I know a woman who got into Cornell AAP transfer from SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo GPA was about a 3.9 and high school GPA was around a 3.4, in-state student. Granted this was the 80’s, but she wasn’t lets say: “Star Student”.
I got rejected from Stanford (not Ivy but similar) with a 4.0 UW, 4.68 weighted good test scores and good ECs (student gov, clubs, and I was a NCAA D2 and 3 recruited athlete) and number 6 out of 455 from an competitive public school in an upper middle class neighborhood. It’s a tough world out there with so many amazing applicants.
In a nutshell, no. D had a 4.0UW, IB Diploma (score was 40 or 41 I think), ranked either 1 or 2 in her class, and had a couple of decent ECs. She was rejected at several top 20 LACs in the northeast and WL at even more. She didn’t apply to any IVYS but her match schools tended to be in the 30-40% acceptance rate schools, at least in the NE.
As long as you understand where your “match” schools range, add a safety or two, and then add a couple of reaches, but to answer your question again, an IB diploma doesn’t make IVY a match and even less so with a 3.5 GPA. Sorry, because I know just how hard the curriculum is, brace yourself. That extended essay is weeder lol. On the upside, I don’t know if there is a program that prepares you better for college than IB. D still considers college easy in comparison and she is a rising junior.
or even per se 