Now that the ivies made SAT/ACT tests optional, I think that the GPA’s will be a more important factor. I’m an international student so my GPA is out of 100.
My freshmen GPA was 95.9, sophomore 94.3, and junior 92.7. It looks like I’m going down but there are some reasons.
First of all, I started IB in junior year. Our school prepares our exams in IB style so it was a hard time for me to adjust to the new system. Each semester, our school does two exam weeks. My first exams were bad (like everyone else in my grade) because, as I said, we couldn’t really adjust to the IB at first. But my second exams were really good, but still, my first semester GPA remained as 92.79. Also, due to the virus, our government canceled all exams in all schools for the second semester. My second-semester grades were always higher than in the first ones. So I didn’t get the opportunity to raise my grades, which is a problem for almost all of the students in our school. My school will be reporting this issue in the Additional Info part of the common app. Also, my counselor told me that I didn’t actually drop too much. There were people whose grades dropped much worse than me.
Also, I don’t want it to be like an “excuse” but in sophomore year a very close relative of mine died so I lost my motivation that year, which is the reason for the drop between freshman and sophomore year. I think I will be reporting it in the additional info section as well.
Considering these grades, my weighted GPA will be something like 96.5, which is not bad. But I’m scared that my junior GPA will look bad, especially when the SAT/ACT is optional. My IB predicted grades are high, 42/43 I think. I will also submit the SAT, which will be high actually according to my practice tests. My counselor said that if I get high grades in the first-semester of senior year, the drop in my grades will not look that bad. What do you think? Will my GPA be a disadvantage for the ivies?
Clleges place a lot of weight on grades, and a downward trend is troublesome., even if explainable. And especially for an international. Just being honest.
Your grades aren’t bad at all, but there is more to it than that.
If you’re coming from India or China, countries that send a lot of students to the USA, your chances of getting into the ivies are much less than some under represented countries. At best, your chances are about 2-3%, and that could go even lower if more students take advantage of test optional applications.
Even though the ivies are test optional this coming year, the more competitive international applicants will still post a score, especially if coming from an over represented country or those in need of financial aid. Test optional is expected to give a boost to full pay students and under represented minorities.
Well, thank god I’m not coming from India or China then. I will submit SAT (maybe ACT also) though. If those scores are high, do you think my academic stats would be a disadvantage?
I think this is overly judgemental. You don’t know my EC’s, accomplishments, awards, essays, and other factors that influence my application. My school is one of the best schools in my country, and send a couple of students every year to the ivy league, including people whose grades are lower than me. I am a competitive applicant compared to other students in my school, but I was worried if the 92 in my junior year would be a significant disadvantage, even with the logical explanations from the school and even with high grades in senior year.
Now that SAT/ACT is optional for the ivies, I think that the GPA will be a more important factor. I’m an international student, and my GPA is out of 100.
My freshman year GPA is 95.9, sophomore 94.3, and junior 92.7.
As you can see, I have a drop in my junior year, but there are several reasons for that.
I started IB in my junior year. Our school prepares the exams in IB style. It was hard for me (and other students) to adjust to the new type of questions and to the new system. Each semester we have two exams. At first I didn’t get used to the new system so my first exam grades were bad (like most of my friends). Then in the second exams, I got used to the new style and received high grades, but my GPA increased only until 92.7.
Also, because of the virus, our government canceled all exams for the second semester. My grades were always higher in the second semester so I didn’t get the opportunity to raise my grades, which was a problem for almost everyone in our school. Therefore our school will be reporting this issue in the additional info part of the common app. My counselor said that the drop in my junior is not bad compared to other students in our school and that I’m actually fine. He said that there are some students who are worse.
Additionally, in sophomore year a close relative of mine passed away, which I think affected my motivation and caused a drop from freshman to junior. I will also be reporting this in the additional info part.
With these grades, my weighted GPA will be something like 96.5. But I’m scared that my junior year GPA will look bad on the admissions, especially now that SAT/ACT is optional for the ivies. My IB predicted grades will be high (42/43) and my SAT will be high according to my practice tests. My counselor said if I receive high grades in the first semester of senior year, the drop in my GPA will not look that bad. What do you think? Is my GPA going to be a disadvantage for the. ivies?
Translate your grades to a 4 point (or 9 point) scale, and then see what your GPA ends up being. Your 94 or so GPA can be a 3.5, a 3.7, higher, or lower.
If your GPA is higher than 3.9, your GPA would be competitive, but they would still be a high reaches, since you are an internationals student. If your GPA ends up below 3.8, I would not advise you to apply to an Ivy, or any other colleges with an acceptance rate for International students of under 5%.
PS. The reason that your 4 point GPA could range so widely is that, for example, having a 91 and an 81 would result in an average of 3.5, as would an 89 and a 100, even though the averages would be 86 versus 94.5. On the other hand, a 91 and a 93 would have an average of 4.0, even though the average in 92, which is 2.5 points lower than the 3.5 from 94.5.
