<p>I'm an asian male senior from SoCal. 2400 on SAT (took over 30 practice tests to get there), but not so great grades (at least for HYPS). I've got a 3.7 UW 4.35W with a lot of Bs and even a C. I did have some health issues mentally in sophomore year which resulted in the subpar grades. Junior year I got straight As so hopefully the upward trend will help. I have done very well (among the top nationally) at Debate. Also got a bunch of other great ECs and unique academic awards/honors and great rec letters from a professor at Yale that I knew through ECs. Is it possible to get into any of these colleges, and if so, how likely? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Even though HYPS are “reaches-for-anyone”, you might have a chance.</p>
<p>Listen to Catria. He/she has good advice and is insane, member for a little more than a month yet has nearly 800 posts. That’s like 20 posts a day.</p>
<p>Is it possible to get into HPSY? Yes.</p>
<p>Do you have good chances at those colleges? No!</p>
<p>“took over 30 practice tests to get there”
Gee…</p>
<p>Not enough info provided. A high sat will definitely not make up for a low gpa though</p>
<p>I agree with hpyscm. What is your class rank/percentile? Subject tests? And could you actually list all of your extracurriculars and awards/honors? </p>
<p>Your SAT score is only one part of your application. And although a 2400 is fantastic and will really help your chances, there are many other factors that they take into consideration. </p>
<p>Your UW GPA is really low for HYPS (so many other applicants that are 4.0), but your weighted GPA seems decent. And being Asian sort of works against you. Nonetheless, you’ll probably have good chances at some of the other ivies or top schools, depending on the rest of your profile</p>
<p>“you’ll probably have good chances at some of the other ivies or top schools”
Not true!</p>
<p>OP will get into some good colleges. But, top 15 colleges are reach schools for him (and for most people) due to his GPA. OP needs to have some significant ECs to get into “top colleges”.</p>
<p>@20more I said “probably” and “depending on the rest of your profile”. There is no reason to automatically shut the OP down just because of a low UW GPA. His weighted GPA looks fine. Plus, they’ll appreciate his upward trend and straight As during Junior year. Some places like Stanford don’t even look at freshman year, but I’m not necessarily saying that he is ‘Stanford level’</p>
<p>And honestly, it’s hard to imagine certain schools like Cornell turning down a guy with a 2400 SAT. That doesn’t mean that he won’t get rejected, but it’s still probable that he’ll get into atleast a few top colleges. He seemed to indicate that he had “great ECs and unique academic awards/honors”. Yes, the UW GPA makes it possible for all top colleges to reject him, but doesn’t mean that all of them actually will</p>
<p>Even at top schools, adcoms will mostly try to find reasons to accept students rather than reasons to reject them.</p>
<p>I’ve listened to a lot of college recruiters (mainly to hear their advice on supplements) and they all say that the first thing they look at and what they care about most (for SHYP) is the transcript. I think one of them called it the center of the app or something. A C won’t be looked at lightly, I don’t think. You’ll need to explain it in your essay somehow. </p>
<p>It’s possible though!</p>
<p>@bluenotebook Explain it in your essay lol? Worst advice ever. But seriously OP, don’t try and justify anything in your essays. It will look like you’re just complaining or making excuses unless it’s something seriously legitimate and you absolutely need to mention it.</p>
<p>One C won’t destroy you by any means. I actually received a 79 in AP Calculus my Junior year for the first semester (2nd semester was an 86 though). I actually had an 81 until my teacher gave me a 0 on the last day of 1st sem for a 5x daily grade, since she thought I had copied the answers from someone since I didn’t have enough ‘work’ shown. But regardless, one C won’t be the end for you. I know I still have a strong chance at top schools due to the rest of my stats and you probably do too. Your UW GPA is low, but they’ll also take into consideration a difficult courseload.</p>
<p>The first thing they look at is the transcript. But that doesn’t mean it trumps all other parts of the applicant’s profile. It’s just the part that atleast allows them to see if you’re qualified and academically strong. From there, they’ll take other factors such as your 2400 SAT or hopefully impressive ECs into consideration</p>
<p>explain it in your essay = worst advice ever?</p>
<p>I don’t think you understand–*I meant that the OP needs to give context in terms of why the slump in sophomore year. not like “I got a C because …”, but more describing what the OP has been through. sorry if that was unclear. but the phrasing of that was quite severe and unnecessary, especially since I’ve been around much longer than you have (lurked here since 08), have read the RD/ED threads for almost each year, and actually do try and help (since so many people on here have helped me).</p>
<p>back to the OP, I really think it’s important to talk about what you went through sophomore year and explain how it changed you/ how you’ve grown from it.</p>
<p>You may think that you’re giving sound advice, but I still hold to my opinion. Just because you have seniority on these forums doesn’t mean that your advice is right. I don’t think he absolutely needs to spend time or an opportunity by mentioning any sort of slump via essays. He doesn’t ‘need to explain it in his essay somehow’</p>
<p>The OP should write a great essay and not bother with making excuses for sophomore year unless he “absolutely needs to mention it” (what I said before). As I said previously, they’ll certainly take into consideration an excellent Junior Year and his courseload.</p>
<p>Also, my reply was meant to be somewhat sarcastic, which is why I said “lol…But seriously”. So don’t take everything so personally. If the OP wants to talk about his mental health issues that he had and how he overcame it, then that’s totally fine. But I wanted to make it clear that he shouldn’t just try and make excuses for his grades or the C specifically. My response was based on how you phrased your post, and thus how the OP might interpret it</p>
<p>It <em>shouldn’t</em> be on mental health issues, and it’s not about making excuses. That wasn’t even implied.</p>
<p>It’s about giving context, which is what any good application does. Stanford for example ONLY looks at 10th and 11th grade (and then 12th grade course rigor). </p>
<p>I’m not going to argue with an anon, though. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Well what else would the context in terms of his slump be about? The OP mentioned that he had “some health issues mentally” during sophomore year that he obviously overcame to do so well Junior year. Do you know nothing? Have you just been telling everyone to write essays about ‘context for their academia’? </p>
<p>And it seemed very implied as a way to make an ‘excuse’ for the slump. Context is your fancy way of phrasing it. I was actually just trying to apply this as an option which you had originally brought up. And I already mentioned in a previous post that Stanford disregards freshman year. But whatever, I’m not going to argue with an anon. Pretentious ass.</p>
<p>P.S. Good luck OP</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the input. Just to answer one of the previous questions, by mental issues I meant that I got diagnosed with ADHD last year.</p>