Chance unique student for ivies +?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

This is for my friend, We have different opinions on this and I hope to get some other opinions.

My friend is a senior hoping to go to Ivies and other top ones, such as MIT, Caltech, etc

He has qualified for the Math Olympiad Camp (Passed USAMO for math) - which is a pretty big deal apparently.

His SAT was a 2350, pretty decent too -

However, his GPA is below ideal, at 3.65 - mostly due to lack of effort for certain classes - primarily the English and History, - but he took the challenging math and science courses (AP Physics, Chem, Bio, Calc, etc) and gotten As in them.

I’m wondering if these top colleges will overlook the lower GPA for English and History and focus on his accomplishments?

Would he have good chances at these colleges?

Thanks!

2

That’s going to be hard to overcome. Also lack of effort is a bad reason to have that kind of GPA. His GPA won’t be overlooked; in fact it will be the first and most important thing looked at. Does he do any ec’s? How are the essays?

3

Making MOP is pretty impressive - I made USAMO once but missed the MOP cutoff by a silly mistake on #5.

Admissions at these places is fairly holistic, so while a low-ish GPA may or may not count against him, I’d say he still has a decent chance at these universities.