My thoughts on how to get into Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT and so on

[irenesme]

From what I have discerned from applying to colleges this year is this:

Your high school transcript is the most important piece of your application that a college counselor will look at. Yes, you may have a high GPA but did you pad your schedule with classes that are easy to get an "A" in, or did you take the most challenging classes offered at your high school? IB is good because they fill your schedule so there are no fluff classes.

You needed to take a more active role in activities, extracurriculars, your community. No one really wants a person at their campus who studies and sleeps in an endless cycle. They need to see leadership, passion, motiovation, and pro-activeness in the extracurriculars that you pursue.

You need to show an active interest in attending X college. Request a brochure. Attend college receptions and faires in your area. Get an interview if it is offered. Visit the campus. Find the name of the counselor that is in charge of your area and send them emails about questions you have about the programs or admissions.

Sure SATs and IB scores are important, but they only play a small part in admissions. How can a college judge a person based on a test that they took in a day as opposed to their transcript that shows their progress over their high school career?

[Chelleee]

hmm for the top uni's in the world its all luck really, top grades will only get you so far.

i'm not aiming for anything of them though, my goal is to get into med at my local uni...that's good enough for me ^^

but to you all who are going for those uni's GOOD LUCK!

[Forester]

14th of March (Pi Day), 1st of April 2009... 2 of the most important days in my life.

[Abu]

For arguments sake, lets say if I want to get into Harvard. Does being a Pakistani put me into affirmative action i.e. the whole diversity thing or is it just a disadvantage or just the same chances?

[ezex]

Depends on the year and how many Pakistanis applied. They fill quotas so if you happen to apply on a year when all 50 that they take are extreme geniusus and you're good too but not as good then you're **** out of luck. But usually its pretty varied so if you're one of the top, no...if you're number one at your school you have good chances of making it into Harvard. But again, it all falls on you as a person so really it doesnt matter.

[Forester]

MIT's quota for Australia and New Zealand combined is 2.

[Scade]

Irene I would really be careful about saying that UK universities prefer A-levels over IB. They might not fully recognize its difficulty, but sure as hell they do respect it, at least the top universities.

For example one of my interviewers at Cambridge said to me something along these lines "You've been predicted top grades in the IB, which is a very challenging programme. That looks very good." And further on commented on how the EE is really great for uni and that it makes IBers stand out. Coming from the mouth of an interviewer it is a pretty convincing case that IB is appreciated there. OK, they made me a ridicolous offer (42, 777 HL), but the college is known for high offers, ie. AAAAA at A-level. Other universities there have made me 38 point offers, and their standard A-level offer is AAA. I think that is pretty fair.

I think what people should bear in mind the act that the programme which you take isn't the only factor. In US extracurriculars seem to be rather important (then again a guy from last years class in our school got into MIT by doing the IB and playing basketball, not much else). And to ezex, he actually says that the MIT courses are boring and easy (he's studying something engineering related, not sure what exactly though). In Cambridge and Oxford the interviews matter (although not that much necessarily, for example in Cambridge 70% of the decisions are the same with or without an interview).

[moneyfaery]

Irene I would really be careful about saying that UK universities prefer A-levels over IB. They might not fully recognize its difficulty, but sure as hell they do respect it, at least the top universities.

My mistake then. I wasn't aware that AAAAA offers were given. To the best of my (prior) knowledge, I knew that max offers of AAA were given for A-levels while 40+ points were given for IB. That does not seem a fair comparison but the circumstance you described certainly seems fair.

[Jay D]

Some things to note, just because you get a 45 doesn't mean you'll be applying to Harvard.

And I don't think universities do that, let's pick some minorities for the sake of it game. I think that's just you rationalizing.

[hazemm]

No, its true, universities have certain quotas which they must fill for international students. Its not just a rationalization

[Vvi]

If universities picked only all white students, they would be accused of discriminating against minorities. And it looks good for them to say "We have 127 nationalities represented at our university". Explains why my Kosovar friend got replies from all of her universities within one month, and I'm still waiting for a reply.

