So, i was looking at the admissions threads for ucla for example and i was noticing a lot of people with really high SATs like 2100 and more getting rejected even though the average sat at ucla is 1900 and something. Whats up with that? But anyways i was wondering howcome seniors at my school every year get into like Yale and other ivies. Of 60 which is the total class atleast 10 get into ivies even with some people staying in their home country and not going to the usa. We take the IB so is it because of that? We dont do gpas so is it that the ib is that high valued? Because in the report card for example barely anyone gets a 7/7 across all subjects so i was wondering how you guys in america getting straight As which is your top grade is not landing you into the best schools.
High grades and test scores are not enough to get into top colleges like UCLA and Ivies.
Also because Yale and UCLA are extremely competitive and they have so many applicants with high grades and test scores and few seats available. The ultimate decision whether to accept or deny an applicant (for these schools), is rarely determined by their grades, but other factors such as recommendations, essays, activities…which the rejected applicants lacked in some way or another.
UCLA has many times as many undergraduate students as do Ivy League schools. Plus UCLA is a PUBLIC university which is required to draw primarily from an applicant pool of California state residents. Ivy League schools are PRIVATE schools which have no such restrictions placed on whom they can admit.
The California schools are much harder to get in for OOS. So instate scores are apt to be lower. Other state schools that don’t have good reputations are the opposite-they are so interested in gaining a decent reputation beyond the one state that they may accept students with credentials way below those they’d view as acceptable from a student in the state. But usually those reputations are good or bad for a reason. Many people who can afford to attend any school will opt for the California schools or Michigan, UVA, Wisc and on. In contrast, students in some states will only go to their state school if they can’t afford to attend anywhere else or if they can’t get in anywhere else.
In terms of your school, you may go to a very elite school that is rigorous, has tough entrance requirements and has long standing relationships with certain schools in the US. Further, the school is small so the absolute number of students going to Ivy schools is quite small-even tho it is an impressive percent. So they may get 1-2 into Harvard, Yale, etc and maybe 3 to Cornell. Quite a bit different than trying to get 10 in each-although there are schools that do get many into each Ivy each year-many in the US. If students can’t matriculate at a private high school without scoring the equivalent of 750s on each section of the SATs just to enter their high school you can see how they would end up having great scores for college. Then if the school is very rigorous, the students would be in a great position to do well at a very rigorous college. It is not a matter of IB program. Many schools in the US offer the IB program but don’t get students into Ivys routinely.
I do not know where you are getting the SAT score averages, but if you check the Freshman profile from the UC website, the average SAT is 2064. If you are an International or OOS applicant, the average Stats are even higher.