Chances of being accepted at any of the top universities (If I apply to all)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

GPA - 3.5 (Unweighted)
SAT - 1560

ECs:
200 hours of hospital Volunteering
150 hours of teaching at an orphanage
Went door to door collecting money for non-profit organisations
Grade 4 in Piano
17th International rank in the English Olympiad
Organised my School MUNS (Secretary General)
Literary Secretary on the School Council

I want to get into any of the following : Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, UCLA, Berkley, UPenn, Yale, Duke
I dont have any preference, but I will be applying to Johns Hopkins with Early Desision. What are my chances of getting into any 1 of these colleges?

2

Your GPA is a huge detriment to your application. GPA is one of the most important parts of the application and yours is low - most admitted applicants to these schools have GPAs of 3.8+. Your ECs are pretty good (especially the international ranking in the English Olympiad) but I’m not sure if that’s enough to overcome your GPA.

3

It sounds like you’re international – if you have translated your GPA to the American system properly (taking into account American grade inflation), it is low. However, admissions officers do understand that different countries have harsher grading systems. Are you in the top 10% or top 20% of your high school class?

4

Yeah, our school grades out of 8, so I got a 7 on that and did a conversion - there are no decimals. I am a US citizen though, if that helps

5

My school is in India, where the grading is a bit different. My grade here is a 7/8. Our school doesnt give decimals or percentages. Will the admission officers understand?

6

Being a US citizen will help a lot, but your chances are still low.

It doubles your admissions rate from 3%-ish to 7%-ish.

Yes, they will attempt to put your grades in the context in which you earned them. Your grades need to be high by Indian standards.

7

Sorry – got confused on which board I was on. Those are MIT’s acceptance rates. Hopkins rates are better - early decision acceptance rates are in the mid- to high- 20% range there.

8

@AroundHere Is that acceptance rate good? Can I get in with my current stats?

9

Here’s the thing: applying to 20 schools, each with a 5% acceptance rate, doesn’t add up to a 100% acceptance rate-- it’s still approximately 5%.

Your list seems very top heavy. How about adding in some schools with numbers that are more reasonable.

10

By definition, EVERYONE’s chances are quite low at these schools. I would definitely add a few high quality schools that are 25% - 30% admission range and one slam dunk safety that you would be happy to attend.

11

I do not know exactly how your GPA will be translated, or how your essays and letters will turn out, but your SAT and ECs look fine. There’s no easy way to chance anyone once you toss the obvious ones.

12

The easy quick & dirty checks are: are you a superstar in your school? and, would your marks / scores / teacher evaluations put you in the top 5% of students in your region?

If not, with the ECs you list, your chances at the biggest name schools are negligible.

As for GPA, you do NOT have a 3.5. All of those schools know how to understand marks from India, so leave your marks as they are. FYI, JHU values grades over test scores, and both JHU and Duke seem to like students whose time is well used- as in students who have a serious school-wide leadership role or two (eg, president of the student body), plus a varsity sport, plus everything you have.