[Center Field]

The first question on the Harvard application is "are you Hispanic?" No joke. Really what Harvard wants are high scores on the SAT, and ACT. They weight IB and AP equally. They don't know what your scores are so that doesn't matter (for IB). The essay on the App. is important too. Also a high GPA (Grade Point Average)helps as well. Furthermore, they want you to do extracurricular activities that you are passionate about. SO if you like science, do science related extracurricular activities. Race plays a big factor (I'm sorry to say). Legacy isn't as big. If you won a big science competition like the Intel competition, your in. If your a national merit scholar, your in. The interview is significant. I called them to see what I needed to do.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Astrophysics

[sweetnsimple786]

If you won a big science competition like the Intel competition, your in. If your a national merit scholar, your in. The interview is significant. I called them to see what I needed to do.

This I definitely disagree with. Did you mean this literally? I believe that very few broad, generalizing statements can be made about admissions. I don't know how many national merit finalists there are. Perhaps 6000, but that's just an educated guess. There's not really one thing you can do to guarantee your entrance. It's a lot about the dynamics of your life & how you choose to live it. There is one thing you can do to guarantee you won't get in, and that one thing is not applying.

Edit: I'm also not too sure about the two sentences before this quote, but I don't know.

Edited September 11, 2009 by sweetnsimple786

[Center Field]

Well I called them, and they told me that NMSC "Helps incredibly." I guess not all the national merit scholars get into Harvard, but that is because they mold their classes. I forgot about that-they have a process of shaping their classes. Thats why people who are qualified don't get in. But I did call them, and that's what they said.

Oh and the race thing-i mean that they are trying to diversify the university-which theres nothing wrong with. But they are trying to make it so its not so predominantly white. They didn't tell me that but Ive read it in news articles.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Astrophysics

[sweetnsimple786]

Molding classes? What?

Yeah, they probably have slightly ambiguous quotas. Not enough to let an unqualified person in, but perhaps it's potent enough to push someone who is borderline in. It makes more of a difference if you're a minor minority lol

[Center Field]

lol yeah

And i did not have a clue as to what they meant when they mold classes-but i presume it means that the people who get in have a certain set of characteristics that others don't have.

[Taigan]

Yes, I have no idea what molding classes is... Though I did want to post this link about quotas. In a way, I don't think it's fair, as shouldn't everyone be treated based on their grades and extracurriculars? Why does race have to come into the picture?

http://www.lyen.net/gpage115.html

[sweetnsimple786]

About affirmative action [AA]. I didn't understand why it was in place. My position was similar to that of the author of the article that you posted. But then I was listening to this Canadian author who said something along the lines of "We're not aiming for perfection. Our [American] waters are already murky. Why not throw something in there that works and not worry about looking like saints?" And I mean it makes sense. The current president of the US has been helped by affirmative action. Due to self-interest, unis pick the brightest of the applicants, and if there is established AA, then perhaps minorities will be more likely to apply there and increase the applicant pool allowing the strongest candidates to move forward. This is turn will make people realize that it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, AA or not. You still need to work as hard as you can. The main reason I'm okay with AA is because it's a reflection of our world. We haven't achieved perfection, but we're trying. In TOK, we're reading a book by Abel, and he has this phrase--'Abel's Razor.' He uses it to mean that when something works, keep using it until you find something better. Then throw out that old razor [or in my opinion, keep the razor in the medicine cabinet just in case the new razor turns out to be crap ]' AA is like a good enough razor at the moment.

[thinkgreen95]

First of all, wow. It's been a long time since I posted on here...2 YEARS ago.

And,...well, I'm applying early action to MIT in my junior year, and I've actually only deviated slightly from my 'plan' 2 years ago, so what do you guys think my chances of getting into MIT would be?

I had originally planned on what I said earlier: math mostly, but what I've done is:

CLASSES:

freshman year:

Maths SL (not allowed to take the exam)

pre ib bio, english, spanish, AP/pre ib world history (5 on the AP),

and AP env. (5 on the AP)

sophomore year:

Maths HL/AP BC calc (5 on AP, and 6/7 on IB)

Physics SL (6/7 and 5 on AP)

AP Euro (5)

AP Eng Lang (4)

span

chem

Junior year:

IB Further Maths (predicted 7)-math just comes naturally;it just clicks automatically for me

Physics HL (predicted 7)-our teacher is awesome and I LOVE physics

AP Am history/IB History (first year HL)

IB eng. HL (1st yr of it)

IB span SL/AP span

IB env. Systems (predicted 7, but I've taken it before...)

