I am very unfamiliar with the standard of applicants. I’ll post my stats below just for you to give me some feedback.
Ethnicity - Mixed (African and Eastern European)
Grades
GCSEs - 13 As 2 As
A level predictions - 5 As and an A* in the expended project qualification
SAT scores - 1510 (800 Math and 710 English)
SAT subjects - Just took them in Math 2 and Chem, hopefully got 750+ in both
Extra Curricular:
Three Grade 8s in Guitar, Violin and Piano (Distinction, distinction and merit)
Attend 3rd best music conservatoire in world in London on Saturdays
-Performed with the London Symphony Orchestra in their next generation scheme. Leader of Strings last year
-Leader of School orchestra
-Raised £2500 in a charity concert which I organised and performed in
-Black tag in Tae Kwon Do. Medals at London and South East of England Championships
-Winner at the UK Young Enterprise Trade Fair
-Winner of the Oxbridge Economics Essay competition
-Head of Economics Society and editor in chief of our school’s economics journal
-Senior Prefect at school. Head of School Council and Student Voice. Lots of mentorring
Yeah that is about it. I’m not too sure how this compares against other applicants. Harsh criticism is welcome - I just want a realistic view.
@Jay3030 Overall good profile. The only thing i would say is that your SAT is a bit average for most of the ivies and other elites, and definitely for HYPSM. I would also suggest looking at other ivy league and elite unis in addition to HYPSM, since HYPSM is a crapshoot for practically anyone. What are you thinking of studying?
OP and @MaybeHarvard2022 (since the topic seems to be of interest to you as well), no, you do NOT “have very good chances of being accepted by these schools”. These schools take less than 10% of their applicants, and only around 10% of that 10% (ie, 1%) are international applicants.
It seems unlikely that you are as unfamiliar as you claim to be with the ‘standard of applicants’ given that a) the information is plastered all over the internet; b) you have found your way to CC and c) you are checklisting some of the most famous university names in the world.
That said, the credentials you list are impressive, and make for a very credible candidate. Be aware that although a tiny number of students get into all of those schools, most do not. So, the student who gets an offer from Princeton gets rejected from Stanford and waitlisted at Yale (you can mix and match those names and results). Doing more homework on the differences between the schools and looking to see which are actually the better fits for you might help you increase your odds a little.
@Penn95 Yeah I’m only applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford. Its just I have the majority of my UK offers already cause I applied quite early and I would rather go to those instead of any USA unis. 1510 is kind of low understandably, I have December SAT if I really want to, Im considering it now. Would you say 1510 is low for an international applicant particularly?
@collegemom3717 Thank you for the advice! I hear there is quite a luck involved for sure. Its not that I do not understand the USA system, but I always go online and see that you need to have internationally recognised awards, have done significant scientific research or have perfect scores with an array of EC to even be considered. I thought this forum would give me a more realistic answer. Regarding your final point - What makes an individual fit more towards a certain Uni? In the UK, most of the Unis are quite similar and we only base our decisions on rankings more than anything.
Selective US unis are looking to build a community, which is different than the UK. So they want clever students, and students who seem to have the potential to be high achievers in life, but they also want people who will invest in the community- be part of student government, organize social / community events, run the college newspaper, do theatre, be on teams, etc, and who will ‘fit in’ with their school. The over-used example is the ‘the orchestra needs a tuba player’; less obvious ones are ‘we have just built a new center of excellence in X field’ or we want to strengthen this aspect of our student community, and then there is the most subtle one: fit. So, I know a Princeton student who was crushed to be turned down by Stanford, a Yale student turned down by Brown, etc. In each case, it made sense to those of us who knew the student well- the ‘fit’ seemed right.
Figuring out the personalities of the colleges is a bit of a dark art, but try spending some time on the college websites looking at the ‘what we look for’ elements. You have to read between the lines, but you will start to see what aspects of the community they emphasize. The more you understand the college the more finely tuned your ‘why us’ essay will be.
For example, will you continue music in college? Yale has a superb orchestra, and everybody has to re-audition every year, so you can be in from year one- do you perform at that level? (you can find their audition pieces online).
The international awards, etc. are things that help a given application stand out. Each application reader has to get through many hundreds of applications, and they know that they have to say to ‘no’ to 95% of the apps they read- yet most of them are entirely qualified applications. So, what slows a reader down / makes them think ‘oh, this one might be a good one’.
@Jay3030 Yes I would say 1510 is average for any ivy, and especially for an international applicant from an overly represented country. (There are many many UK students at all the ivies). What UK offers do you have?
Thank you @collegemom3717 ! I will definitely have a look at the atmospheres of the different Unis and make sure I adapt my answers to meet what they want from a candidate. I only have my Common App personal essay to start, any ideas on what to write for it? I have read they want it to be more personal than the UK Personal statements which are more factual and academic
@Jay3030 Hmmm I might retake it in December then. The reading section is very different to what we are taught in the UK, I did go up from a 620 to a 710 in my month of practising, so maybe I can go up to like 750. Do the Ivies accept superscores? I am also applying to read Economics at Cambridge, UCL, Warwick, Durham and LSE. I have already gotten conditional offers for UCL and Warwick which are basically met already. The other unis are yet to start giving out offers
The reading section is different from what is taught in the US too. It is a weird aptitude test. I would prepare for it though. I recommend Critical Reader 3rd edition by Meltzer.
What are your A-levels in? It probably helps if they are solid subjects and somewhat diverse.5 A*s is good, but probably what you need to have a good shot at top US schools without hooks.
Just an update - I received my SAT 2 test scores for Chemistry and Math and achieved 800 in both. Is this quite common? It says I’m only in the 91st and 78th percentiles respectively, which doesn’t seem that impressive. Also what would you suggest is my spike? I was thinking as I’m applying for Economics - My 1st place in the Oxbridge economics essay comp and Top 10 in another international essay comp would be enough coupled with winning the UK Young Enterprise trade fair for business startups. Should I put more emphasis on these areas?
@MaybeHarvard2022 The only ones who have a “very good chance” of being admitted to Harvard etc. are 1) son or daughter of the President 2) winner of a Nobel Prize and 3) parents have donated at least $50 million to the school.
@TomSrOfBoston I would take it a notch down and say that you do not really need a nobel prize or be the daughter of the president to have a good chance. I would say you need perfect or near-perfect stats AND a really major national or international award that elicits wow responses from most people. For very qualified kids who do not fit this description and are not scions of major donors (8-figure range+), HYPSM is more or less a crapshoot.
Students taking SAT IIs are a fairly elite group. 9% of those taking it get 800 in Chemistry and 22% in Math.
That General Studies isn’t going to impress anyone. However, it looks like a strong application. You manage to have strong looking ECs. It is hard to say about HYPSM for anyone though.
Thought it would be useful to mention that I got a likely/acceptance letter from Harvard in the past few days which I’m over the moon with! Haven’t heard back from the other 3 USA unis, but I have offers from all the UK ones!
