Hey
When applying to colleges With a 3,64 GPA, What SAT and ACT scores are required to get accepted into the “top universities”?
Like for example “Columbia University” or “MIT”.
Meaning should you even apply to them?
And what are your chances of getting accepted to them?
The fact that a 780 math is in the 25th percentile of MIT’s accepted applicants should give you some guidance for that university
While there is no “required” score, a look through each university’s Common Data Set will give you an idea of what accepted applicants have presented
On average, below 5%. If you have an exceptional hook it’ll be higher. If you’re international, it’ll be lower.
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As a one time courtesy, I am fixing the punctuation so that the post is intelligible.
Please consider that people need to understand what the post is asking about in order to help.
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Are you international ?
Is that your actual GPA or one you converted from your own school system?
If you’re in the US, with a 3.64 GPA you need an ACT 35-36 math OR perfect800 math + to be an international/olympic-level athlete or 
STEM Olympiad winner to even have a shot.
Columbia looks for different qualities than MIT ( Columbia College core v. Tech/innovation imply a different profile).
So do you think that by scoring great in the sat I could maybe “recover” lost points in the gpa?
I converted it from a 4 to 10 grading system.And I had around 8,84.So I’m not sure if 3,64 if the exact gpa.Could be less or could me more.I’m not sure.So you’re saying that I could “recover” some lost points in the gpa from scoring great in the sat?
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I’m sorry.Thanks for correcting my mistake.
Converting GPA is inherently imprecise. The admissions staff at Columbia and MIT will know a lot more than you might expect about the grade scale typically used in your country. My understanding is that this means that someone on the admissions staff will understand grading in your country, and they are the person who will get to interpret your results.
As one example, I applied to MIT as an international student from Montreal. There was no one in my entire high school who had straight A’s. There was only one person in the high school (it was not me) who had an average GPA that was higher than 90. Apparently this did not matter. Our grades were compared to other students from the same system and I still got accepted to MIT with an average grade that was (very, very slightly) less than 90.
This leads to the question: How do your grades compare with other students in your high school? Are you close to being the #1 top student in your high school either in math, or in science, or overall?
Another issue is: What do you want in a university? The highest ranked and most famous universities in the US are not all the same. They are looking for students that will be a good fit for them. If you can figure out which university(ies) would be a better fit for you, this might improve your chances for admissions.
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You can have a perfect ACT/SAT score and a perfect GPA and still get rejected from places like MIT and Columbia. These colleges have very very low acceptance rates…rejecting more than 90% of those who apply.
So…what is best? Do your best. And you can apply and see.
I hope you are also crafting an application list with some sure things for admission and affordability that you like. Actually…getting a couple of these identified is perhaps more important that finding your reach schools.
P.S. your SAT or ACT score will not make your GPA go away. Tons of students apply to these elite schools who have both high standardized test scores AND high GPAs. And the vast majority do not get accepted as noted above.
Why MIT or Columbia?
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Rather than getting into hypotheticals - I suggest waiting for the results of the SAT or ACT. Then you can decide if you are satisfied with those results, or if you want to attempt a retest – and possibly verify your thinking/reasoning on College Confidential.
FWIW… Neither your grade of 8.84 (which for some countries is considered better than 88.4%), nor any SAT or ACT score will be enough to predict the odds of being accepted. Those are only two of many criteria that elite colleges will look at, when they review the totality of your application.
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And if you do apply and do or don’t get accepted, you will never know why.
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Well, I suppose that I was at the top of my high school. As I mentioned, the reasons for my ‘bad’ GPA were outside of the “academic part”, but I’m not sure if I should list those reasons in my essay.What I’m looking for is a research-focused university where the professors are approachable and open to discussing with the students. I prefer a university where the professors are more focused on research themselves rather than solely on educating. Some might consider this a bad thing, but I don’t mind it. I’m seeking a university that treats students as researchers rather than just students."
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Yeah they’re pretty “picky” when it comes to the admissions.They have guides that they must follow and include various types of students into their classes.Well from what I know of,Columbia and MIT are more research focused.And that’s what I’m looking for in a university.And that’s the “reason” I guess.
True.I need to take the sat/act first.Yeah of course they look at a whole bunch of stuff.
Yeah, they don’t provide you with explicit ‘reasons’ why you were rejected. However, I suppose that the student might have an ‘idea.’ Whether that was the actual reason or not, the student won’t know for sure.
That’s very useful. Thanks.
So, probably what would be near a 4.0 in the US.
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@MYOS1634 @Mwfan1921 perhaps you can explain.
I will say, there are a lot of places where you can do research, and some are actually better choices for undergrads than Columbia or MIT.
Research on what?
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Mainly physics, but also some neuroscience.
Yeah, it’s around 4.0. I used ChatGPT, and each time it gave a different answer. When I input ‘9.0’ from the Albanian grading system, it suggested ‘3.7’ most times, but with ‘8.84,’ I assumed ‘3.64.’"
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