And for extracurriculars:

Brain Bowl, I'm in the top ten scorers in my state (FL), as of last year--no tournys yet

INTEL science fair-placed 1st at regions last two years, and at states, planning on ISEF this year

MAO-2nd year in calc, 5th year doing it, have never NOT placed =]

InvenTeams-but my group is very dysfunctional

USAMTS/AMC/AIME (hopefully get to go to USAMO this year)

Student govt

Unicef

Teen Trendsetters

Key Club

Model UN-several comittee/conference distinctions

Cross country JV

Lacrosse

track and field

Varsity Swimming-I really like swimming

And I coach the Math (MAO) team at one of the middle schools in my town (they always do well =])-I guess because I always looked up to my MAO coach the one year I had one

SAT scores:

800 Math, 800 Critical Reading, 700 Writing

SAT II's

Physics 800

Maths 800

GPA: 5.0 (weighted)

4.0 (unweighted)

Rank:1 of 365 (IB and rest)

1 of 150ish (IB only)

What do you guys think my chances are of getting into MIT, Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Swarthmore, Princeton, and Yale? (those are the places I'm applying to) -MIT is def. my dream school still, but I know MIT only takes about 1300-1400 students a year, and is EXTREMELY difficult to get into/VERY selective...

And what do you guys think I should do for safety/back-up schools?

(oh, and btw, the only reason/part of the reason I'm applying this year as a junior, is because I'm out of math and physics--I've taken a couple of maths and physics classes at my local uni, and done quite a bit of lab work there, as well as at other univ's)

My school is in the US top 20 schools list too btw. Does that help also?

Edited September 26, 2010 by thinkgreen95

[Maggi]

First of all, wow. It's been a long time since I posted on here...2 YEARS ago.

And,...well, I'm applying early action to MIT in my junior year, and I've actually only deviated slightly from my 'plan' 2 years ago, so what do you guys think my chances of getting into MIT would be?

I had originally planned on what I said earlier: math mostly, but what I've done is:

CLASSES:

freshman year:

Maths SL (not allowed to take the exam)

pre ib bio, english, spanish, AP/pre ib world history (5 on the AP),

and AP env. (5 on the AP)

sophomore year:

Maths HL/AP BC calc (5 on AP, and 6/7 on IB)

Physics SL (6/7 and 5 on AP)

AP Euro (5)

AP Eng Lang (4)

span

chem

Junior year:

IB Further Maths (predicted 7)-math just comes naturally;it just clicks automatically for me

Physics HL (predicted 7)-our teacher is awesome and I LOVE physics

AP Am history/IB History (first year HL)

IB eng. HL (1st yr of it)

IB span SL/AP span

IB env. Systems (predicted 7, but I've taken it before...)

And for extracurriculars:

Brain Bowl, I'm in the top ten scorers in my state (FL), as of last year--no tournys yet

INTEL science fair-placed 1st at regions last two years, and at states, planning on ISEF this year

MAO-2nd year in calc, 5th year doing it, have never NOT placed =]

InvenTeams-but my group is very dysfunctional

USAMTS/AMC/AIME (hopefully get to go to USAMO this year)

Student govt

Unicef

Teen Trendsetters

Key Club

Model UN-several comittee/conference distinctions

Cross country JV

Lacrosse

track and field

Varsity Swimming-I really like swimming

And I coach the Math (MAO) team at one of the middle schools in my town (they always do well =])-I guess because I always looked up to my MAO coach the one year I had one

SAT scores:

800 Math, 800 Critical Reading, 700 Writing

SAT II's

Physics 800

Maths 800

GPA: 5.0 (weighted)

4.0 (unweighted)

Rank:1 of 365 (IB and rest)

1 of 150ish (IB only)

What do you guys think my chances are of getting into MIT, Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Swarthmore, Princeton, and Yale? (those are the places I'm applying to) -MIT is def. my dream school still, but I know MIT only takes about 1300-1400 students a year, and is EXTREMELY difficult to get into/VERY selective...

And what do you guys think I should do for safety/back-up schools?

(oh, and btw, the only reason/part of the reason I'm applying this year as a junior, is because I'm out of math and physics--I've taken a couple of maths and physics classes at my local uni, and done quite a bit of lab work there, as well as at other univ's)

My school is in the US top 20 schools list too btw. Does that help also?

Hahahaha you are definitely getting in. Don't waste your time applying anything besides Ivy leagues and MIT and dont decrease chances for others