Take the TOEFL. Sorry, but your English may not meet Harvard’s minimum. Take the SAT again, see if it improves. But as it stands todsy, NO. You do not have what it takes.
And arguing won’t change that. The competition is fierce. And you really don’t know what it takes, so you can’t work toward a better admit chance.
NO.
Paul, my point was that in my country, Peru, knowing all that and being capable of take the SAT IN PERU, without the personal intention from my parents, and being 17 years-old is just quite an exceptional case. I’m not that kind of person which it was needed all the time to be considered because of the sadness I give to others due to my health state. No, I’m not.
I’m a normal peruvian person, and you are a normal american person. My country indeed have disadvantages, but that is not an obstacle to me. You’re treating me like I’m a U.S student, which I’m not. I am a foreigner, I expect the other countries to treat me as same as they treat themselves. Not doing that is just sad in my opinion, because you can’t generalize a person depending on their nationality.
I’m not complaining that Harvard is giving me less chances, I am not complaining at all. I just want to make the things clear, that my life here in Peru is different from the one I could have in the USA.
You are expecting an ELITE college in the United States to give you a break because of your circumstances. They don’t even do that for US kids- if a US kid applied to Harvard with a 950 SAT, only in the top 50% of their class, with meh extracurriculars, they would certainly get rejected. The point is that your stats are simply not up to par, and that combined with the fact that you are an international means you have no chance.
Based on your posts here, your English is probably not up to par to handle Harvard-level courses- you seem to struggle with some nuanced vocabulary and grammar. Why are you so opposed to remaining in your country to study?
If I remember correctly, Paul is also an international student, so he can give you insight.
Colleges do sometimes require a bit less from applicants from certain countries bc of the language barrier (a bit lower SAT, GPA in context of your country, not the US.). But Harvard doesn’t need to give any breaks because they get so many perfect applications from all over the world.
My advice, log off CC because this conversation is not helping you, and study for that next SAT. Aim for 1500. Get a good TOEFL score. Then think about what YOU have to offer Harvard that others around the world do not. Work on the essay of how to get that across to them. Be clear, not just “I really want this”, or “I’d be great at Harvard”. They literally want to know what YOU can bring to their next class that others cannot.
Because you will only leave your current school if admitted to Harvard, discussions about other schools in the US that might be more realistic are not helpful to you.
@Usuario889 Clearly you did not read my post enough. I have made it clear that I am an INTERNATIONAL STUDENT.
I am, in fact, KOREAN and my 2nd langauge is English, just like you.
When I came to USA, NOBODY helped me improve English. I did almost everything on my own. I studied SAT and ACT on my own without anyone’s help. My 1st SAT was 1440 math+reading and did way better than my native-speaking peer. I got 5 in 6 AP classes. I had AP distiction award. My PSAT score was 98 percentile.
I also played Clarinet in state band. Oh and I m not rich, not even middle class. My GPA was 4.11/4.00
And did I get in harvard or Brown? nope, but I didn’t mop over it. You must think I am uber special now but I knew there are bunch of other people that are better than me out there. I was more stressed due to potentnai cost of college. However, I got full tutition scholarhip from my current school. I get PAID to go school here.
I can put bunch of things I accomplished on my own, but I think I listed enough to tell you that you are not as THAT special as you esteem yourself to be. It proves you are more ready than others, but if you are compared with other international students, you are far from top 1%.
Lastly, you said yourself that you are in 50% percentile. Harvard is a place that reject perfect SAT with PERFECT GPA. I can’t stop you from applying there,but it is a waste of time. Beside, you still haven’t explained why you want to go Harvard or any Ivy league.
I’m very sorry Multiverse7, but you should respond because your arguments aren’t clear at all.
Harvard doesn’t show in his page that you have to be a incredible brilliant student and achieve very important accomplishment for the world development if you are international and not having attended to a elite high school, but I consider myself just a normal person, intelligent and responsible. Many people, in fact, said that I was a brilliant student. But that’s something you can’t measure, no one can’t. The dean of admissions will see how I am and they will know if they will accept me or reject me, but I will show everything that I have, which it is not of your bussiness actually.
Lookingforward, there is much more of an student than his grades or his english grammar. Both can improve, but the person is just the one that stays as it is, and I am a person who wants to improve that and show himself to Harvard to get a chance to get into.
As Multiverse said he wasn’t going to respond, I can address your concerns.
To point 1: Yes, the int’l acceptance rate DOES APPLY TO YOU. You are INTERNATIONAL, therefore that gives you a generalization of your chances. You cannot simply ignore it because you don’t like it.
To point 2: sure, you can try, but your competitors will have been doing these activities for all of their high school years.
point 3: Top colleges don’t want to see people take the SAT more than 2-3 times.
point 4: He is guessing based on your saying you are in the top 50%. That is just barely average.
5: you don’t speak very well grammatically, based on this post. Your words are often jumbled. For example, “I know how to speak grammatically well english” is a clunky sentence- a native English speaker would say “I can speak gramatically correct English.”
point 6: You simply don’t have many ECs, whereas applicants that will be successful will have involved themselves and demonstrated leadership and initiative.
point 7: Just because your college is different from the american colleges doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply to you. All int’l schools are going to be different from american colleges.
