IB Retakes VS Harvard

Pre-College Issues International Baccalaureate (IB)
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>Sorry for this-- I'm in a real weird situation and have spent hours and hours trying to find a forum with even a remotely similar topic to help me out, but I haven't found one, so here goes my question....</p>

<p>I'm a student who had exemplary academics, International-calibre extracurriculars, stellar SAT scores, finished up at a feeder school and comes from an interesting personal story + URM background. I was very interested in going to a top tier college up until the last year of my high school when I got really sick, totally disengaged from everything, and am basically in a situation where I'm on a gap year and will be retaking my IB exams this November. </p>

<p>US universities will look at everything-- not just retakes, but the original ones as well. Would anyone say that that having messed up my IB and having to redo it-- even for a legitimate reason-- is enough to get completely ruled out for Ivy league admissions? And when I say I plan to retake and improve, I mean drastically: Up 14 points total including EE/TOK. </p>

<p>I'm just terrified that I've really just completely thrown away any chance at a good school because of this.</p>

2

<p>Sorry, not 14. I meant 12.</p>

3

<p>Provided you explain your situation (maybe include a doctor’s verification?), I can’t imagine any school throwing your application out based on your having to retake the exams. If an adcom is human, they’ll understand.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for the reassurance. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Can anyone else draw from experience/someone else’s experiences regarding IB retakes? Is it common, assuming that the retakes were for a legitimate reason, for individuals to still make it into top colleges/universities?</p>

5

<p>If you had a legitimate reason and had maybe a GC or doctor write about it for you, I don’t see how it would hurt your application.</p>