<p>International applicant from South Caucasus.
SAT: M790;W780;CR630 ( i know this is low, but won't they take into consideratian that i'm international? )
Subjects tests:790 Math2; 780 Biology
EC: International biology olympiad medalist
Debate club vice-president
Jazz-band founder&pianist
Community environmental club president
GPA:3.9</p>
<p>And also, terriffic recomendations.</p>
<p>Any chances to Harvard???</p>
<p>As a new CC member, you obviously have not been paying attention to other chance threads. At schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc, it’s impossible to predict anyone’s chances as so much of the applications process is subjective and comes down to how an admissions director “feels” after reading your teacher recommendations and essays and compares them to all other applicants. You need to just send your applications out into the universe and hope for the best. See: [Guidance</a> Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 1 - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/harvarddean-part1/]Guidance”>Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard's Dean, Part 1 - The New York Times)</p>
<p>"Many people believe “best” ought to be defined by standardized tests, grades, and class rank, and it is easy to understand why. Such a system, another Harvard dean of admissions, Bill Bender, wrote in 1960, “has great appeal because it has the merits of apparent simplicity, objectivity, relative administrative cheapness in time and money and worry, a clear logical basis and therefore easy applicability and defensibility.”</p>
<p>While we value objective criteria, we apply a more expansive view of excellence. Test scores and grades offer some indication of students’ academic promise and achievement. But we also scrutinize applications for extracurricular distinction and personal qualities.</p>
<p>Students’ intellectual imagination, strength of character, and their ability to exercise good judgment — these are critical factors in the admissions process, and they are revealed not by test scores but by students’ activities outside the classroom, the testimony of teachers and guidance counselors, and by alumni/ae and staff interview reports."</p>
<p>“Personal qualities and character provide the foundation upon which each admission rests. Harvard alumni/ae often report that the education they received from fellow classmates was a critically important component of their college experience. The education that takes place between roommates, in dining halls, classrooms, research groups, extracurricular activities, and in Harvard’s residential houses depends on selecting students who will reach out to others.”</p>
<p>I am not an expert, but i think you are down a great path! and its pretty cool that your international. Ivys like diversity so that could even help!</p>
<p>I have to say, your chance is very little. Your CR score kills you. Although you are international, HYP receive hundreds of international students whose CR scores are above 750 (or nearly perfect). At Harvard, your excellence is just not good enough.</p>
<p>630 (on 1 section) is not totally outside the bounds of what is acceptable, although if you have time to take it again and improve 50 points that would make it much less likely to hurt you. Do you have a TOEFL score? You should have some chance, but getting into Harvard is difficult for absolutely anybody.</p>
<p>Like Gibby said, Harvard admission is unpredictable, as it is at most of the other top schools in the United States. No one on this board will be able to tell you whether or not you can get in.</p>
<p>One thing to be extremely wary of on this board is that many high school students (like ZYL1024) will respond to chances threads and give you their opinion of your chances, and they have absolutely no experience or knowledge to draw upon that can’t be found on university web sites. Completely ignore the responses from high school students (high school students, please resist the compunction to respond to chance threads, unless you can provide definitive information, like the complete dossier of your next door neighbor who did get in).</p>
<p>One thing to consider is applying beyond Harvard, Princeton and the name brand schools. These schools are incredibly difficult to get into; most who try are academically-qualified and well-qualified in other areas, but get turned down. There are many schools beyond those with Top 10 reputations that are tremendous schools, and I would recommend that you consider some of those in addition to Harvard, which gets flooded with applications from international students.</p>
<p>@exultationsy Yeah, I’m going to retake SAT in January too to have enough time to learn those terrible word lists 
My TOEFL is 102</p>
<p>@EarthPig I’m going to apply to other Universities too, such as UC Berkeley or UPenn. However, it’s very important to get into TOP10,my country will give me $30000 in that case:)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“COULD I get in with these stats?”
Yes, but you could also be rejected with your stats, as well.</p></li>
<li><p>“Would I even be likely considered/competitive amongst the applicant pool?”
