Is applying to Ivy league with a SAT score of 1430 worth it? [international, 98.94 GPA]

Chance Me / Match Me
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First of all, I live in an underdeveloped South American country and not a U.S citizen. In the august 2024 sat, I got 1430. English 710, math 720. I wanted to apply to Princeton, Yale and Stanford, but my parents said that it is no use to apply if I don’t meet the average sat score of those schools. Is it not worth it? I would say my extracurriculars are pretty solid:

my stats:
GPA:98.94(first in class, but my class size is 16 because my school is very small)
—recycling club: 3 years, president, founder, * From 10th grade to 12th grade, our club installed recycling bins to gather plastics.

  • Special Friday activity: educated kinder 1,2,3, on environmental problems associated with plastics, and performed a workshop to create a piggy bank with recycled plastic bottles.
  • Donated 100 reusable bowls to the cafeteria to stop the use of disposable plastic products for desserts.

Debate Club: 3 years, secretary,

  • won three first places in tournaments organized by other schools.

Research Internship at a university, 11th grade summer, * Gained hands-on experience in chemical engineering through a month-long internship.

  • learning about various research equipment
  • exploring smart window technology, including its components and experimental outcomes
  • conducting experiments to extract and analyze epicuticular wax, the protective wax layer on the surface of a leaf.

And I have also volunteered a lot in my church, about 43 hours per year for each of the activities.

  • teaching korean to 8 local youths, 9 months
  • instructor for young children at church msission cite, 1year
  • music intructor, 2years ( taught 12 students intotal how to read music scores and how to play melodica)
  • Finalist in Genius olympiad ( with the individual research i did in the internship sepearte from the lab)
  • 8th places in national math competiton
  • several outstanding achievements from school for every subject.

With the resources I got in my surroundings, I think I maximized my potential and did everything I could. And I also think that I have a very strong recommendation letter and college essay. What do you think my chances are??? :sob: :sob: :sob:. I won’t cry even if you are super brutal :pensive: :pensive:

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You sound like a great kid! But the Ivy acceptance rate for international students is about 1% (and is less than 10% at some, for US students). So the odds are in no one’s favor.

If you really want to study in the US you must apply to schools that accept more kids. This is advice I would give to anyone, not just you.

Do you need financial aid?

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I would agree with your parents. I think that your chances of being accepted at Princeton, Yale, or Stanford are so tiny that it is not of any use for you to apply there.

I recommend that you make options in your home country, and if your parents have the resources to pay for college in the US, look at less selective colleges in the US that have the majors that you are interested in. Consider state flagship universities that are not extremely selective.

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In terms of a precise figure, the acceptance rate for international applicants to Princeton, for example, was recently 2.4%, according to its CDS. Of similar concern for the OP may be Princeton’s 25th percentile SAT level of 1510 for those who submitted scores. As an opinion, @eunji, if you would like to study in the U.S., you could benefit from creating a well-crafted list of colleges suitable for your academic profile. Including what I’d regard as out-of-reach schools, such as Princeton, would seem to be counterproductive to your interests. What would you like to study?

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Have you looked at the application requirements for these schools? In addition to the regular commons app essay, you are also required to write several supplemental essays. Stanford, for example, has nine supplemental essays. It’s a lot of work to craft an excellent overall application.

A 1430 is a good SAT score, and there are many schools in the U.S. that could work for you. Are you open to more suggestions for your college list?

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Is it worth applying ? If you want to go.

You can’t go if you don’t apply. But that said you are unlikely.

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I am planning to get a Ph.D in the field of chemistry, like nanotechnology and molecular chemistry. What kind of universities would you recommend?

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As a source for ideas, this site lists schools appreciated by their students for their lab facilities:

With further research, you can compare your academic profile to those for the individual schools named in the site. For some, you will be fully qualified for admission.

Of schools not listed in the above site, Reed, Grinnell, Macalester and Kalamazoo are a few that are notable for their strong chemistry programs.

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Many colleges place PhDs in Chemistry. This is a 3rd party list that shows placements per capita…so percent of grads. Ivy is great but far from the only feeder to a PhD.

