What are my chances of getting into the Ivy League?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I’m an International Student from Australia applying to the Ivy’s. I’m a pretty different applicant, so figuring out how I rank might be hard, but please give me your honest, non-sugarcoated opinion!

I am currently on a gap year, after graduating last year. [Aussie school year is from Feb to November].

From your experience/what you think, could you please tell me how good my chances of getting in are. My top choice is Princeton.

INFO:
Ethnicity: Indian Australian, Great Great Grandmother was Maori
Citizenship: Australian
Sex: Female
Major: Going for environmental studies, but unsure right now
School: Private school of approx. 80 students per year level
Course Load: Pretty rigorous, hard to judge as all schools in Victoria [state I am from] offer similar subjects and some bigger schools offer IB [mine didn’t]
Grading System: A+ = 90%-100%, A=80%-89%, B=70%-79% C=60-69% D=50-59% E=40-49%
No GPA, Rank or AP’s.

GRADES:
Most of my grades during high school were A’s, with some B’s, but there are a few lower grades I should point out
BUT please don’t just read this and ignore the rest, there are reasons for these grades, I am not a bad student!

Year 9:

  • C+ in Sport Science

Year 10:

  • C+ in English
  • C and C+ in Math
  • C in Religion

Year 11:

  • D in Chemistry
  • D+ in English
  • 2 C’s in Math
  • E and C in Physics

Year 12:

  • C in Math
  • C in Uni Bio

SCORES:
October 05: M - 770 ; WR- 760; Total: 1530

SAT IIs: Chem 760 ; Bio [M] 790 ; Bio[E] - 740 ;

Math II and Physics- November 1st [To redeem my poor grades at School]

EXTRA-CURRICULARS:

Plastic Recycling Business- (gap year)
30 Hours per week; 52 Weeks per year
Founded and running Trident, a plastic recycling business.

Science Competitions - (9th - 10th)
15 Hours per week; 30 Weeks per year
Won a major bursary Science Talent Search Victoria in Year 9 and was a runner up in the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards in Year 10.

Science Research- (9th - 12th except year 10)
10 Hours per week; 30 Weeks per year
Every year in high school except year 10, I conducted different research projects.

Student Representative Council- (10th - 12th)
15 Hours per week; 35 Weeks per year
I helped the council in year 10, was the representative in and 11, and the chair in year 12.

Science Forums (10th - 12th)
168 Hours per week; 4 Weeks per year
Year 9 - Oxbridge Summer Seminar, Year 11 - National Youth Science Forum, Year 12 - London International Youth Science Forum

Kayaking (9th - gap year)
3 Hours per week; 52 Weeks per year
Kayak to maintain fitness, collect plastic from bodies of water and training to kayak around Tasmania for the environment

Wellbeing Council- (11th - 12th)
2 Hours per week; 30 Weeks per year
SRC partnered with the Wellbeing council, and I was part of wellbeing council, since it was started in year 11.

Work (10th - gap year)
15 Hours per week; 40 Weeks per year
From year 10 to June 2019, I was a netball umpire, working 3 hours a week. From year 11 to the end of year 12, I worked at McDonalds as Part of the Kitchen crew. During 2019 I have been a swim coach, babysitter and started CEO of my business.

Hiking + Camping - (7th - gap year)
7 Hours per week; 20 Weeks per year
Throughout the year, I go on hikes and sometimes camp in different locations around Victoria.

Social Justice Trips- (10th - 11th)
168 Hours per week; 4 Weeks per year
In year 10, I travelled to Cambodia with my school to visit our partner, The Green Gecko Foundation. In year 11 I travelled to Peru for my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Residential Project, and conducted reforestation.

Debating- (10th - 11th)
7 Hours per week; 25 Weeks per year
In year 10 and 11 I participated in the DAV competition and in year 11 I was my house debating captain.

Girls Sport Victoria - (7th - 12th)
4 Hours per week; 30 Weeks per year
Participated in four sports every year, according to the GSV schedule. Won several coaches awards and MVP’s throughout.

Tennis - (2nd - 10th)
7 Hours per week; 40 Weeks per year
Played with WDTA for 9 years and with school for 6 years.

Saturday Netball - (4th - 12th excluding 6 and 7)
4 Hours per week; 30 Weeks per year
WDNA for 4 years, BNA for 3 years

Sports Camps- (9th - 12th)
168 Hours per week; 10 Weeks per year
Participated in yearly school camps, snowsports camps, duke of edinburgh camps and fitness camps.

Viola - (5th - 10th)
4 Hours per week; 40 Weeks per year
I changed from violin to viola in the 5th grade and played it until year 10.

LEADERSHIP:
Student Representative Council in Year 11
Student Rep Council Chair year 12
Debating Captain Year 11
Form Captain Year 9
Multiple Sport Team Captains

Honours:

Work Experience:
Umpired Netball for four years [2016-2019], McDonalds for all of 2018, babysitting for all of 2019, CEO of my own plastic recycling business [TRIDENT]

Volunteering:
Coached school netball and other sport teams
Cared for infants at my schools daycare
Trained as a First Aid worker at a non-profit
applying for an internship at wolf reserve in Indiana starting early 2020
Did reforestation in Peru
Taught kids english, helped with farming in Cambodia

EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES!!!
I am a victim of long term domestic violence, which escalated in year 10, with an incident at the end of year 11, leading me to be sent to live with my uncle. My mum has been suicidal since year 9. My family has a lot of undiagnosed mental health issues due to the ‘taboo’ in Indian culture. My twin sister has depression and it is suspected that my dad has Autism.

