Chance me-Can I get into top US schools? REA Harvard? Good ECs, IB diploma [predicted 37/45], Icelandic

Chance Me / Match Me
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  • Demographics
    • From Reykjavik, Iceland
    • not applying for need based aid
    • From very small IB school (however the whole school isn’t IB only tiny part) with around 30-40 in class
    • Senior
    • applying EARLY ACTION to Harvard

Major: government

  • Grades
    • Taking the IB diploma, currently predicted 37 out of 45 however hoping that I can raise it to a 40 by the EA deadline (pretty sure it will be possible).
    • would guess that from 9th to 11th grade my GPA was 4.0 but not sure about this year bc my schools don’t do GPA (guessing my GPA is slightly lower when I started IB)
    • Top of class 9th and 10th grade (maybe 11th but am not sure - current school doesn’t rank)
    • will be submitting my As and A*s on IGCSE’s
    • Will be taking November SAT as October one isn’t available in country and will send Nov results (expecting 1500+).
    • Very high grades in ballet school
    • Will have very good letters of recommendation
  • ECs
    • Will be graduating with two degrees - IB diploma and a diploma in classical ballet from top ballet school in the country (national)
    • Co-founder and social media manager for our school’s sports club
    • National ballet school (30+ hours a week), will be graduating as a professional dancer.
    • accepted into summer intensive at one of the top ballet schools in the world and was there for two weeks 2022
    • Learned on bagpipes from 5th grade up to 7th and continue to self study on bagpipes as lessons are unavailable here
    • Raised nearly 1000 dollars for ballet school by organising guards for a local run
    • tutor for Icelandic
    • Volunteer for big green weekend
    • Worked for 2 summers in a water sports course teaching for children
    • Have attended multiple kayaking courses and therefore teach
    • Went 2 summers to working school
    • Worked at restaurant and hotel for a summer
  • Awards
    • Nominated with ballet school for Iceland national theatre story award
    • Special notice in History class and award for top student
    • Hardest working dancer award
      *prestigious UK ballet school accepted and attended
    • Distinction ballet awards throughout dance career
      CHANCE ME FOR THESE SCHOOLS: REA HARVARD, Regular decision (not the only ones, I also have safeties): Cornell, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Upenn, Columbia, Duke, Stanford, UC Berkeley, NYU, Notre Dame, UW Madison, Vanderbilt, Washington St Louis
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Unfortunately none of us can really chance you, other than to tell you what you already know – these are long-shot schools for everyone, and even more so for international students. Perhaps being from Iceland will be a help, but since that’s an institutional need, I am only guessing.

Definitely apply to reach schools, but also focus on your target and safety schools, if you want to study in the US. You may want to list them to get CC’s opinion, as sometimes people misclassify the schools.

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thank you. I am applying to safeties and matches in Europe. I won’t move to the US unless I get into one of these schools.

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My advice would be to close this thread and to come back and repost when you have an SAT score.

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ok thank you. I am applying to Harvard on the deadline of November 1st, and I will not have my SAT score then, so I was also trying to get some feedback on that.

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You can’t report a score for a test you haven’t taken.

So just proceed and continue to work on your other applications!

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On Harvard Website: If you are applying Restrictive Early Action, we would like your testing results by the end of October; however, you may submit the November series if needed.

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I suspect you know that 37 would normally be a low predicted IB score for an International applying to Harvard. 40 would be better but it is still on the lower end of their reported range.

But then you have a relatively unusual case–not from a large country, and the ballet in particular. You don’t describe your academic interests or whether you want to continue with ballet, but my understanding is if you tell Harvard you do, they will likely want to evaluate you closely before crediting that as a strong plus in your application (a lot of very talented performing artists apply to these colleges, so they more or less apply conservatory-level standards before giving that unusual weight in admissions). I believe evaluation of your ballet “spike” will be along the same lines at some of the other colleges you name, although not necessarily all. Being full pay will also help (or rather, avoid being hurt) at many of those other colleges.

But generally, I don’t think it is really possible to refine things too much now. Hopefully you will in fact get your predicted IB grades into the 40s, and eventually a high SAT. Then you will just have to see what happens.

As a final thought, I am not sure I really understand the logic behind the colleges you selected. I understand you would have to prefer them to your likely non-US options, which is fine. But that is still a mix of a lot of different colleges in different regions, settings, and so on. So if you explain what you were really looking for in a US college experience–academically and non-academically–people here might be able to help suggest some other options to consider.

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I think that Harvard would find you very interesting. There will surely be a discussion about your application. They will like that you come from Iceland, they’ll love that you’re a high-level dancer, they’ll find the bagpipes interesting. I agree that your predicted IB is a bit low for them, and if your SAT is low, you won’t get in. But with your high grades in school, if your SAT is high I think you definitely have a chance.

Make sure to submit the arts supplement, probably 3 minutes of your dancing.

As for the other schools, I think you’ll get into Madison for sure, and maybe some of the others. Of the highly selective schools, I think your best shot is at Harvard. It’s going to come down to your grades and your SAT.

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