My test scores are not that great but I have something which sets me apart. I founded my own business at age 11 and have been running it ever since. I grossed $35k in sales last year and have been part of many extracurriculars pertaining to this. In addition I do some community service and am part of some clubs. ACT 28 GPA 3.7. I will send senior year report card with 4.2 GPA. What do you guys think my chances of getting in are?
An ACT score of 28 and a GPA of 3.7 puts you in the bottom 10% of matriculated students, and you can bet that a big chunk of that 10% are recruited athletes, kids of major donors, or some other hooked applicant. So I would say your chances are low. Founding your own business is great, but really is not as unique as you think it is. Work on improving your ACT score or try the SAT.
Don’t do that; if they want something, they’ll ask for it.
While it’s impressive to have created your own business, Harvard is not any more interested in student’s who have created apps or businesses than they are other student’s involved in theater, dance, sports, debate, student publications, student government etc. One reason for that is that Harvard doesn’t ask for, or receive, money from any business created by students on their campus. For example, Harvard has not earned any money from Facebook, which Mark Zuckerberg created in Harvard’s dorm room.
Stanford is somewhat different in that respect. Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed Google while working together as graduate students at Stanford. The college was awarded the patent and Stanford made about $330 million in the process. Ditto with Cisco Systems, which was developed on their campus. So, Stanford is very much interested in student’s extracurricular businesses, especially if they smell money that might be made from any new technology that you can bring to their campus which they can license.
That said, both Harvard and Stanford are academic institutions that look for scholars who will excel in their classrooms. Your GPA and ACT score indicate that you would struggle with the work load on their campuses, so I think both college’s would take a pass.
Do you think if I was able to get my ACT to a 31, I would be able to get into Stanford with my accumen?
http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2014#admission
A 31 ACT is at Stanford’s 25th percentile, meaning 75% of accepted students had a 31 or better. The other way to look at it is 25% of students had a 30 or below – but my guess would be most of those students are probably recruited athletes. A 31 is certainly better than a 28, but as you’re competing for a slot of the bottom of their applicant pool, it’s anyone’s guess if you would be accepted. A 34, 35, or 36 is really what you would need to be a competitive applicant for Stanford (and Harvard).
So what you are pretty much saying that my other aspects of the application like the business have minimal effect?
^^ Correct. HYPSM are not extracurricular camps, they are academic institutions who are seeking the best and brightest classroom scholars the nation and the world have to offer.
Given your GPA and ACT score, you should be looking at other school’s that are not as selective, college’s where your 28 ACT puts you in the middle 50% of accepted students. See: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus/page+4
The deal with super elite schools is that ECs are most important in deciding between the many ultra- qualified candidates. Many students with “perfect” gpas and “perfect” test scores are rejected, because there are simply too many applicants for the number of available slots. So a great EC may tip the scales. It is usually not enough to bump a 25% stats applicant to the top of the heap. Not saying it couldn’t happen, but proceed with that knowledge.