Hi
I am an international student and 10th grade student (I believe it means I am a sophomore student. )
I am planning to take the SAT in October .I am planning to also take two sat subject tests .
I wanted to know how to get into ivy league schools or other top colleges and what is necessary besides perfect GPA and test scores?
What makes me stand out?
How admission officers decide to accept or reject someone ?
Also do they want to see all of my high school grades or just junior and senior year ?
- All HS grades will be evaluated.
Regardless of the advice you receive here (or don’t receive) admission rates to these schools make them a reach for everyone. Everyone. Perfect scores or no.
I strongly suggest expanding your search to the top 50 US schools at the very least. The education you receive at any of those schools will be as good (if not better depending on your field of study). The faculty and student bodies will be about the same level. Ivies are only so big. The talented faculty and students have to go somewhere. They go to the next rung of schools. Also small LACs (liberal arts colleges) in the US have better teaching of undergrads than do Ivies (this is a broad generalization but I have attended and have taught at both.) Ivies are aimed primarily at research and grad students.
If you’re female also look at the women’s colleges. In the US many women’s schools are the best schools in the country and they are reserved for women. Vassar (now coed), Wellesley, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Scripps. Also Mills, Simmons, Agnes Scott, Hollins if your scores are slightly lower. They all offer excellent educations and many have cross registration at other top schools.
If you’re male, then also look at Vassar, and the other top LACs such as Williams, Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Reed, Whitman, the Claremont Consortium, Haverford, Swarthmore, Davidson, Grinnel, etc.
For unis also look at Vanderbilt, Emory, Rice, UofMichigan, UVA, UNC, Uof Illinois C-U, U Chicago, Northwestern, the UCs (UCLA, UCDavis, Berkeley, etc.); William and Mary, and so on. Depending on your interests, you may find that other schools, not in the top whatever random number are the best schools. For example, if you’re interested in marine science, several of the state unis are better than the ivies.
Thanks for your advice . Do colleges check only high school grades or they also check middle school grades too?
Because where I live a 9th grade student is considered middle school student .
In some school districts in the US, 9th grade is middle school too.
If the college/university you apply to requires all of your grades for years 9, 10, 11, and 12 you will need to get official records of your year 9 grades.