@lookingforward I did research schools prior to applying to them. The trouble is that all the sample transcripts I saw by UK schools only had board exam grades on them, and since many colleges aren’t entirely clear on their requirements for the IGCSE/A-Level curriculum, I was mistakenly lead to believe what I did. I don’t think this represents the ‘effort I put in’ or how savvy I’m not. Please do not compare ‘all those international IB kids’ to me because over here, IB is a curriculum taught only in high-income schools that my parents could not afford to send me to, so really, they were in a much better position to be educated on this than I was.
I am aware that ‘tippy top’ schools have many applicants lined up who don’t need explanations, but I also know that I am much more than my crappy semester grades and that no one can predict who’ll get into colleges like these. The reason I’m not posting my stats or any edge I might have here is because I don’t want to get ‘chanced’, as I don’t believe any of those are ever really accurate, but be assured: the rest of my application is just as good as any other Yale applicant’s, or at the very least, it isn’t any inferior.
@aznraffe I actually did contact a few people some days after making this post. Though none of them are at an Ivy League, one of them is attending MIT and he told me not to count myself out if the other components of my app were good. Maybe that holistic approach will finally come in handy here and save me a lot of grief.
Either way, I would really like to put this topic to rest now as I got the answer I needed but the outcome will only be determined through the actual decision release in March. Speculating about it now won’t lead anywhere.