Hey guys, I go on this website and see so many people with a lot of Olympiad (like USNCO, IMO) awards, and I just wanted to know: what are the chances for someone with stellar grades (4.0, 10+ APs with most 5s, high test scores) and good extracurriculars (NHS prez, lots of hours, etc) but NO olympiad experience at all, to get into an Ivy League? Hopefully I am not the only one with this issue. Thanks
You don’t need to have national level awards, but good grades + good test scores + your generic ECs won’t cut it.
Your chances of getting into a very good university are excellent.
The Ivy League schools and equivalents cover a fairly wide range of types of universities. You should have a good reason before you apply to one or more of them, and have a very good backup. Don’t just focus on Ivy League schools because getting into them is highly unpredictable. However, if you have a good reason to apply to one or more of them it is probably worth sending in an application.
@warrior05, you sound like an “average excellent” student. I don’t mean that to sound harsh; my own son is one. Not an ISEF winner, no published research, not a national or even state level athlete or musician. Just an excellent student with ordinary ECs, just as you described yourself above.
The overall acceptance rate of most tippy-top schools is less than 10%. Accepted students tend to weight heavily toward the super-unique (or children of such people like important politicians or very famous celebrities), and while some “average excellent” students do get in, your particular chances at Ivies or similar are no better than the overall acceptance rate…and possibly worse.
So definitely, if you want to apply to elite schools, pick a carefully chosen few and work hard on those applications. But spend the majority of your college search time finding appropriate match and safety schools. With your stats there are lots of really good schools where you will be welcomed, potentially with excellent merit scholarships.
Thank you, that’s great advice!