DOUBLE-SCHOOL in two countries - chances?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hello,
I am sorry if this is long, but I really need some help on this…

So I have a very unique situation.
I go to two public schools at the same time, one in Russia and one in the United States. I have been doing this since kindergarten and persevered through my junior year in high school.
Every year, I would spend the first two-three months of the school year in Russia and then I would come to the US, where I would be thrown into the school year two months late, practically having to catch up on everything in a very short time.
However, during my high school career, this became absolutely horrible.

When I came back to the US sophomore year I had more than 90 (!) zeroes that I had to learn and makeup in about a month while at the same time doing all of the current work that I was thrown into two months late.
During junior year, I again had more than 60 zeroes with 5 AP classes that I had to make up in one month due to missing the first months of school.
I was treated by everyone (teachers, counselors, school administration) as if I went on a vacation into another country while I was actually studying at a full-time Russian school in Moscow.
In addition to missing the beginning of every year, several times over the past two years I had to go to Russia just to take a state exam and then come back several days later to be absolutely swamped with several makeup tests after 20±hour flights.

Due to all of this, I received a total of 5 B’s during 10-11 grade which brings my GPA down to a 3.83 at maximum. And even though Stanford admission officers say that that’s “fine”, I know that this is very low at top-10 schools.

People consider me crazy and dumb for doing this and claim that it will only ruin my academic record, but I chose to continue to do this very hard job since I’ve already done so many years of it (11 years).

I will focus my main essay on this topic of living two lives in two countries and about the whole two-school process and its challenges in general.

My other STATS:

GPA UW: 3.83/4.3
ACT: Aiming for a 34 (practice tests point to this)
SAT: Aiming for 1550-1570 (practice tests point to this)

3X (consecutive) International Science Fair finalist (with 4 special awards from organizations)
2 patent pending (no parental or legal involvement, all filed myself)
Personal letter of recognition from US Senator Barbara Boxer
4X (consecutive) California Science Fair qualifier (most competitive state for science fair)
3rd place, 2nd place in California Science Fair
2 Websites advertising my inventions
Planning on my research being admitted to a scientific journal (will be published in winter)
Summer internship at Stanford school of Earth and Environment
Summer internship at UC Berkley Space and Sciences lab
11 years of piano (US Open International music competiton 4th place)
Performed 8 concerts in Davis Hall (largest hall in bay area) as part of a boy’s choir together with San Francisco Symphony.
Relatively successful Youtube channel about mental math tricks

Relatively successful Youtube channel about airplanes and air travel.

So what are my chances at HYPSM (My #1 #1 #1 #1 choice is Stanford)?

Sorry for being so long,
Thank you very much for your help,
Vasily

2

You should have done enough math by now to know the answer:

Stanford accepts about 5% of the people who apply (almost all of whom are qualified (ie, have grades, scores & ECs that make them credible applicants). That means that 95% are unsuccessful at gaining admission. Nobody not on the adcomm can really tell you more than that.

Are you applying as an American or International? If you are international, you have about a 15% of that 5%.

fyi, the letter from Boxer- unless she has actually worked with you, in a meaningful way and for a reasonable period of time, won’t be particularly helpful.

You have an interesting story, a solid GPA (assuming that it is out of 4.0 and is UW), and some good ECs. Those make you a credible candidate

3

I will apply as an American.
Yes, the Barbara Boxer letter is probably meaningless.
The GPA is UW 3.83.
Isn’t that really low compared to all those 4.00 applying except me?

4

Nobody wins an arms race. Lots of students applying with 4.0s & perfect test scores will get turned down (the super selective colleges regularly point out that they could fill several classes just with students with perfect numbers). They are building a community, they are looking for future stars, they are looking for people that they would want to have be around their campus for the next four years.

Students don’t really seem to believe it, but adcomms are actually pretty good at their jobs, and do largely build classes that are a good ‘fit’ for their school. Most of the students that I know at tippy top schools were turned down by at least 1 or 2 of the other tippy tops, and in hindsight most of them feel that they ended up at the one that they were best suited to. Imo, the better you understand which is a more ‘natural’ fit for you, the more you increase your odds - and, crucially, you will also be able to build a better list of match and safety schools. It is essential to have some other choices that you can genuinely get your head around attending. Nobody wants to think that way (as if not thinking about it will magically keep it from happening), but for 95% of the applicants it ends up being important.

