I’m a high school junior. I take 6 honors classes at my school with 4 earned credits and 3 regular -language- classes with 3 earned credits.
In my sophomore year (10th grade), I got B+ as a total grade and the same in the first semester this year.
I’m gonna apply to some selective colleges (like Harvard University and MIT). Computer science Major.
I really have the passion for that major as I participated in many activities, and did many extracurriculars related to that field.
I also participated in 3 robotics competitions and won best programming award at one of them (the biggest robotics competition in my country.)
I have done many related-to-programming projects in and out my school. I built websites, built IoT and automation system for a factory as a school capstone project, dealt with more than 5 programming languages and already experienced in more than 3 (excluding 4 languages in web development), and dealt with robotics microcontrollers and microprocessors like Arduino, Raspberry Pi and most of the robotics essential modules. Additionally, I build more than 20 desktop applications using Visual Basic 4 years ago. I dealt with mainly all technologies in programming, robotics and web development.
So, I really need to continue my career at a top university like Harvard and learn more about the academic side of the field. But I feel that my 3.47 GPA will prevent me from getting into such universities. I’m also worried about whether I can show all of my achievements and express my passion in the admission application or not.
P.S:
I have an MTA (Microsoft Technology Associate) Certificate in Software Development and Web Applications and one more Database Exam is my stepping stone for being MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional.)
Recently, I have been accepted to attend Make School Summer Academy which is too selective.
I was an IT team member then IT group head and finally an IT web development committee head.
I was a speaker and robotics workshop instructor in XXXXLocalHackDay 2018 in my school (XXXX is my school hidden name)
I was an Electronics and Robotics committee head in a robotics organization in my country.
I’m currently an IT-moderator in IEEE XXXX (university student branch)
I’m currently a FabLab Supervisor.
I’m self-studying for an AP Computer Science A exam and I hope I will get a perfect score in it.
I’ve never taken any course or participated in a Camp, I learned had all my skills and all my knowledge by self-studying from online references and video courses.
I also study for my school from references like Forester Calculus and Applications and Campbell Biology.
- Besides all of these and, absolutely, an SAT score that's more than 1450, Is There any chance for being accepted at such university regardless of my low GPA?
- Will there be extra essays and document upload except for the required ones?
- Give me advice on how to express all of this on the college application.
Thanks for all
Your UW GPA is definitely gonna hurt you a ton unless your W GPA is outstanding for your country (i.e. if you’re from India, you’re kinda screwed). You’ll want to improve your SAT and TOEFL (if they allow you to submit it) as much as possible, and make sure that your essays highlight strong skills in English communication.
Harvard and MIT are not selective, they are uber selective. Schools like Northeastern, BU and BC are highly selective, A B+ is a 3.3 GPA. A 1450 SAT is the 25th percentile for admitted students at Northeastern A3.3 GPA combined with a1450 SAT would make any top 50 school a reach.
My school, unfortunately, does not include the weighted GPA in the transcript, although we already take honors classes except the language classes. And actually, the AP Computer Science will be excluded from my transcript. Will this affect my chance if I mentioned so in the admission process?
Do those colleges look at the student’s inspiration to do such achievements and activities? will I be able this convince them that I really interested in that specific field and that I can work on myself to succeed there?
I’m sorry I think I missed some information about their selectivity. I mean top universities.
@TomSrOfBoston Could you cite where you found that statistic of a 25th percentile SAT of 1450? For admitted students entering Northeastern in fall 2017, the 25-50 was 1400-1500 on the SAT per Northeastern’s website. A 50 point jump in the 25th percentile warrants a citation.
@undergrad2018 This is an email reply from an adcom to a rejected applicant that was posted online:
“I understand your disappointment with your admission decision. To provide some context, we have seen a significant increase in both the size and competitiveness of our applicant pool, with 62,000 students applying – a 15% increase in one year alone.
The academic profile of the middle 50% of those admitted increased in strength as well, with a weighted GPA of 4.1 – 4.5, and testing ranging between 1470-1550 on the SAT.”
This is for admitted students for fall 2018. The figures for enrolled students in September will be lower of course. Northeastern was overenrolled 300 students last year so the size of the freshman class has likely been reduced for 2018 only to ease the housing situation.
@TomSrOfBoston Seeing as that: (1) would be higher than the 25th percentile for Ivy League schools (2) came from a quoted email posted on the internet (3) would mark an unprecedented 70 point jump in the 25th percentile score from the previous year (4) is not from a publicly accessible source administered by Northeastern, I don’t believe that that’s an accurate statistic
@undergrad2018
Given that many schools experienced large jumps in admissions statistics, Northeastern seeing a 9% decrease in acceptance rate along with the application increases, I don’t think it should be much of a surprise. The SAT change also came a year after the new SAT was used for admissions, when schools were still adapting. I’d expect to see similar increases for many schools who did not have prior data for the new SAT during admissions before this cycle. The middle 50% ACT range for Northeastern is 32-34, which translates to 1450-1550 SAT, which would also support the numbers. I’d wait for the official numbers in Fall to confirm, but I think it’s far more likely than not.