s use Maryland as an example. 30 students in the Princeton class of 2021 are from Maryland. Assuming a 70% yield, that means approximately 43 kids were accepted from the entire state of Maryland.
In this hypothetical example, if you were from Maryland, what would make you one of the 43 kids accepted?
I am not discouraging you from applying to super selective schools, I am just trying to present a perspective that many kids don’t consider. Also, if you are pre-med, I would also focus on the colleges that give you the best chance of getting the highest GPA possible with the lowest debt coming out of undergrad. I have read many times on this site that college GPA and MCAT score matter much more for med school acceptance than the prestige of the undergraduate institution.
It’s not jst gpa and they don’t need to recalculate. They just look at the transcript, see rigor and grades. And whether you coverd the right range of cores, for the right number of years.
And yes, top colleges weigh the intended major against your record. That’s whether or not you apply to, eg, a specific major or, say, a target’s college of engineering.
Yes, for stem at a most competitive, you should have APphysics (and don’t need APES or AP psych.)
Do you have grades less than A in math-sci?
You need to be able to match yourself- that’s not what you want, but what they look for. They select the admits. And that means reviewing your ECs.
OP is showing really good SAT and SAT II scores and apparently good grades aside from freshman year… I agree that Case Western and Rochester might be good choices and agree that top Ivies probably are not. However, I would recommend applying to several top 30 schools as reaches.
@lookingforward My school has really strict pre reqs i.e. you cant move up from cp to ap but my friend’s school to move up to ap all you need is a teacher rec. I only took 1 ap so far and its ap art history and idk what to expect anymore because its unfair how some schools all you need is a teacher’s rec (my friend had a D in cp chem but through a rec she took ap chem without even taking pre calc). Is there anything I can do at all at this point?
but for senior year I am taking 4 ap classes, which is the most you can take in one year at my school
My biggest goal/dream schools are Boston College, John Hopkins University, and Northeastern. I want to do what ever I can to increase my chances at these schools as my gpa really sucks. I might be changing the recycling system at my school (currently working on a research paper for it) because of its relation to the medical field. I don’t know if that shows leadership or not, but it is really hard to do. Anyways, if any of you have tips on how I can improve my chances please let me know! It would help me out so much. And do these schools recalculate?
I got into Hopkins ED(I didn’t get into the BME major so its wasn’t binding for me) and Northeastern EA, and, in my experience, they value research and internships a lot. From my school, I’ve seen people with 3.5’s and 3.6’s get in mainly because they had published research, which is a biggie. You’re internship is actually very appealing from an admissions office perspective but I’m not sure if that can carry your application on its own. Remember that these are competitive and none of us actually no for sure. I think you have a decent chance at Northeastern and BC, but Johns Hopkins is a pretty big reach, but you should still apply. Good Luck!
@WolfHaley do they care about essays and recs? I am very strong in those. I.e. my teacher got into Stevens Institute of Tech. even tho she had an *** gpa and sat because her essays were strong and Stevens is pretty competitive.
I’d say not as much as an Ivy league but still a decent amount. In my opinion, their essay topic wasn’t the greatest thing anyway. Keep in mind, nearly everyone gets amazing recs but very few are unique. As long as you’re unique, it will always help you.
Not everyone gets amazing recs. And in holistic, everything in the app package matters. There’s no one piece that can trump it all.
OP, you’ve done something for distant countries, now see what you can do locally, not fund raising, but hands on. Responsibilities and some impact. More than tutoring. You have told about your passions, but the idea is, “Show, not just tell.”
What was the “internship?” You did something with healthcare delivery, not just shadoweing or something admin? And what is the result of the research? It got some attention outside school? Even publishing isn’t a tip, in itself.
You need to get a read on what your targets look for and expect. JHU will be tougher than Northeastern, and you led the thread with a list that includes Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Penn and MIT. The Ivies are fiercely competitive.
You have time to make some changes, do some fune tuning.