8: Yes, you have a basic grasp. But you miss some things. Your test scores won’t get them to ignore your grades- you have to be able to prove to them that you can handle college level work. Besides, you cannot say that your essays will be amazing- you haven’t written them yet. In addition, as pointed out, your english is faulty and that will show in your essays. While I am able to understand what you write, it is not great english.
Yes, ultimately Harvard will decide whether to admit or reject you. But we are telling you that it is VERY likely you will be rejected.
@Usuario889, Paul isn’t an American student, he’s an international.
All students who apply to Harvard after having attended other colleges are considered transfers, so they are treating you the same as everybody else. And all students have to have competitive scores. If you check Harvard’s Common Data Set, [Section C9](http://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2014-15.pdf), you’ll see that the middle 50% SAT score is 1500-1510. A 950 just isn’t competitive. In that way, all students are treated the same. But if you applied, you would be competing with other internationals for a limited number of international spots. I understand you may think that’s not fair, but US colleges can only hold a finite number of students.
If you have a college in your country that you can attend, you’re ahead of many internationals who apply to US colleges. Many of them can’t afford college. A lot of American students can’t either. If you’re able to improve your test scores, apply to whichever US colleges your parents can afford. But if you apply after you start your college in Peru, you’ll be considered a transfer student by most of them.
You just said it is a waste of time. How do you expect to encourage others to do the things they really want to?
In any case, I know it is not a waste of time because I quickly knew the first time I decided 100% to get into Harvard, everything that involved to do it. I mean, not specificly, but in general, and I was actually right.
I want to get into Harvard because DUE TO it is one of the best universities in the world, it will help ME a lot to reach my goals, which are actually world-scale goals. You see? It is not because it is one of the best and I want to feel better or superior or satisfy. NO. IT IS A 100% PERSONAL OBJECTIVE THAT I WANT TO ACHIEVE. Nothing else. And I think people should think about themselves more than the material things (an IPhone, a Smart TV, a college, etc) don’t you think Paul? That’s how I think.
^a personal objective, but why? Why Harvard?
You asked others to tell you your chances of getting into Harvard. They have responded. You just don’t like the answer.
Yonceonhismouth
I know my english grammar have still mistakes, and the reason is because I use to say more words than needed not only in english but in spanish. If I wouldn’t do that I will be ok.
I can make you sure I have initiative and leadership and I will demostrate it to the interviewers.
I can also make you sure I DO will know how to handle college work. Actually, that’s just what I want right now, to be in college and worrying about college things. But I currently have to be worried about getting into, so I’m not thinking about that ultimately.
Why Harvard HRSMom? Well, it is not only Harvard, but it is my most important option. I am waiting for the time I work as a bussiness man, and Harvard, as other colleges, can offer me very diverse knowledge during the academic program. Just because of that. Because I want to achieve my OWN goals and that’s it.
NerdMom, many people just doesn’t tell me clear answers. I want them to make them clear saying what the are mistaken.
Is this thread for real?
Will the OP tell us next that he needs lots of FA??
Obviously, we do not expect you to be encouraged to apply to Harvard from these responses.
Some opportunities are like the military. If you enlist in the military, your basic training instructors will do everything in their power to train you, and if you have grit and determination, you will become a trained soldier. It is the job of basic training to take anyone with health and ambition and make them a soldier.
Other opportunities are like the Olympics. It is the job of the Olympic soccer coach to take best soccer players in the country and prepare them for world class competition. It does not matter how much determination you have or what obstacles you’ve faced in getting training or if you are the nicest person ever, if you are not already one of your country’s best players, you will not be added to the Olympic roster.
Getting into Harvard is like getting on an Olympic team, not like joining the military. Harvard takes students who are already the very best. From a young age, they were the smartest in their classes and leaders in their communities and winners at prestigious competitions. If you aren’t one of the smartest, most promising students in the world, you don’t get in to Harvard.
They don’t care that you believe Harvard is the best or that you feel you could benefit from the Harvard experience. Just because I love my country very much doesn’t entitle me to a spot on the Olympic team.
Chain, meet yank.
“You just said it is a waste of time. How do you expect to encourage others to do the things they really want to?”
-Only if they seem to have something to show for. You don’t.
“In any case, I know it is not a waste of time because I quickly knew the first time I decided 100% to get into Harvard, everything that involved to do it. I mean, not specificly, but in general, and I was actually right.”
-Narcissism award of CC forum 2017. Clap clap.
“I want to get into Harvard because DUE TO it is one of the best universities in the world, it will help ME a lot to reach my goals, which are actually world-scale goals. You see? It is not because it is one of the best and I want to feel better or superior or satisfy. NO. IT IS A 100% PERSONAL OBJECTIVE THAT I WANT TO ACHIEVE. Nothing else.”
-What are your grandiost goals, then?
“And I think people should think about themselves more than the material things (an IPhone, a Smart TV, a college, etc) don’t you think Paul? That’s how I think.”
-.This only proves that your comprehension skills are subpar, which explains why you flunked SAT. You are completely missing the reasons for your nonexistent chance at Harvard or any other top notch schools and you are accusing me for being materialistic? When have I mentioned anything about materialistic stuff?
MODERATOR’S NOTE
Agreed. I see no reason to keep this thread open if it’s just going around in circles. The OP has received some solid advice in the interim. Closing.