Apply to Ivy League

[Zhoulihao2002]

Hi guys, I am applying the US Ivy League this year (eg, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia...). I didn’t hand in any SAT score, but I use my ATAR (99.65, didn’t do well due to the sudden change in VCE maths exam style).

-I had a lot of volunteer works, eg, built a house in Vietnam for a poor family, worked as a teacher assistant for a year in both local special school and language centre, helped people in the community with gardening, initiated a bridging program with my school and Doctors without Boarders and etc...

-I also helped an associate professor from FuDan university (No.3 university in China) with the research of DNA double strand break, founded my school’s first science club, got an ADF future innovator award.

-Also, I am a state swimmer, won 1st place in All Victorian school swimming race  freestyle relay (thanks to my team mates XD) and 4th place in backstroke. I played piano for 13 years, performed with my peers in Arch of triumph, Menium  Gate, Westminster Abbey... I am also in our school’s chess team, volleyball team and a bunch of other extracurricular teams.

So, I am just wondering what my chances are and roughly who am I competing with? Can anyone give me a rough idea please? Thank you!

[Zhoulihao2002]

Excuse my Grammar

[Orb]

Profile wise is slightly below average for the people I know who were admitted into top-tier Ivy's (HYP) and probably around average for the easier ones (e.g. Cornell)

Probably all depends on your essay and your actual execution. Have seen worse get in and better not get in!

[Zhoulihao2002]

Profile wise is slightly below average for the people I know who were admitted into top-tier Ivy's (HYP) and probably around average for the easier ones (e.g. Cornell)

Probably all depends on your essay and your actual execution. Have seen worse get in and better not get in!


Thank you!

[Zhoulihao2002]

Just wondering if the “easier ones” include Columbia?

[Orb]

Just wondering if the “easier ones” include Columbia?

Columbia's probably middle... in terms of difficulty general consensus is (in terms of difficulty):

Harvard
Stanford/MIT (both not Ivy's but top 3 these days)
Yale/Princeton
Columbia/Wharton (from UPenn)
Penn
Brown/Dartmouth
Cornell

Just profile wise i'd guess ~3-5% shot of getting in at HYPSM (below average acceptance %), ~10% chance at Columbia/Penn and 15-20% at Brown/Dartmouth/Cornell

They're independent probabilities so your actual shot of getting in at least one is more like ~50% which is pretty good!

[Zhoulihao2002]

Columbia's probably middle... in terms of difficulty general consensus is (in terms of difficulty):

Harvard
Stanford/MIT (both not Ivy's but top 3 these days)
Yale/Princeton
Columbia/Wharton (from UPenn)
Penn
Brown/Dartmouth
Cornell

Just profile wise i'd guess ~3-5% shot of getting in at HYPSM (below average acceptance %), ~10% chance at Columbia/Penn and 15-20% at Brown/Dartmouth/Cornell

They're independent probabilities so your actual shot of getting in at least one is more like ~50% which is pretty good!

No problem, but I didn’t apply to Brown, Dartmouth or Cornell. I guess my chance is actually quiet slim. If I don’t get in, I will go and do Med in Australia. Thank you.

[scientificllama]

Hey there

It’s great to see other AN members thinking and achieving  to study overseas!

Your stated co-curriculars are very impressive especially with starting a science club at school. Many colleges and universities look for innovators and those who do the “out of the square”. Having a very good competitive history in swimming also puts you at an increased chance of acceptance as college seriously love athletes. This may also mean scholarship opportunities!

However, depending on the University, you may not be eligible for a place due to not taking the SAT. Hopefully you have checked which schools still require the SAT to be taken as many schools have removed this requirement due to COVID-19.

As previously mentioned, your essays are a huge factor in securing a place! Make sure to check some samples of essays to your dream school(S) that have granted acceptance. The best tip I can give is to write your pieces similar to a story but from your perspective. They are somewhat suckers for that hehe!

Hope this helps

[TrueTears]

Your profile is pretty good actually, but not having SAT is gonna work heavily against you. Anecdotally, most undergrads that I've taught and are from outside the US have done very well on the SAT. Here at MIT, undergrads usually have an average maths SAT around 790, reading and writing around 750.