Read the blogs from MIT admissions, especially
http://mit admissions.org/blogs/entry/applyingsideways and
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/thereisnoformula

5

Thank you for the reply.
I do think about other schools, but I will show a strong interest for Stanford since I am also doing an internship there this summer

6

But, isn’t a UW 3.83 (Weighted 4.3) GPA like SUPER SUPER LOW for these places like Stanford?
Everyone is saying it is fine, but I don’t think so.
Even in the MIT blog it says you need to have “good grades”…

7

Go to commondataset.com and put in Stanford, click on the admissions tab and scroll down to “Selection of Students” - you will find “Level of Applicant’s Interest” marked “Not Considered”. Obviously you will be hoping to make a good impression and get a rec out of the internship, which can be helpful, but the fact that you really, really want to go there- enough to go spend the summer there- is simply not a factor.

Do yourself a favor and get over the ‘SUPER SUPER LOW’. Yes (from the same page), the average GPA is 3.95, but 95% have a 3.75 or better. GPAs are not equivalent across schools, which is why elements such as class rank and course rigor count. One of my collegekids went to a secondary school where not a single student had a 4.0 (and there was no weighting), while at a local high school 10% of the class share valedictorian status (equal GPAs). Your GC will supply your colleges with a school profile that will include average GPA for your grade, average and range of AP/IB subjects and scores, etc. If your grades & test scores are in range, and you are in the top tier of your class that take you past the first cut to a closer look at your profile (where your GC or recommenders will have noted that you have achieved with the extra challenge of having to catch up every year).

Note that MIT doesn’t say “perfect grades”.

The harsh fact is that you probably won’t get in, simply b/c 95% of applicants don’t. You are a credible candidate, and you might get in, so give it a go. But be smart and work really genuinely hard to find a plan B and a plan C. It is easy to fall in love with the shiniest thing- everybody wants the Lamborghini or Ferrari, and some act as though even a Mercedes or Lexus is ‘settling’. But the depth of your love doesn’t really matter if it is unrequited, and there are many excellent schools that will be delighted to welcome you. Every spring there are really sad bunch of posters who ‘hate’ all the schools that they got into and agonize about whether to take a gap year or ‘settle’. You don’t want to be them.

8

Also, isn’t it true that a student cannot apply to the same school twice??

9

you mean re-apply? of course you can. sometimes (not often, but sometimes) it works.

10

Oh ok I did not know that.
Thank you so much for your help and reassurance!

11

Regarding Stanford: They said in information sent to alumni that they consider “diversity” to be the most important point. You have a rather unusual story. Stanford is a long shot for everyone, including you, but I think that it is worth a try.

You need to also think carefully about and aim for a couple of safety schools.

12

My other school is UC berkeley and if and don’t get in there I would go to my local Community College and transfer later on.

13

Stanford and UC Berkeley are great universities, but are a reach for pretty much everyone. I would urge you to apply to other schools also. There are a LOT of schools which are ranked somewhere between Stanford / UC Berkeley versus Community College (in fact, almost anything with the word “university” in its name, plus a lot of others).

14

Also are A-minuses calculated as a 3.7 by the Ivies?
Because I have always thought that A- is the same as an A, and that’s also what they said at the Stanford info session.
I know that they are the same in UC’s but how about in Ivies?

15

Also are A-minuses calculated as a 3.7 by the Ivies?
Because I have always thought that A- is the same as an A, and that’s also what they said at the Stanford info session.
I know that they are the same in UC’s but how about in Ivies?

16

“Also are A-minuses calculated as a 3.7 by the Ivies”

Certainly this differs between different high schools. Where we live, a 97 counts as an A+, but is a 3.7. I have heard of high schools where a 90 is an A-, but counts as a 4.0.

I am pretty sure that universities also vary in terms of how they count this. I wouldn’t worry about it. The universities are going to do whatever they do, and you will either get in or you won’t (Stanford will be a high reach regardless of how they compute GPA).

If you are from California (when you are in the US), and assuming that you count as a California resident, then I think that in addition to Stanford and UCB you should seriously consider many of the other University of California .

17

Don’t all of these schools recalculate GPA? Then on my transcript the A-minus still shows a “-” next to it, so the college will recalculate it as a 3.7.

Also, I am pretty realistic, I know that these are all reaches for everyone including me, and of course I will apply to three of four UC’s. I have seen how people are overly enthusiastic about Stanford and then NO ONE gets in, so I am not that kind of person :slight_smile: