'Til now, I have a GPA of 3.78 weighted. My grades have fallen quite terribly.
I am a junior and an international student as well.
I have a SAT score of 2270.
I go to an international school in Beijing, and my class is very competitive, but not really the school itself.
I’m around Top 20% of my class.
Just by looking at my GPA and SAT score, do you think I have a chance at UPenn and Brown?
- International applications are especially difficult-whatever any given applicant's chances would be applying from the US, a good rule of thumb is to assume an international with a similar profile will have 1/3 the odds.
- That SAT score is good, but not great, for the schools you named.
- That GPA is low. I'm not going to say very low, but it would be in the bottom 10-20% of students accepted at these schools, including the Americans who have a relatively easy ride and still have acceptance rates of 7-8%. Closer to the bottom 5% of internationals, with most of those below you a select group of royalty and/or world leaders' offspring.
- Extracurriculars are a huge part of your chances. Would need to know those in order to properly chance you.
- SAT II scores are required by most top colleges in the US, and these two are no exception. You won't be able to apply to Brown or UPenn without two SAT II tests.
I’m afraid it doesn’t look too good. But if you have really strong extracurriculars, that could make you a viable applicant.
@NotVerySmart I built a library at a school in Philippines, donated $600 from fundraiser for relief funds for disasters, won couple of internal awards at school, editor-in-chief for the school newspaper, editor of a literary magazine, interned at an academy, etc. Would this be…okay?
That isn’t too bad.
It would depend mostly on how you did some of the above. Fundraisers aren’t a bad thing, but they tend to be rather generic. A lot of the other activities’ merits depend on the nature of the accomplishment.
-If the library was part of an expensive service trip run by a school/a company specialized in such things, admissions officers are told to disregard it in order to avoid disadvantaging those who can’t afford trips like that. If you raised most of the money yourself, planned a significant portion of the trip, and have regularly been in touch with that school since, it’s not only a good EC, it’s also material for a strong application essay.
-Internal awards tend to carry little weight in university applications, especially at run-of-the-mill schools. However, if your school is large (500+ students) or has a reputation for excellence in the area you won awards in, that’ll help.
-The editor posts are a plus. How much of a plus depends on the level of your involvement. Did the school newspaper come out once a fortnight with a wide readership? Or was it read by a small minority with new issues once every 4-5 months?
-Interned at an academy…I’m not sure exactly what that means. It would depend on how selective the academy is, how well-known it is, but above all whether your time there taught you anything. Universities smile upon a week learning the ins and outs of a new environment, but frown on a week of punching numbers into spreadsheets.
I’m going to be honest with you and say you have zero shot at Penn and Brown. Sorry, but a WEIGHTED GPA of 3.78 is not good enough. Penn and Brown get the best of the best applicants…4.0 UNWEIGHTED GPAs along with stellar SAT scores. My daughter just graduated from high school, and 15 of them of 334 had ALL As (4.0 unweighted GPA), and only about 3 of them didn’t take AP classes or didn’t have great SAT scores. National Merit Finalists and Commended scholars in that list, and that was just one high school. Don’t mean to crush your dreams, but you should develop a new dream. Unless you have a VERY unique personal story, an “IN” (you know someone who can get you accepted), or an amazing EC or you have invented something that will change the world, you don’t have the stats to get accepted to an IVY League school. There are a lot of other great colleges out there. Go find one that will accept you.
I see you posted your ECs later…they are fine, but not enough to overcome your lowish GPA. What is your unweighted GPA? I’m assuming around 3.5? You need to find another group of schools.
@stepay what if i get a high GPA of 4.2, the highest possible GPA i could get in my school in my 1st semester of my senior year? What if it boosts it up to about 3.96 or slightly above that? Then will I have a bit of chance at least?
@NotVerySmart the library was built using the money I donated from my own fundraisers and the books I donated out of my personal interest. I later developed this into an organization, where I recruited people from my school to fund for projects, programs, lessons, etc. for the impoverished children in the country.
It will be very hard if you are not in the top 10% of your class
Both are reaches but write good essays and apply ED to your favorite.
Chance me back please!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1782833-chance-a-rising-senior-for-uchicago-georgetown-ivies-etc-will-chance-back.html#latest
@youngha - just as an average, if you have a 3.78 GPA through junior year and get a 4.2 the first semester of senior year, that would raise it to a 3.84 (3.78 x 6 + 4.2 and then divided by 7), so 3.96 or higher isn’t really in the cards…and that’s a WEIGHTED GPA, not an UNWEIGHTED one. I think it would be remarkably difficult for you to get in to either of those Ivy League schools, and again, I think your unweighted GPA is simply too low…goes to your class rank which is also low for those schools. Don’t mean to be harsh here, just realistic. You should look at other universities other than the most elite as I don’t believe you have a chance to ANY Ivy League school.
@stepay then realistically, what schools should I be looking at in terms of acceptance rate?
@youngha - Assuming you do continue to raise that GPA, I would think more reasonable targets (still great schools) would be schools like:
Emory
Georgetown
Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
Wake Forest
Vassar
Etc.
Even the above schools are no guarantee for you simply due to that lowish GPA. You should also apply to some safety schools – the flagship state school in your state, and another school of similar difficulty. Good luck.
With the current GPA and even assuming a steep grade trend up, they are are going to be big reaches: I would develop another groups of schools that are more aligned with your scores.