Yes, with your stats, you are considered competitive, but possibly five thousand, ten thousand, fifteen thousand, maybe even twenty thousand other students are ALSO considered competitive. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here, read this: [Guidance</a> Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 1 - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/harvarddean-part1/]Guidance”>Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard's Dean, Part 1 - The New York Times)</p>
<p>"Many people believe “best” ought to be defined by standardized tests, grades, and class rank, and it is easy to understand why. Such a system, another Harvard dean of admissions, Bill Bender, wrote in 1960, “has great appeal because it has the merits of apparent simplicity, objectivity, relative administrative cheapness in time and money and worry, a clear logical basis and therefore easy applicability and defensibility.”</p>
<p>While we value objective criteria, we apply a more expansive view of excellence. Test scores and grades offer some indication of students’ academic promise and achievement. But we also scrutinize applications for extracurricular distinction and personal qualities.</p>
<p>Students’ intellectual imagination, strength of character, and their ability to exercise good judgment — these are critical factors in the admissions process, and they are revealed not by test scores but by students’ activities outside the classroom, the testimony of teachers and guidance counselors, and by alumni/ae and staff interview reports."</p>
<p>“Personal qualities and character provide the foundation upon which each admission rests. Harvard alumni/ae often report that the education they received from fellow classmates was a critically important component of their college experience. The education that takes place between roommates, in dining halls, classrooms, research groups, extracurricular activities, and in Harvard’s residential houses depends on selecting students who will reach out to others.”</p>
<p>^^ Sorry, this was meant as a reply to another chance post.</p>
<p>LOL: you should keep that text and drop it into every “chance me” query gibby! That’d be awesome!</p>
<p>Kensaban: UPenn is a smidgen easier to get into than Harvard, but it is still extremely hard to get into; Berkeley is a little easier than UPenn, but also extremely difficult. Both could be considered Top Ten Schools, depending on who you ask and what ranking system you refer to. </p>
<p>Few US students would risk their admissions chances solely on a target list of Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley and UPenn (even if they more than doubled it, and added UChicago, Cornell, Duke, Dartmouth, Virginia and Columbia). There is a significant chance that you could be turned down by all of these, just as there is a significant chance that any top American student could get turned down by all of these schools.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to insult you or be negative; for all I know, every school to which you apply may accept you. I’m being practical, because many US students are surprised when they have perfect test scores, are first in their class and get turned down by all 8 Ivy League schools. I’m not sure if your goal is to come to the USA for college/university, but if it is, I would recommend that you add some schools to your target list that are easier to gain admission to than the ones you have mentioned.</p>
<p>If you would like some additional suggestions, let us know your criteria, and people on this board will be happy to make suggestions.</p>
<p>I’d not say that UPenn is that hard to get into. For example, a guy from our school was admitted there this year with scores like this: CR450, W500, M720 due to his silver medal from the International Math Olympiad. That’s why I hope that my medal from the IBioO will increase my chances.
The only criterion which I consider is nonrefundable financial aid for internationals. Our family income is about $3000, too low to pay for Universities.</p>
<p>Penn accepts about 13% of applicants.</p>
<p>Take a look at this thread to get some idea of the people they accepted and turned down last year (bear in mind that people who are accepted are far more likely to post than those who are rejected):</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1305031-official-university-pennsylvania-2016-rd-results.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1305031-official-university-pennsylvania-2016-rd-results.html</a></p>
<p>This link will give you the profile of this year’s freshman class:</p>
<p>[Incoming</a> Class Profile - Penn Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile]Incoming”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile)</p>
<p>Median SAT was 710 CR/725 WR/735 Math</p>
<p>Those at the bottom 25th percentile on SAT scores (those with 660’s and 690’s) are often recruited athletes and children of wealthy alumni or other special cases.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t decide that Penn is easy to get into based upon the single case of your friend getting in with low test scores (a very unusual case, by the way), and decide that the school will be a cinch for you to be admitted to. </p>
