Harvard Chance me 2024

Hello!

I am a Canadian applying to Yale and Harvard.

Below are my ecs and stats.

For those wha are wondering, I am a black female and have 3 younger siblings, and spend time taking care of them as well.

  • 4.0 GPA
  • 27 ACT (perfect 12 writing score)
  • 33 reading section
  • 27 English
  • 23 Science
  • 25 Math

Ec’s

  • President of Largest Student Association in Canada representing 2.1 million students
  • Junior Team Canada Ambassador selected to go on Trade mission to Malaysia and Singapore representing Canada
  • Student Trustee of School Board representing 70 000 students and changing policies at school board
  • Varsity Basketball (top 8 provincial champions) and Varsity Soccer (undefeated regional champions)
  • hoping to pursue political science and economics undergrad

Let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks!

Your ACT is low but your gpa is good. I’d say its more of a reach than it would be for others (the ivies are reaches for anyone who doesn’t donate a building). The ACT is way below any ivy standard. Your ECs are great though.

Based on your interest in economics, your math course performance will be reviewed with respect to your level of preparation for this often quantitatively-based field. With respect to standardized scoring, note that three quarters of the students at these schools have registered a 31 or higher on the math sections of their ACTs.

Unlikely

@izrk02 @merc81 @sherpa

Do you guys think it would be worth redoing my ACT’s in February, because I know Yale says they accept the February ACT scores, and just updating the other schools with my new scores, or would you recommend just leaving my scores as they are and hoping my extracurricular can outweigh the less than stellar test scores?

I am open to hearing what you guys think would be the best course of action, and appreciate your help!

I don’t think it’s worth it unless Yale is your number 1. Most schools have apps finalized by this point (unless something drastic happens), so they probably won’t accept new scores. Especially since most deadlines to send in scores have passed.

If you have reason to believe your current scores do not reflect your potential for this exam and you would like to be a realistic candidate for Yale — or a comparable school that would consider an update — absolutely.

Ok thankyou, I appreciate it, and will weigh both options!! I’m leaning towards redoing just because I know my scores could go up and it is my last chance to display my strengths!

Will update once everything is through!

@izrk02 @merc81

There’s definitely no strong negative to retaking, it just might not be worth it in the long run. Call Harvard and ask if they’ll review Feb scores like Yale does (couldn’t find any info online).

EC’s great. Stats extremely low. It’s likely they would be very concerned about your ability to do the work vis-a-vis other students. GPA these days only tells about work ethic in a specific environment. Many colleges know that A’s are given out easily. If your school is a known entity your chances might rise, otherwise, I would say unlikely.

FWIW: Google “ACT Score and GPA Correlation” and you’ll get a table of national averages that look something like this:

The Admissions Officers at Harvard – or any US college for that matter – are going to look at your perfect 4.0 GPA and your 27 ACT and think something is terribly wrong, as your test scores are way out of sync with your GPA!

As such, Admissions is going to wonder:

(a) Did you have a bad day when you took the test?
(b) Is their grade inflation at your high school, as a student with your GPA should have scored much higher on the ACT?
(c) Can you handle the reading and work load at Harvard?

None of that is good. If you are interested in ANY TOP 20 US COLLEGE, you. must retake the ACT and score greater than a 32!

Based on the correlations you posted, this suggests that 4.0 represents a widely dissimilar GPA from 3.93.

@Blueberryyyyyy Yale has a RD admit rate of under 4.5%. Harvard’s is even lower. International applicants are generally believed to have an admit rate about 1/3rd that of the overall applicant pool.

Before you even figure in your stats, your odds are under 1.5%

25th percentile ACT at Yale and Harvard is a 33

Only 4.27% had an ACT in the 24-29 range at Harvard (Yale doesn’t break the numbers down.

25ACT math section score is not at all helpful for a potential econ major at Y or H where econ requires strong math/CS skills.

The odds for any international applicant in the RD round are slim. Add standardized test scores below the 5th percentile and the odds become pretty bleak.

Substantially higher standardized test scores certainly wouldn’t hurt, but even with a 36, the odds are still against you.

Generally speaking ECs help the admissions committee distinguish between an excess of students with outstanding stats and can not outweigh less than stellar stats.

I wish you had looked at this list of test-optional colleges, many of which are top schools. https://www.fairtest.org/university/optional

You could look at the list and research which ones are still taking applications (before Jan. 15?), and then hustle to apply. Or if you take a gap year, keep this list in mind.

Under B alone you will find Brandeis, Bowdoin, Bennington, Bard, Bates and Beloit.

The mismatch between your scores and your grades and EC’s will hurt you. Remove the scores and you could probably get in to any of the schools on the list.

By all means retake after some prep (I hate prep by the way), but don’t do it in order to get into Harvard and Yale. The stress isn’t worth it for the low odds.

As others have said, the 27 ACT is too low. Are you a legacy? Have others recently been admitted to Yale or Harvard from your high school? Is your school known for its academic rigor? If others have attended Y or H from your school did they successfully matriculate from those colleges? Hopefully, you applied to a range of other schools. Your ECs are very good and taking care of family is a worthy explanation of how one spends one’s time outside of class. Best of luck with your admission decisions.