<p>SAT: 2290; 800M, 720CR, 770W (superscored but all of the above uni's superscore)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics
GPA/Rank: School does not calculate
APs: School follows British system (thus, not offered)
Transcript:
Freshman (IGCSE current): 1A+, 2As, 4Bs, 3Cs, 1D
Sophomore (IGCSE final): 5A+, 5A, 1B (the only school that converts changes Bs to As but for the worst case scenario, think of the grades the way they are please)
Junior (IB current): three 7's, two 6's and one 5; 38/42
Senior (IB predicted): three 7's, three 6's, full bonus points; 42/45
Mid-year report: five 7's, one 6, full bonus points; 44/45
Major awards: Few international (but not major) math awards, a national business award (top 5) and department awards for best performance in the subject during a particular grade</p>
<p>ECs: President/Co-founder of two clubs (2 years); Eco-friendly business co-founder (2 years); Organizer of two science projects (1 year); Organizer of huge school event; Varsity golf (2 years); Elected student council and School committee representative (4 years); Group leader of trip to rural Malaysia to teach English; Member of a hip-hop crew
Work experience: English teacher at prestigious internship/program during summer; 7 weeks; 500 hours
Community service: Total hours add up to ~1500 hours (not mentioned on application) but hopefully evident
Recommendations: Great</p>
<p>International applicant: Hong Kong
Financial aid: No
School type: Private
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: ~150K</p>
<p>For Princeton and Stanford, please ignore atrocious freshman year grades because they don't look at them.</p>
<p>Also, should I send them a follow up letter stating the number of community service hours just so they know, in case they only give a cursory look to the number of hours and number of weeks on the application? Would it also reiterate my interest in the schools?</p>
<p>ECS are a little weak. Yes, you have a lot and hold some high positions at a couple, but none are overly incredible or impressive. Like “organize a large school event” - what? Thats so general, and really has no place on application. Being the founder of those two clubs are nice, but once again they seem pretty isolated to your school, and not real important on a large scale. Impressive ECs have excludability, regional, state, and national achievements. Colleges like to see impressive ECs that are well known. For example, I could be the president of the Movie Watching club at my school. There is nothing about a movie watching club that is attractive to colleges.</p>
<p>Other than that, your pretty average. The SAT scores are on par with the schools your looking</p>
<p>And by the way - what are you talking about in saying “they dont look at freshmen grades”. Colleges look at your CUMULATIVE Gpa. Meaning the average GPA of you freshmen, sophomore, and junior year for EAs, and freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior for regular admissions. I honestly dont know what your talking about, or thinking, because yes, your freshmen year GPA counts. The only year they look at individually is Junior, which is not even nearly as important as your cumulative</p>
<p>But, as I stated, my school does not calculate or send a GPA hence they will look at each year individually or recalculate based on my sophomore to mid-year report grades.</p>
<p>I organized the largest school event of the calendar, which was based around my culture (Diwali). Also the clubs I founded are based around tutoring (one is of an instrument and the other is around academics). My business is a national EC I presume because it is based around recycling an item that no one in the whole city recycles.</p>
<p>Your school has nothing to do with what colleges look at. Colleges will ask YOU to put down your cumulative GPA, starting at Freshmen year all the way up to the time you apply.</p>
<p>Lol we have the same SAT score and we are both Indian :P…I think you hhave a great chance at all 4 of these colleges. Princeton and Stanford may not be the easiest to get into but you are still an extremely competitive applicant. U didn’t apply to any safety schools?</p>
<p>What I’m saying is, I ** do NOT** have a GPA score because there is no such system implemented here. Hence, it is not possible for either me or my school to put down a GPA. I have contacted the universities and they say this is a fairly common occurrence and that they will look at the grades in context.</p>
<p>Thanks Violator. I got into University of Michigan-Ann Arbor through Early Action and I was considering that to be somewhat of a safety/mid.</p>
<p>I hate to say this but, based on the career I want to pursue, I feel that Michigan is my last choice. I think all other schools I applied to (NYU Stern as well, though I didn’t state it) will give me better opportunities. You guys reckon I can get into at least one of them?</p>
<p>great SAT scores and good EC’s … I am not too sure about those C’s and D’s but if as you are saying colleges dont look at them … then you should be fine…</p>
<p>you have the best shot at Cornell … then Columbia… Princeton and Stanford are surely reaches as they are for almost everyone…</p>
<p>I am currently a UK student and noticed that your school follows our system. I don’t really have any input for you, everything looks decent. But don’t get take my opinion to heart, I don’t exactly know much about any of the Universities you listed. I was wondering if you could chance me considering you’ll understand my position better.</p>
<p>I know for a fact that Princeton and Stanford looks at your cumulative GPA, which does in fact include your Freshmen GPA. However, I do realize that your school does not calculate your GPA for you. But that would only mean that the schools would pay more attention to your transcript, and they WILL see your Freshmen grades and take it into account.</p>
<p>Why would they look at my freshman grades when they say they do not look at freshman grades for the very reason that I illustrate (lack of focus and university awareness during freshman year)?</p>
<p>Nowhere in the Princeton or Stanford University website does it say that their admission officers will disregard a person’s Freshmen year grades just because said person did not have the drive to work hard.</p>
<p>It seems to be the most obvious reason. Regardless, they disregard those grades, and I don’t think they make exceptions based on how much information they receive.</p>
<p>It would be like Cornell saying that they are considering the Writing section of the SAT for some students only.</p>
<p>Also, from what I’ve gathered on these forums, they don’t see your transcript the way your school sends it. An administrator processes it and only the essential information is sent to the admissions officers (for example, only the CR and M scores are processed at Cornell).</p>
<p>The facts are blatantly laid out for you; I have nothing further to say if you’re just going to stubbornly deny everything just to appease yourself.</p>
<p>@TheHumanTripod, i have looked into CalvinTBOD’s past posts. He is usually “mean” or “negative” toward everybody. </p>
<p>I think youll have a decent chance, somewhat <15%. All those schools are REACH for EVERYONE. No one can really say Stanford is my safety. You know what am I talking about? Here is my justification. Your family income is very high, so it does make sense that your SAT i+ii scores & GPA are good. In addition, you are an Indian in HK, not to be racists or anything, there are 1683249 rich + smart Indians& HK people that are also applying to the schools you are applying to. At the time when your income is ~150k, you will be competing against all those elites which put your GPA stats into disadvantage. + if a poor, w/ similar stats, is fighting against you for that one spot, you will be eliminated because admission committees definitely know poors work harder for w/e the stats they have if compared w/ riches.</p>