i’d like to know what are my chances for ivy league and MIT with these stats
GPA: 3.7
SAT: 1580
Extracurriculars:
-Biology club, Chemistry club, History club, Spanish club, Peer tutoring, Volounteering.
Note: I am an international student and we do not have many extracurriculars or ap classes and weighted gpa so keep that in mind.
How does your GPA compare with other students from your high school and other likely applicants from your country?
What country are you from?
Do you have SAT subject tests?
Weighted GPA doesn’t matter. Your grades matter. Your academic rigor matters compared to others in your country. Weighted GPA is done so differently between different high schools even just in the US that it is pretty much meaningless. My high school (long ago), and one daughter’s high school, did not even tell us that there was such a thing.
Between MIT, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth College, Columbia, and the other Ivy League schools there are some very significant differences. Your chances will be better if you know which schools would be a better fit for you and why.
@DadTwoGirls can you elaborate some more on the significant differences between ivies or find another threasd that mentions them ?
What are your goals?why do you want those schools? What do you plan to study? etc.
Some examples Ivy differences:
Size-Cornell 15,000 vs Dartmouth 4,000 undergrad students
Curriculum-Brown open Vs Columbia relatively structured
Location- Penn urban vs Princeton suburban
City Vibe- Harvard Cambridge vibrant energy vs Yale New Haven great pizza and did I mention the pizza?
Just a few…
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Nobody should comment on an international student’s grades if s/he is not familiar with grading in that country. And since we don’t know the country, nobody is qualified to opine on the OP’s grades. The rampant grade inflation (and extra credit and retakes on tests, etc.) that is prevalent in many U.S. high schools (and beyond) does not exist outside the U.S.
Along the same lines, if the original poster’s grades are not using a 0-4.0 grading system (or A-F or 0-100), do not convert to the American alpha or numeric system. Admissions officers will understand foreign grading systems.
Having said all that, being an international is a drawback in the admissions process, more so (at need-aware schools) if FA is needed.
Additionally, if users want to comment on the differences on the Ivy League schools feel free, but be aware that the user who asked that is not the OP, so the question hijacks the thread, which we frown upon (and it violates ToS).
my school doesn’t do student rank by grades, but I would say that I’m in the top 5-10 percent.
I’m from Croatia and our grading system is 0-5.0 but I have converted it to American system(0-4.0)so you can understand it better.
I took SAT subject Math II and biology.
Math II: 800/800
Biology (molecular): 780/800
I was planning on pre med, and later on med school. I understand that the most important things for admission isn’t GPA, but extracurriculars and essay/reccomendation letters. Do you think I have a chance?
@Emma2001 , do you plan on going to med school in the US?
@SJ2727 yes
May I ask why? The US pre-med/med school route is one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, route in the world to becoming a doctor. Do you have funds to cover all this? Would you be expecting to stay and practice in the US after (and if so, have you investigated what that would require visa-wise), or would you need to write conversion exams back in Europe?
By the way, gpa is important for admission to the ivies, and it’s even more important for admission into med school down the line.
Yes, i plan on staying in the US after med school. I would like to practice medicine in english, as well as somewhere where your skills and years of studying are appreciated and recognised. The reason that I’m attracted towards ivies is not only because they give you great education opportunities, but also the fact that they give need based scholarships. My parents are doctors in Croatia and with an average monthly salary in Croatia being $900, I colud not pay $70,000 a year for college.
One of the reasons I prefer the US is because of better education opportunities and school system. I believe it is not neccesary to have 18 subjects per school year (like we do). If I am keen on studying medicine, I think it would be better if I could choose the subjects that are interesting to me and that are required for my future career.
Ok. I just think you should be realistic. You realize that on what you’ve stated, you will need to get something like $500k in scholarship money to fund pre-med and med school; that it is harder to get good grades undergrad in ivies and that could affect your med school prospects (many pre-meds never make it into med school); that most people fund med school through loans, not scholarships (loans not available to internationals from what I understand); and that you will need to get an appropriate work visa to stay and practice in the US afterwards?
Have you applied to local or at least European /UK universities as a backup?
Very few US Medical schools except International students so it will be a uphill battle due to not being a US citizen along with the high costs if you make that far.
I agree with much of the advice that has been stated about the issues with attending medical school in the US. Also, MIT is a very difficult university at which to attempt to obtain a “medical school worthy” GPA.
However, I am inclined to return to the original question in the original post: Specifically what are OP’s chances of being accepted to an Ivy League school?
“my school doesn’t do student rank by grades, but I would say that I’m in the top 5-10 percent”
Your SAT scores are great. It would surprise me if your SAT scores are anything less than the best in your high school. If you might be the top student in your high school, then it might be worth applying to one or two Ivy League schools. However, you should be aware that each Ivy League school is likely to accept either zero or one student from your corner of Europe in a year, and your chances are probably no better than 1% of acceptance.
As such I would tend to look at this as “pick a couple of Ivy League schools to apply to, send in an application, then focus on other schools where acceptance is actually likely”.
Clearly your stats would get you accepted to a lot of schools in the US (and Australia and Canada and the UK). However, it sounds to me like your finances will restrict you to the small handful of schools that will meet full need for international students.
Most students that apply to ivy league schools have high stats so no one here can guarantee that you will be accepted.
It simply is the matter of too many strong applicants for a limited number of spots at these very selective schools.
Your grades and scores are great for admission to U.S. undergraduate schools but the issue maybe the ability to pay the tuition and room costs. The ivy league schools are very competitive for everyone. The other issue is not everyone that starts out as a premed student survives premed during the course of four years of college. There is the process of weeding out students so that the strongest students move forward but the majority change their majors due to not being able to maintain the grades to continue forward to become a strong applicant for med school.
There is also the issue of being an international student. I am posting a link here for you to read more about the med school application process for international students. Realize that it is extremely competitive and over here it is common to take gap years to work before applying to med school. Also realize attending an ivy league school doesn’t guarantee admission to med school. You still have to be an excellent overall applicant. It is even more difficult as an international applicant.
https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/applying-international-applicant/
You might be better off completing you medical studies in your home country and then applying for residencies as a foreign medical school graduate.
Wow 1580? Good job! I think as long as you write great essays; you have a good chance at any school you apply to. Can you give me some SAT tips? I’m lacking on the reading section lol because I’m always tight on time.