Poor GPA!! ~ My chances screwed?? =(

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hi everyone! I am a student studying IB in Indonesia and I applied for MIT RD this fall.</p>

<p>My school is extremely strict during class and term tests before grade 12 IB tests come about. they do this so that we prepare hard for IB and don't get overconfident. they recently introduced the GPA system in the school but in a weird kind of way. a 7 in a subject (out of reach in my school's system) fetches 4.00 for the subject while 6=3.43, 5=2.83, 4=2.23 and so on. </p>

<p>the highest anyone has managed in my school's history is around 3.5. i only managed to scrape 3.1 out of 4. my school doesnt weight GPAs. Usually, people here dont care about GPAs but since Im applying to MIT, im worried after seeing majority of the people score above 3.6 atleast.</p>

<p>My performance in external exams are pretty good. I got 7A*s and a B in IGCSE and 90% in Year 10 boards. My SAT scores are average at 2120 while I got 800s in all my Subject Tests.</p>

<p>Will this pathetic GPA of mine seal my fate? Can I send a letter to MIT along with my mid-year report explaining this situation? Will it sound childish and ruin it more?</p>

<p>What should I do?? Im so worried!! HELP! I would appreciate anyone who is willing to help me!! =(</p>

2

<p>MIT takes the practices of your school into account when looking at things like GPA and class rank.</p>

<p>They may already be familiar with your school and its practices - MIT Admissions has a staff member who specializes in international admissions - but the thing to do, I think, is to have your counselor address the school’s standards, and the fact that nobody has ever gotten above a 3.5 GPA, in his/her report/form.</p>

3

<p>Oh…well, so that means I have to get my counselor to explain things in the midyear report? My school doesn’t rank as well :(</p>

<p>thanks for the suggestion jessiehl…I will talkto my counselor about it.</p>

4

<p>

</p>

<p>This is not a problem - many schools do not. Mine didn’t. I just mentioned class rank as an example of another factor which is looked at in context.</p>