California Institute of Technology 29
Harvey Mudd College 20
University of Minnesota-Morris 17
Juniata College 18
Carleton College 31
Kalamazoo College 16
Wabash College 11
Allegheny College 17
Hope College 37
Grinnell College 20
Haverford College 16
The College of Wooster 21
Hendrix College 12
New College of Florida 7
Washington & Jefferson College 12
Williams College 22
Truman State University 37
St Olaf College 31
Reed College 15
Earlham College 6
Willamette University 13
Pomona College 17
Whitman College 14
Saint Johns University 14
Occidental College 17
Bryn Mawr College 12
Lycoming College 9
Lawrence University 12
Hanover College 8
Centre College 11
College of William and Mary 54
Furman University 18
Franklin and Marshall College 15
Swarthmore College 12
Mount Holyoke College 16
University of Richmond 22
University of Chicago 52
Macalester College 15
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 32
Wheaton College 15
St. Mary’s College of Maryland 10
Illinois Wesleyan University 10
Saint Vincent College 9
Ripon College 5
College of the Holy Cross 21
Drew University 10
Alma College 8
University of Puget Sound 11
Oberlin College 19
Amherst College 12
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It seems worth noting that the list you posted doesn’t include even one Ivy school.

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They’re on the pure volume side - Cornell was #7 with 57 grads - of course, the size of their program is far greater and yep, not top 50 on the per capita.

Penn is next at #43.

Just those two in the top 50 of “volume”.

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What financial resources do you have to pay for college in the US?

If money is no object, consider 2nd tier private colleges with a good rep in the sciences, such as Brandeis.

If there is some money, but not enough for 90K/yr, consider flagship state U’s with good science programs, such as SUNY Stonybrook, UMass Amherst, and other public U’s.

If you have not financial backing, and need massive financial aid, you’re unlikely to get into the private schools that might fund an int’l, and schools that might accept you are very unlikely to fund you.

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One daughter had very similar high school stats, slightly higher SAT score (but entirely due to her English score, which is her native language), and is currently getting a PhD in a biomedical field. I will assume that getting a PhD in a subfield of chemistry versus a subfield of biology does not really change things all that much in terms of picking universities to apply to.

Two things come to mind. One is that Princeton, Yale, and Stanford are very unlikely and are high reaches, but I think that you might have at least some non-zero chance to be admitted to one of them. The other thing that comes to mind is that there are a huge number of universities and colleges where you can get a very good education for a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. If you look at students in highly ranked PhD programs, you will find that they come from a very wide range of universities and colleges.

By the way, some universities do make available on their web sites their list of PhD students, and where they came from. You could most likely just pick any highly ranked university and search its web site and you might find some examples of where graduate students there had gotten their bachelor’s degrees. “All over the place” is quite likely a summary of what you will find.

Also, in the USA the word “college” is used in an ambiguous way. It can refer to a community college, or to a liberal arts college, or sometimes to any college or university. What in the USA we call a “liberal arts college” or LAC is generally similar to what in at least one other country might be called a “small primarily undergraduate university”. Some of the better LACs in the USA are superb, and offer a really great undergraduate education with very good research opportunities and other opportunities.

My daughter who is currently getting her PhD first got her bachelor’s degree at a relatively small school (a small primarily undergraduate university in Canada). One consequence of this is that she had small classes and got to know her professors quite quickly, which in turn helped with finding research opportunities. There will be more research opportunities at highly ranked larger schools such as Princeton, but Princeton is full of very strong students and the competition for these opportunities is intense. There are also lots of graduate students at Princeton and similar universities who will also compete for some of these research opportunities (although some undergraduate students will also find good opportunities). A wide range of universities will have quite good research opportunities.

All of this leads me to three questions. One question is: What is your budget? Are you financially limited to schools such as Princeton that meet full need for all admitted students, including international students? A second question: Why Princeton (or Yale or Stanford)? Have you considered other large universities, or smaller LACs such as Williams College or Grinnell, or any one of perhaps 50 other smaller schools? A third question: Why the USA? What is available in your home country, or elsewhere in South America? What about Canada, or Australia, or some other country?

And there is also the option of getting a bachelor’s degree in your home country and then getting a PhD in the US.

I think so also. I am expecting and hoping that you will find very good opportunities one way or another.

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