He has not only been rejected by Ivys, but also from several other not-so selective schools like Northwestern, John Hopkins, Rice and Georgia Tech. May it be because he is argentinian? Or due to his GPA? These are the disctintions he presented to college:
Participated at ISEF (the only project selected among 10 thousand the nation).
Awarded at Google Science Fair.
Ranked 1st at national physics olympiads and national informatics olympiads.
SAT 1450 (700 reading, 750 math)
GPA 8.7/10
TOEFL 100 (excelente english level)
To put it as gently as possible, those are not the most outstanding stats, and plenty of kids with outstanding stats get rejected from Ivies every year. I do hope he has applied to some safety/match schools? None of the schools you have listed should ever be considered a sure thing.
(signed, parent of a kid with much worse stats than this, so congrats to your son for his hard work!)
All these schools (including ones you describe as “not-so” selective) are very, very, very selective.
They attract top students from all over the world.
And yes, some of these schools limit the number of international students to under 10-15%. You don’t specify if he was seeking financial aid – at many schools, that puts the applicant at an additional disadvantage.
The reality is that applying to most of these these schools is like playing the lottery.
The acceptance rate at the top Ivies is less than 5% overall and about 2% for internationals. Also, unlike in most other countries admission is not solely based on objective stats.
Not sure exactly how the GPA translates because of the 10 point scale – but mathematically 8.7/10 would be the equivalent of a 3.48 out of the US standard 4.0 scale. That would not usually be considered competitive for Ivy admissions. SAT score is acceptable but also unremarkable - the schools have thousands of applicants who have 4.0 GPA’s (or 10/10) and SATs of 1500 or above. Northwestern, Johns Hopkins & Rice are also highly selective. Georgia Tech is also very selective and because it is a public university, favors state residents over other applicants.
Your son sounds very accomplished and you have every right to be proud of him, but by the numbers he was not highly competitive for the schools you were targeting.
International student undergraduate admissions at US universities are generally more selective than for US domestic students. And the Ivy League schools and most of the others in your list are extremely selective even for US domestic students.
Northwestern is as selective as some of the Ivies like Cornell, Dartmouth, or Brown. Your son’s SAT score is actually a bit lower than their average. 100 is pretty much their minimum for TOEFL.
As other posters indicated you listed extremely selective schools. My son was also not accepted into any Ivy or Georgetown but waitlisted to all of them. His stats are as good as any like 35 ACT, 16 or 17 AP all 5’s, 1/450 in competitive district, high GPA etc. etc. even with that we knew the chances were slim of getting in so he also applied to some excellent match and safety so he has some good choices still. Plus he got money from those match schools which makes it affordable. Point is he knew the chances were low so he had a plan B. Setting the right expectations are important. College Confidential helped us do that pretty quickly.
@matiapa, your son’s credentials are very fine indeed.
Nobody KNOWS why your son wasn’t admitted except to say that it’s a very competitive landscape. #1 in the national physics olympiad is very impressive. The reasons you’ve been given are PURE SPECULATION.
These decisions should not take anything way from your son or be any reflection on his self-worth.
Does your son still need help finding a place to go to college? There are still good colleges accepting applications.
While your son’s credentials are truly impressive, I believe he may be considered an international student, which counts against him in the application process.