Apply to Ivy League/Elite schools with poor high school grades (International student). Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hello, guys.

My name is Sarah and I am from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have graduated from high school in 2015 and obtained 3As (Malay Language, English and History), 3Bs (Islamic studies, Mathematics and Agricultural science), 1C (Physics), 2Ds (Chemistry and Biology) and E (Additional Mathematics) for SPM or aka Malaysian Certificate of Education. Currently, I’m doing Foundation Studies in Arts in a local private university.

My dream is going to Yale/Cornell or any other elite schools like Wellesley, University of Chicago etc but based on my high school grades that I stated above, I feel like it’s impossible and that’s what people told me since day one but I still have hope on this.

I signed up for The Common App several weeks ago and I’m still working on the essays and extra-curricular activities sections. Back in high school, I was an active member of the photography club and designed layouts for school magazines for two years. I voluntereed as well when I was 15 for a political party. I was a volunteer photographer and now, I’m a member of the Successor Generation Initiative (British High Commission’s young future leader’s programme).

I’m not sure about this but I was told that Ivies don’t really pick students with perfect high school grades and SAT/TOEFL scores and sometimes they do. Is that true?

*NOTE : I haven’t taken SAT and TOEFL. Not yet. I’m planning to apply to these schools next year – once I am done with my foundation studies. The application on The Common App is considered draft for now.

List of unis that I have in my common app

  1. Brown
  2. Cornell
  3. Drexel University
  4. Harvard (Not gonna happen)
  5. NYU
  6. Purdue University
  7. St John’s University (NY)
  8. SUNY Delhi
  9. University of Chicago
  10. Wellesley College
  11. University of Delaware
  12. Yale

THOUGHTS?

2

The ivies are looking for more than just perfect test scores and grades, that’s true. However, you still need to have very good grades and high test scores to have a decent chance of getting in, especially as an international. Pretty much no one makes it into an ivy with less than a 1300 sat or 30 act unless you’re a recruited athlete, are a URM with crazy ec’s, or you have some other insane hook that really makes you stand out (presidents daughter, etc.). With your grades and ec’s, its very unlikely that you will get accepted by brown, cornell, yale, harvard, or u of c. The fact that you’re an international makes your numbers even more important, so your grades are really going to hurt you if they don’t put you at the top of your class. The vast majority of domestic applicants are in the top 10% of their class for these schools.

It’s almost impossible to give someone an accurate prediction without test scores, so I would encourage you to study really hard for the SAT/ACT and to do your best, but those schools are reaches for domestic applicants with a 32 ACT, a 3.9 gpa, and good ec’s. I would say to eliminate some of these reaches and build a list that’s more realistic.