I was stalked in Year 9 after school. The man followed me before indecently exposing himself. I managed to get away. I was diagnosed with PTSD.

During year 11, my sister told me that our dad had told her that I may have autism. A counsellor had suggested it in Year 5, but my dad got mad and ripped up the report. I was finally diagnosed at the end of Year 11.

For a long time I pushed down feelings about all these issues for a long time, until I became so depressed I had to be hospitalised for two weeks during Year 12, due to an intentional overdose. I was diagnosed with Depression, Anxiety and PTSD. Thanks due to my amazing psychologist, I now only have anxiety.

I started my own plastic recycling business at the start of this year [I am on a gap year] due to the horrible pollution problem. It has been successful so far. A website is underway [www.tr1dent.com.au]. I am also training to kayak solo around Tasmania [the island beneath Australia] to raise awareness about the plastic pollution problem.

I will not need [or need very little] financial aid.

As you can tell, my application may be a bit hard to judge as it is quite different from a typical U.S high schoolers. It would be so awesome if I got into an Ivy league or any good U.S uni, as I really want a fresh start. I really love the Princeton, it is so cute and the campus is so beautiful [and only 80 minutes from New York!]. Also I have family living there. If I don’t get in, it won’t be the end of the world, but would be so cool if I did:)

2

Difficult.

3

If money isn’t an issue there are many schools that would be happy to have you. Why do you want the Ivy League? Plenty of colleges have beautiful campuses. I wouldn’t choose a school because the campus is “cute.” Which Ivy has a good environmental studies program?

I’m sorry you had so many challenges in high school. I see an awful lot of hours spent on ECs during that time, and that could negatively impact grades too. There must be 60 hours/week of regular activities on top of school. And that doesn’t include all the activities that are 168 hours/week. Each week only has 168 hours, so that doesn’t make any sense.

Apply where you want, but have a realistic view of your chances. Admission rates at the Ivies are in the single digits. It’s more difficult for international students. Make sure you have matches and safeties on your list.

4

@Muad_dib
I know the Ivy’s are difficult for anyone, but is there a specific reason you’re saying it’s difficult? Thanks for your comment though

5

@austinmshauri
Thanks for your reply! I like an academic challenge and I know there are plenty of other colleges that can provide this, and I am applying to a few, but I’ve visited all the colleges that I have narrowed down and to elaborate on why I like Princeton, it has a lot of facts that I think make it the best fit for me, like an alumni has been to the moon, a quote from another alumni is that she became ‘an accidental activist’ and I am a social justice activist. Also Princeton or Cornell would be my top two as they have really good environmental studies programs, but some of Princeton’s classes and facilities are more suited to what I am interested in.

For the 168 hour weeks, these are all camps or science competitions in which I had to travel somewhere and spend those weeks there. For those weeks, I didn’t participate in the other activities.

Could you provide me with a realistic view? That is my main query, like I have no idea how I measure up, as all the people I have talked to are American and can’t say much. I’ve had a lot of conflicting views, with some people telling me I have no chance but other’s saying I’m a shoe in. Like I seriously have no clue. I have a lot of Australian I’ve already gotten into and some U.S safeties.

6

I’m sorry for all that happened to you, but I don’t think you have a chance. Your grades are the main problem. I think you spent too much time on ECs at the expense of grades. I am sure it was helpful to you personally, but Princeton isn’t going to admit you due to your personal trauma.

There will be kids that have awful stories but will still have very high grades. Apply but don’t expect much.

7

These schools have minuscule acceptance rates, and are especially difficult to get into as an international. Plenty of kids with flawless stats get rejected. A good SAT 2 score can’t “redeem” poor grades at this level, and no amount of EC’s or excuses (no matter how legitimate) can make up for substandard grades. If you are interested in going to school in the States, you will have plenty of options given your high SAT score and decent grades, but not at the Ivy League level.

8

Too many C’s and D’s to make an Ivy or any competitive US university a viable choice unfortunately.

9

@vsurapaneni wote “BUT please don’t just read this and ignore the rest, there are reasons for these grades, I am not a bad student!”

The reality is that admissions officers at each of the IVYs have to sort through around 20-40 thousand (depending on the school) applications.

The first thing they look at are grades and standardized test scores. The reality is that Once they calculate your GPA (doesn’t matter if your school doesn’t provide a GPA, the schools you apply to will calculate it themselves) and see so many C and D grades in core academic subjects they are unlikely to even read the rest.

There are plenty of very good schools in the US that would be happy to have you as a student. You just need to look beyond schools with single digit acceptance rates.

NYU, for example, is known to be very fond of full pay international students and is very likely to look beyond your less than stellar class grades and take your superior SAT and other accomplishments into consideration.