So I have always wanted to attend an Ivy League School. Here’s the deal.
I am originally from Pakistan, where I was taking O/A Level courses (the equivalent of IB/AP). I did two years of O/Level studies, and consistently stood 1st in my batch. Then I moved to Canada, where I enrolled in grade 11. However, my school in Canada did not offer any rigorous courses, such as A-Level or AP Courses. My school did however had three different levels of difficulties, and I ended up taking the highest difficulty level in all my courses. I stood first in all classes I took over the two years, and graduated with the highest average in the batch (in June 2018).
Basically, I don’t have those AP courses which can bump up my GPA. My school doesn’t calculate GPAs, but upon calculation, my unweighted GPA comes out to a 4.0. I am writing my SAT in October, and have been consistently scoring 1580+ on Practice Tests. I am also writing my SAT Subjects Test in Physics and Maths Level I in November (have been scoring 800 on Practice Tests).
This is most of my Academic Profile.
As for my extracurriculars, I have extensive experience in Debates. I started participating in Model UN Conferences in grade 9, and have now participated in over 12 MUNs, with over 5 Best Delegate Awards (1st Position). Some of these wins came in International MUNs. In grade 11, I was appointed as the Debates Trainer in my high-school in Canada. I basically trained students for competitive MUN debates. In 2018, we ended up hosting our first MUN Conference. In addition, I have judged MUNs at other schools upon their request. I also dedicated quite some time to Parliamentary Debates, more commonly known as World School’s Debates. Back in Pakistan, I was the captain of my school’s team, and won an award for Excellence in Debates (best debater on the team). Since my graduation, I have worked as a Tutor (i took a gap year). I teach Physics and Calculus to first-year university students. Besides this, I write Blogs where I analyze various political issues.
With this in mind, do I have a chance of getting into an Ivy League University, given that I did not have any option of an AP Course?
Note: I know Grades are not everything, which is why I also included a summary of my basic extracurriculars.
3 Replies
Hi there,
You absolutely have a chance. I think your backstory, the above-and-beyond nature of your engagement at your Canadian school, and your extracurriculars make you a pretty strong candidate, as long as you crush the SAT or ACT and write an amazing essay, both of which are totally possible. It’s hard for me to say more than that without knowing you better, but I feel confident that you absolutely have a chance considering the information you included above. You should definitely apply, and if you need help bringing the best out of your essays or acing your exams, let us know!
Send some more detail on your academic transcript and CV to j.beaton@crimsoneducation.org and I can check this out for you.
Hello, I was wondering if my GPA had already ruined my chances of getting into a top 20 school. I am currently in my second semester of 10th grade and my GPA is about a 3.5( not including this current semester I am in) due to me getting a C in my first semester of AP world history. I am currently scheduled to take 4 AP classes and one honors class junior year which will hopefully help make up for a bad start and I will also be obtaining tutors in those classes if necessary. Also, I hope to do very well on the SAT, as my PSAT scores were in 87th percentile and I am going to take a several hours a week prep class over the summer.
BTW(background info): I attended a small private school all my life before high school with a total of 16 kids in my grade and then moved to a large public high school with 650+ kids in each grade and struggled adjusting to the very different environment and have not joined any extracurriculars yet but I did have a part time job and have received Honor roll awards and one other school award.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
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