<p>Like I said, I hope you do get in. But I would do some research to find other US schools that provide solid financial aid to internationals and are easier to get admitted to, and recommend that you not treat Penn as a safety school. Kids with superior grades, test scores and extracurricular achievements do get rejected from there and all elite US schools every year, and are surprised.</p>
<p>Thanks for help!</p>
<p>P.S. That guy wasn’t from wealthy family;on the contrary, he needed FinAid (UPenn has a need-aware policy for internationals, which would probably decrease his chances too).</p>
<p>See below for an example of how competitive admissions are at the top schools. Here’s a person who posted on the Penn Board last year who was rejected at Penn, despite being second in his class, having very high SAT’s, being editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, the founder of their Science Olympiad at his school, and much more. </p>
<p>He was also turned down at Washington University, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Duke (with waiting lists being frequently over 1000 names long and with typiclaly 0 to 25 spots opening up, I would count being waitlisted as being rejected).</p>
<p>The moral is that you have to apply outside of the top schools; in fact, apply to the elite shcools assuming that you won’t get in,and make sue that you have other options beyond them, because no one can count on getting accepted by one of these schools.</p>
<p>Penn Board poster:</p>
<p>Decision: REJECTED</p>
<p>Objective:</p>
<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2320 (800 M, 800 W, 720 CR)
ACT: 33
SAT II (if submitted): 760 Chemistry, 750 Math II, 730 Spanish
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/492
AP: Euro (4), Chem (4), Econ-Macro (4), US History (4), Calc BC (5), Lang (5)
IB:
Senior Year Course Load: Honors Physics, PE, Honors World Mythology, Honors US Govt, AP Spanish, AP Biology, AP Statistics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist</p>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
-School Newspaper (12th: EIC, 11th: section editor, 9th-10th: staff writer)
-National Honor Society
-Math Honor Society
-Spanish Honor Society (12th: Historian, 11th: VP)
-Model UN
-Badminton (12th: Varsity, 9th-10th: JV)
-Science Olympiad (12th: Captain, 11th: Founder and Captain)
-Math Team
-Community Service (at local hospitals, for ACS, local nursing home for seniors with Alzheimer’s)
-Research (summer after 10th) at Illinois State University
-Shadowing a doctor at IUPUI’s Center for Translational Musculoskeletal Research (summer after 11th)
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: See ECs
Essays: I thought my Why Penn? essay was fairly good.
Teacher Recommendation: Didn’t read, but really good I’m sure
Counselor Rec: Eh (Don’t have the best counselor)
Additional Rec:
Interview:</p>
<p>Other</p>
<p>Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Don’t remember specifically but something in the Biological Sciences/Pre-med
State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.):</p>
<p>Reflection</p>
<p>Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
-Northwestern University (accepted)
-Penn State + Pre-Medical Medical program (accepted)
-Case Western Reserve (accepted) - waiting to hear back on the PPSP Program
-UMKC (accepted) - waiting to hear back on the BA/MD Program
-Loyola University (accepted)
-University of Michigan Ann Arbor (accepted)
-WUSTL (waitlisted)
-Vanderbilt (waitlisted)
-Johns Hopkins (waitlisted)
-Harvard (rejected)
-Duke (rejected)</p>
<p>General Comments: Sad</p>
<p>It depends on what medal you got at IBO (if it’s perfect or gold, you will probably get into MIT/Caltech and have a decent chance for Harvard. If it’s silver, you have a shot everywhere but not high chance. If it’s bronze or below, anywhere is a reach. Afterall IMO is weighed much more than IPhO/IChO/IBO/IOI).
I’m actually kinda surprised that your friend with that bad a SAT score got into Harvard due to IMO silver medal because 1) Harvard freaking rejected an IMO gold medalist from U.S. and 2) I know International Olympiads gold medalists from Asian countries (international) who were rejected from Harvard (but almost all of them got into MIT).
So…conclusion: if you didn’t get a perfect gold/high gold on IBO, your chances at Harvard is not very high; consider apply to MIT/Caltech early.</p>
<p>He said that his friend got into Penn, not Harvard, but those are still extremely low numbers for Penn.</p>
<p>Hopefully, he’s not confusing Penn with Penn State, which people do all the time (and which drives Penn grads and students nuts).</p>
<p>It could be that Penn was welling to lessen the emphasis on the verbal side for someone for whom English was a second language. When I was at Princeton (late 70’s/early 80’s) we had a soccer player from the Soviet Union who had scored only 390 Verbal (now about 490, since the test has been recentered), but 790 on his Math SAT.</p>
<p>I have a bronze medal + Recipient of “The best high school student award” of my country + Took the first place on our NationalBiology Olympiad twice ( however, I don’t think that they’ll pay much attention to the last 2 )</p>
<p>I received my acual scores 2 days ago - CR is 660 (instead of 630 predicted by our counselor). The other 2 scores are equal to the predicted ones. Does this make any difference?</p>
<p>And one more question; are parchment.com chances accurate?</p>
<p>Try inputting the details of people on the Class of 2016 threads, and seeing how parchment.com rates them.</p>