I applied to 12 colleges and I just got rejected from two colleges ( UIUC and Purdue)
Now I have 10 colleges left. Since I thought Purdue is kind of my safety school, I was shocked when I got rejected.
SAT 1390/1600 (math 770)
SAT math2 790/800
AP Calculus BC 4/5
IELTS 7.0
But the problem is that my GPA is super low. I went to one of the toughest high school (it’s not international school) in my country and it’s just normal for my school to have low GPA. My school doesn’t even have a GPA system but if I convert my high school reports to GPA, it will below 2.0 or around 2.0. I started to study for colleges in the U.S. when I was senior in high school so I only had a year left to study whole different thing and I took GED to cover up my low GPA but I have no idea what I should do…
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC San Diego
University of Washington-Seattle
University of Minnesota-twin cities
University of Wisconsin-madison
University of Maryland-college park
University of Colorado-boulder
Penn state university
Texas a&m
Major: applied mathematics/ Mathematics BS(first choice) or BA(second choice)
These are the colleges that I applied and I don’t know if I should apply for more safety colleges.
Help me.
Give me some advice
At strong state flagships like some of the ones on your list, most students enter with HS GPAs >= 3.75.
At Purdue, less than 3% enter with HS GPAs below 3.0; the average reported HS GPA for 2016-17 was 3.74. At UMCP or UWashington, less than 1% enter with HS GPAs below 3.0.
Some of the others are even more selective.
Unless your HS reported that your class rank is in the top 10%, or at least the T25%, your admission chances may be quite low at all those schools.
Has your school sent students to US colleges in the past? Does the guidance dept. have a relationship with any US schools where they are knowledgeable about how your school grades and have experience with students from your school?
Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona (Phoenix Metropolitan area) might be an option to consider. The University of Arizona in Tucson is another.
You didn’t convert your grading scale properly. The numbers mean different things depending on country. A 70% is very high in France or Ireland, whereas it’s lousy (just above ‘getting kicked out’) in the us. If you didn’t leave your GPA as is in your country and didn’t indicate what it means (ie, top 10%…5%,1%…) then they only have American criteria to judge it and anything below a 3 will not yield any admissions.
Additionally, the GED is a degree for adults who dropped out of high school and may not be accepted for application to 4-year colleges.
What system are you studying under? Are there external/national exams like Abitur, bacc or A Levels?
The American community college system is open access. Look for a feeder to one of your first choice schools.
Blinn.edu – feeder to Texas A&M, especially the Bryan campus
SeattleColleges.edu – feeders to UW Seattle
There’s at least one feeder school to every one of the colleges on your list. Depending on your target school you can transfer after one or two years. Work with academic advising to figure out the best plan.
Did you send your high school records for formal evaluation? www.WES.org is most recognized organization for that. Visit their website and get this taken care of.
Other than colleges and universities that are open admission, or guarantee admission for specific stats and also extend that to international applicants, there are no safeties for international applicants. Period. What would be an academic safety for a US applicant who doesn’t need any aid, is a match for an international who doesn’t need aid.
The GED exam is for people who have been unable to complete their full secondary education. It is meaningless for you. What matters for your admission in the US is your secondary school record. If you apply anywhere with only your GED score, you will be committing fraud, and risk having your application denied, being expelled, or even having your college degree invalidated. So don’t use those GED scores for anything.
When you started this process, did you contact the counselors at the EducationUSA or AMIDEAST office in your country? If you have not done that, do so now. They will have advice for you that is specific for your country and your educational system.
I think my parents won’t let me go to any community college.
I took GED and got into top 4% for Math and Language Arts Writing, top 14% for Science, and top 33% for Language Arts Reading and Social Studies. I only took GED to prove to colleges that I was never careless about my grades. But, guess they don’t care about my GED score…
All the smart students join in my school and i only focused on my SAT and studying AP, SAT2 and gave up GPA and took GED. So my Senior high school records should be really low. I think my high school teacher wrote how tough my high school is on Recommendation letter but I don’t know how it will go. My school has a reputation in my country to send good colleges in Korea but my school got none of the systems like IB or AP courses.
If they didn’t provide an expansion for the grading system, such large schools simply won’t have time to look it up. They don’t know whether your school is a top school in Seoul or a random school in the mountains. If your GPA is below 3 with no explanation you’re not getting into any college. Check with your GC tomorrow to see how they explained grades. For instance, if your high school is selective entrance compared to a random group if teenagers who’d be together in the 8th grade, where would you rank in terms of rigor and achievements?
The GED doesn’t matter - some colleges won’t even accept it. I’m sorry you spent time on it and no one explained to you that it was a diploma for adult high school dropouts. Ap, sat, sat2 matter. And your GPA too.
After seeing u get rejected i really am scared about my chances at purdue. Even i got rejected by uiuc but acceptances came from asu and tamu.
SAT:1280
IELTS:7.5(from india)
GPA: around 3.87
super involved in hs and have some stupendous recommendation letters
any idea about moi
and i need aid
@mojojojo23 - Did you limit your application list to places that do indeed offer the amount of financial aid that you need to international applicants? 'and i need aid" is enough to get you rejected at plenty of places.
