Apologies, I was going to post this in the International Applicants - UK forum but it seems like it’s being misused for Americans who are applying to UK universities, not UK applicants who want to apply to the US.
So I’m just curious really. What would my chances be for any Ivy League colleges? Harvard/Yale especially.
GCSEs:
A*AAAABBBBCCC
AS:
Distinction* + AAB
A2 Predicted:
Distinction* + AAA
ECs:
Karate for 5 years
Served a 2 year term on local youth council
Lead and organised a charity event to raise money for a cancer organisation
Volunteered in my local Citizens Advice Bureau (a place where the public goes to get free legal advice)
Did a law essay competition
Read ‘The Rule of Law’ and ‘The Right to Privacy’
Visited a Crown Court
The EC’s to do with law are all there because I’m applying for Law in the UK, which is an undergrad course.
SAT/ACT:
Absolutely no idea.
I hear that you get ‘extra credit’ for having done A-levels. Is that true?
Honestly I’m only interested in the Ivy League, anything less and I’d just go to university in the UK.
Cheers.
You need an SAT/ACT test to apply in the first place…
I will do it, but obviously I don’t know how well I’ll do.
You don’t get “extra credit” in the application process, but in some unis you can get credits toward graduation, and in many unis they can be used to be place in a higher level course. It varies by uni.
As to your original question, how do you look for Harvard or Yale, even assuming perfect standardized test scores, I can’t see from what you have posted what your ‘and’ is.
That is, the students that I know at those unis have top marks in rigorous courses, top standardized test scores, and…something else. It might be a lot of somethings (a varsity sport + a performance art + a school leadership position), or it might be just one something in which they have objectively accomplished something significant (a prize is the usual example). So, to use your examples, if they have done the law essay competition they have won it, or it has been singled out for special merit. If they have been involved in a charity, it has been a sustained effort over several years. And so on.
Of course, there is the wild card of your LoR and your own essays.
I know that the UK system is not oriented towards ECs, but there are leadership roles, and most Harvard/Yale students will have had some. Given how selective they are to start with, and the lower admission rates for international students, Harvard and Yale are a reach for anyone. You haven’t posted anything that would make me think you were a natural fit.
I see. It’s true that the UK system isn’t geared towards EC’s at all. Over here it’s just grades + EC’s that are strictly related to your chosen course, hence all the Law stuff for me. You (mercifully) wouldn’t really get any extra credit for extracurriculars like being amazing at an instrument or being in any leadership role like Head Student or founding a club or anything.
I don’t think I really have an ‘and’. I’ve got a bunch of medals from karate but that’s really it, I haven’t pursued anything to a national level, which I think would be extremely difficult.
Sometimes when I see people talking about their college applications, I really am surprised by how many people have come 1st place in something. I would have thought it was logistically impossible for so many people to have won something. There’s gotta be some losers too in America, right?
But it’s alright, I didn’t have my heart set on America or anything, it was just a passing curiosity. This saves me from having to sit the SAT/ACT too.
Thanks anyway though. I’ll just apply to British unis.
(Btw, what is a LoR?)
LoR = Letter of Recommendation
I think you ought to try some SAT/ACT practice tests and then choose one to take as a lark. You might just nail the dumb thing, and, with a high score, you could be a very attractive candidate. Take up rugby and apply to Dartmouth.
lol, there are two answers for that: first there is a bit of a ‘prize for everybody/everything’ mentality, esp with kids. But nearly 40,000 people applied to Harvard for 2,000 spaces this past year. Harvard has reported in various years that 10-15% of applicants have perfect standardized test scores- which would mean that last year they could have filled 2 classes just based on perfect test scores (even if that was the only admission metric, which it is not.
To be fair, the students that I know at Harvard/Yale/etc. have worked ferociously hard to get there, both during the school year and over summers. Most of them really are stand-outs- but there is a long way between the stand-out high achievers who got in and losers!