Chances and advice for the Ivies and a few other universities

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a female who attends an international American school in a South Asian country. I am going to be a junior in August and I would appreciate your insight on my chances and any advice you have for me since I have a whole year before I start filling out my common app.

Junior year GPA: 3.0-3.3
Sophomore GPA: 3.7 (I hope they like improvement as much as 4.0’s)
Estimated SAT score: 2000-2200 (Blue book)
Acquired course credits: Science (Biology and Chemistry), English (Eng. 9 and Eng. 10), World History II, Human Geography, Math (Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry), P.E., Art (Art I and Art II), and Foreign Language (2 credits)
Additional credits by the end of Senior year: Sciences (Environmental and Physics), English (AP Lit. and AP Lang.), Business Studies, Math (Pre-Calc. and AP Calc.), AP Art (2), World History (AP and AP European History), Foreign Language (2 credits), P.E., and Psychology/Sociology or Economics.

I will graduate with 28 credits, approx. 7 will be AP classes (school offers about 10-13 AP classes). That is unless I decide to alter my schedule for Junior year to squeeze in more AP classes in my senior year. I can take AP Econ. in my senior year if I drop Business Studies for Econ in my Junior year and I can take AP Physics in my Senior year if I drop Env. Science for Physics in my Junior year. Any advice? Econ and BS have the same work load but Physics is much more harder than simple Environmental Science. My schedule for Junior year will be AP English, AP WH, AP Art, Business Studies, Foreign Language, Seminar, Environmental Science, Pre Calculus. I have a very active social life and hope to have an active extra curricular life as well this year. I am not that keen on signing up for more AP’s because I don’t want to be someone who doesn’t have time for social events on the weekends or stays in their room all day long after school studying. I would appreciate it if somebody who has taken Physics, could advise me on whether taking Physics with my schedule is a good decision or not.

Extra Curricular activities (Freshmen-Sophomore years): one year of Service Club (several service activties), 10 consecutive hour fund raising carnival, fund raising carnival for cancer hospital, Photography club (one quarter), Speech club (one quarter) (aggressive debating and coaching for MUNs), internship at school for disabled kids, internship at cancer hospital, and two inter-school art festivals.

I am going to do a few more internships and pursue debating and MUNs this year. I have four Honor roll awards, three perfect attendance and an Outstanding Achievement Award at the end of Sophomore year. I will be applying to all the Ivies, Stanford, Cal, University College London, Imperial College London, Oxford and Cambridge, and London School of Economics.

2

You are going in to junior year, but you have a junior year GPA, and it dropped from 3.7 the year before to 3.0? Given the colleges you are looking at I’m guessing you mean a freshman GPA of 3.0 and a sophomore GPA of 3.7? Is the Outstanding Achievement Award for being top of your year? If so, that would make your 3.7 really pop.

(and, not to be unkind, but universities will not be interested in perfect attendance)

3

I think you have a good shot, but you look like a typical ivy league applicant (that’s a compliment). Chance back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1787585-will-chance-back.html#latest

4

@leadergirl19 Sorry, but no. A typical Ivy League applicant would consider a 3.7 GPA a terrible year. OP could never get a B again and her GPA would still be far below the average for most Ivies (with her grades so far, a maximum of 3.7-3.8). An SAT score below 2200 won’t help, nor will having no AP science courses. With extracurriculars that won’t move the needle, it’s hard to be optimistic.

It’s also impossible to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge-the two are mutually exclusive. OP needs to do her homework.

5

Oh @notverysmart my school doesn’t rank on 4.0 scale so I don’t know much about that ranking system

6

@leadergirl19 To make a long story short, through a combination of grade inflation (teachers give out far more As now than they did 20-30 years ago, due to pressure from students, parents, and administrators not to give out low marks) and an ever more competitive applicant pool, the average GPA at top universities is extremely high. For example, at the University of Pennsylvania (generally considered a “low” Ivy) the average GPA is 3.9. OP’s GPA is going to be a serious issue, especially as an international applicant.

7

Your chances at the Ivies honestly don’t look that good. Your GPA is too low as it stands (even with an upward trend) and a 2200 would just barely put you in the running score-wise.

However, that’s not to say that you can’t get into another amazing school. Broaden your horizons a bit and research the “public Ivies,” because depending on the major they can offer the same or better quality education than the Ivies.

8

edit: Freshman year GPA: 3.0-3.3

9

@collegemom3717 The Outstanding Achievement Award was given to only one student (me) at the end of the year out of both the sections of Algebra II that we have here. The Junior year GPA was a mistake. Sorry and thanks :slight_smile:

10

Ok, so you’re an international (from South Asia no less) which makes the competition extremely tough, AND you don’t have the highest GPA. Ivies and Stanford and Cal will be super tough, maybe don’t apply to ALL the ivies? That’s a lot of work.
Your EC’s are good, but nothing extraordinary to make up for the GPA.
Probably hundreds and thousands of people from South Asia apply with 4.0’s/2300+/Outstanding EC’s etc. Probably only a handful get accepted. I think that you should not expect (you can definitely hope like the rest of us :slight_smile: ) to get into any of the American schools listed as they are hyper-competitive (All have sub 10% admit rate for international applicants)

I think Oxford doesn’t care about grades? I think they like SAT’s and AP scores. I don’t know if they’re offered, but AP/SAT 2 are very important, so take some of those if you can.