If there are partial grades (B+, A-, etc) it may be less of a range, but it still could vary, and you could definitely have people whose 100 point GPA was lower than yours, while their 4 point GPA was higher.
I think my weighted GPA of 96.5 becomes 4.0, the 92.7 I’m worried about becomes 3.8. In my school we don’t have grades in terms of letters, but if I convert it I have one B, two B+'s and the rest is A/A+.
What is your estimated class rank? Thats more important that the absolute GPA itself.
BTW a 42/43 predicted on the IB is amazing. This shows colleges that you can do the work. It looks like you had a slow start in college. Have you considered UK colleges? As others point out, getting into the US as an international is going to be difficult.
Do you need financial aid? Only a few of the ivies are need blind for internationals.
I need financial aid so I can’t apply to UK colleges. Also my school does not rank its students so I don’t know my rank and I will not submit it.
I know it’s extremely hard for internationals to get into US colleges, but every year my school sends many students to the US and also ivies. So tbh I’m counting on my school’s profile. I’m a unique applicant compared to other students from my school, and that’s why I thought I had a chance. I hope I still have.
Btw what do you mean by “you had a slow start in college.” Can you explain it more?
I think that @publisher nailed it in the post above. In the high school that I attended, your grades would have made you solidly the top student in the high school (the #2 student had an 89.9 average and went to MIT as an international student, I think that the top student went to ETH Zurich if I am remembering correctly). In the high school that one daughter attended, your grades might barely put you in the top 10% of the high school.
Universities somehow will get more information that you might expect about your high school and about typical grades in your country. If you are one of the very top students in your high school, then you have a chance at highly ranked universities in the US.
The next question is: Which highly ranked universities in the US would you want to attend and why? You will need an answer to this question before you fill out the essays on your applications. The Ivy League universities are not all the same, and other “top non-Ivy’s” such as MIT, Stanford, and Caltech are different again from the Ivy’s.
Thank you for all your responses! To give a bit more context, my school divides students into two: IB and non-IB. The non-IB students’ exams are much easier, so they have higher grades than us and so their class rank is usually higher. If we include non ib’s, I think I would be around 30/250 students. If we only include ib students, I think I would definitely be in the top %10. Even %5 if we consider the cumulative GPA. I have a rigorous course load, but as I said the colleges that I applied will not see my class rank. They’ll only see my GPA, courses, and test scores.
Average the unweighted 4.0 GPA of all of your grades, from all three years, combined. Weighted GPA just gives an indication of the rigor of your schedule. If you are an IB student, you are likely taking the most rigorous classes available, so your weighted GPA won’t add any more information.
You should expand your list of colleges in the USA to include any college which has good financial aid for international students.
For example, if your unweighted GPA is, say, 3.9, your chances of admissions to Harvard are still minuscule, since there is such a large number of international students applying. However, for example, Trinity College has fairly generous aid for international students, and accepts a higher percent of international applicants than do any of the Ivies.
Colleges like Trinity are not need blind, meaning that they consider whether you can pay when deciding. However, the fact that they do provide a lot of aid to international students indicates that they accept a large number of internationals students who need financial support.
Really depends on your school. Think of it like this. Do you think if you took 100 top students from across the world and the US that you would be in the top 10% of those who have excellent grades, scores, activities and recommendations? IF you think you are comfortably in that range then you likely have a decent chance.
Take away any of the variables ( top grades, scores, ec’s), etc and your chances fall dramatically. Nearly all students who are accepted meet and EXCEED all of the requirements. There are some online tools where you can plug your scores and grades and even ECs and get an estimate. What really counts is the ultimate decision, however.
Even if your school does not rank, they can triangulate it from multiple sources. The easiest is to look at previous and current applicants from your HS. Recommendation letters are another source. From this they can get a good sense of where you stand.
If you are indeed within the top 1-2% of your class, then chances are a lot better. Needing financial aid will hurt your chances. Stick to colleges that are need blind for internationals. The need-aware colleges will be difficult.
I meant slow start for HS, not college. Sorry for the error.
I’ve got to say, a predicted 42 on IB exams is INCREDIBLE! You should be incredibly proud of yourselves. I went to an IB school for a year (which was the top high school in our district that attracts students from MILES away), and only ONE students came CLOSE to that. He got into Stanford. He wasn’t the valedictorian, but he was in the top 10 students.
Also, colleges sometimes view grading systems out of 100 as different from those out of 4.0. For example, at my school, both a 93 and a 100 get translated to a 4.0. Colleges will be more aware of you situation, and your GPA to them will seem better than if you just convert it raw.
As an international student, you will be fighting an uphill battle. Not knowing your extracurriculars, it’s hard to say how you will stack up. In the end, though, the only way for you to have a 0% chance of admission is to not apply! Given your course load and IB scores, I think you could be a competitive applicant.