I’m a junior so my GPA hasn’t been calculated yet but here are my grades:
Grade 9: Low 90s
Grade 10: Low 80s, 1 60 in science ;(
Grade 11: 2 70s, I estimate my other 5 grades will be low 90s
Grade 12: (I’ll shoot for mid-high 90s)
APs Junior Year: Calc BC, Phys 1, Phys 2, French
Will take more senior year.
ECs:
Multiple tech internships at robotics and AI companies, quantum computing companies
Spoke around the world in Paris, India, Portugal and more about my work in tech to students and big tech companies like Microsoft
Participate in girl STEM mentorship programs where i mentor girls around 7 years old
Mentor startups in a deep tech accelerator and help them with their tech
Test Scores:
Will write SAT when coronavirus is over
Should I even write the SAT Subject Tests, a lot of universities say they’re not looking at them this year
Questions:
preface: Honest brutal criticism would be appreciated
Is shooting for a competitive stem school like cal tech or MIT even worth the shot. I feel like I've messed up my grades from focusing on ECs too much and unis aren't forgiving when it comes to a low gpa with an international kid
Even if I have messed up my chances, what can I do to improve my profile? I'll be increasing my GPA and continuing to work on ECs but what am I missing?
Why those schools? There are so many other schools to choose from. Your low grades in a few courses would probably keep you out of Stanford and MIT. Others can comment on Berkeley.
You ask: What am I missing?
What you’re missing is perhaps looking at the many other schools out there. I see that you’re female and are interested in engineering.
You might want to consider–
Olin
Northeastern
University of the Pacific
Santa Clara
Many of the other UCs
U of Maine at Orono has ABET engineering and funding for international students, and an airport near the school
Womens colleges–Smith has engineering and it has merit money but I’m not sure how much funding it gives to international. At Smith you can also take classes at UMass Amherst to broaded the engineering courses https://www.smith.edu/academics/engineering
Bryn Mawr is also part of a consortium with Haverford -- also has 4+1 program with UPenn. BMC is also in consortium with Swarthmore--which has its own engineering program
@iiiooiii I go to Northeastern University and as @Dustyfeathers mentioned, I would recommend you look into Northeastern! We have a very strong engineering program, and around 20% of our student body is international. I know the school is also looking to add more women to STEM fields. Your extracurriculars look fantastic and I know NU really values this (I work for the office of undergraduate admissions). If you’re interested in speaking more about NU feel free to reach out!
your gpa is hovering over the 3.0ish range im guessing. Cal Tech needs complete academic perfection from applicants. This is the same with MIT. Stanford is a bit lenient if the ec’s are insane but that is only for gpa’s above 3.5. BTW: Probabaly 99.9% of cal tech’s upcoming class has straight A’s.
Look for schools like UMass Amherst, ASU, Texas AM
None of the schools you mentioned are in contention for you. Even if you won a major science prize and were an olympian, you wiuld not get innwith those grades. These schools have ten of thousands of kids with perfect records and amazing EC’s. You should consider the reality of where you are now. It’s possible you will excel in college and can then attend an elite graduate program. My sister did that and ended up quite successful in life.
If those scores align with typical US grades, you have slightly below a 3.4 now and at best a 3.45 at the time of applications.
Grades are the top factor used by most college admissions offices, including those you list. EC’s are typically 2nd tier considerations, good at breaking ties and putting you ahead of others with similar academic profiles, but they won’t make up for gaps in the most important tier.
Unfortunately, a 3.4-3.5 GPA is extremely unlikely to pas the first review at the four schools you mention.
I think others have made it clear that the schools you listed are realistically not ones you can anticipate getting into.
Rather than focus on prestigious sounding schools focus more on safety/match schools that you can afford. in the long run that is more important than hoping to get into a school that is too advanced for you academically.
What’s the scale at your school? In other words, is a 70 a pretty good grade while not stellar (as it’d be in, say, Italy or Ireland) or is a 70 bad enough to keep you out of contention?
Second: do you need financial aid and if so what’s your Parents’ budget?