Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton?
Yale, Stanford, Harvard and Princeton want GREAT grades in the hardest classes. You have to take the most challenging courses offered to you. For example, if you're really interested in science, and you're applying for a science major, they will wonder why you took only regular science and not advanced science. Of course, age restrictions and school rules won't let some students take AP classes, but you should do the hardest classes that you possibly can. They want to know what you're capable of achieving. If a class is too challenging and it's affecting your other classes switch back to the regular version. But try to challenge yourself, and yes, take the advanced science and geometry. A lot of people that apply have a GPA that is way over 4.0, so don't try to settle for what you think is the maximum. Do the absolute best that you possibly can in your classes to even have a chance of getting in. And yes, they do care about grades, not just if you have a 4.0. They want to know how you did in individual classes, and they look very closely at classes that are related to your major. Just a note, I used to think that the only good colleges are stanford, harvard, yale, etc but I found some other ivy league schools that are really good as well. Like cornell university is an ivy league and it has one of the best academic programs in the country. The admissions is not as cut-throat as harvard or yale, and the acceptance rate (for early admission) is nearly 30% compared to harvard and yale's 9%. You definitely should not rule out colleges just because they aren't in the 'harvard, yale' category. Just do your best, and good luck!!
Do you think I could get to Stanford, Harvard or Princeton?
Oooh A fellow IBer? I'm assuming that you are taking all IB classes? maybe? Because if you aren't your chances aren't that high. For Harvard. No. Unless you go out to south america tomorrow and spend your senior year volunteering and teaching them english, you need to have some DISTINCT community involvement that you are completely DEDICATED to. For Stanford, you truly need a stunning essay. What are your extracurriculars, hopefully you would know that these colleges do not look at simply grades? You should also have some pretty stellar ACT/SAT scores, you would also need to take some SAT 2s. You HAVE to be aware that those schools receive plenty of IB student applications, all of us have tons and tons of hours, its what SORT of commitment you have though. I for example have run my own kids camp since my 6th grade year (I'm currently a senior) I've donated roughly 2,000 to the Children's Home Society and I've won a variety of awards for that summer program. You should have taken your SAT/ACT's sooner... such as starting in 9th grade year. You have a really really really slim chance unless you are hispanic, then you might have a shot at harvard.
How do I get into Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, or Stanford? Do they have good scholarships for someone like me?
The details in your question are not really clarifying anything.Did you attend four different undergraduate programs? Have you attended four semesters of one or more undergraduate programs? What are you studying? Where are you studying?An MBA and a MSc are very different degrees. Why are you equating the two? If you were to pursue an MSc, in what field?Why have none of your 130 original books been published? Aside from these unpublished books, what evidence can you present to an admissions officer that you are “an original thinker”? Can any of your professors vouch for this?Very few people are great philosophers. Very few people are great businessmen. Almost no one is great both at philosophy and business in one lifetime. What specific plans have you made that will allow you to pursue both paths?If you get into MSc, PhD, or similar programs at these schools, you will probably have scholarship options. MBA scholarships are less common.
How can I get into Princeton, Harvard or Stanford?
My undocumented and sure to be challenged view is that there are several ways to come close to assuring admission, but nothing guarantees it:1. Be a world-class something—musician (Yo-Yo Ma), “genius award” winning artist or scientist, athlete with serious Olympic potential, mathematician with national-level prizes, etc., and all of these must be accompanied by reasonable promise of doing quite well once you get there.2. Come from a brutally harsh, deprived background, preferably from a place no one could find on a map, but still shine academically and otherwise.3. Donate a million dollars to the school and have a record that supports the claim that you won’t embarrass the place when you get there. (This figure is not random. It reflects what I have heard from sources I consider reliable. People will call this crass, but it’s no different than giving the school a new lab devoted to finding a cure to cancer.)4. Have extraordinary connections—e.g., one of your parents is a senior dean at the college, one was a former Rhodes Scholar who could still influence selections in upcoming years, one is on the Supreme Court, one invented the car, etc.5. Be able to truthfully claim you won the “Nobel Peace Prize,” showed dazzling heroism in promoting women’s rights in a hostile land, and earned endless accolades from every literate person in the Western world.6. Other things would help, but aren’t quite as good:(a) Have a 5.0 GPA (4.0 means little, because everyone has that).(b) Have amazing amounts of community service in your record, and of an unusual type—not walking dogs or playing with poor kids, but maybe something like holding the hands of hospice patients taking their last breaths.(c) Improve the school’s statistics (or “optics”), either as a minority applicant, or perhaps as a woman with some unusual experience, such as serving two years after high school as an Army sniper in Iraq.The world is a small place now, and you’re competing with applicants from everywhere. Be at peace with yourself, and keep in mind that if you don’t get into any of these places, you can always apply to one or more of their grad schools.
Why would Princeton and Stanford accept me but not Harvard, Yale or Columbia?
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are all Ivy League Universities. They have been between the 1st colleges well-known throughout colonial cases. All are placed in the East in the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, large apple, and New Jersey. Stanford is in California. The Ivy League colleges and Stanford all have purposes for admission between 18K and 22K according to 300 and sixty 5 days. All known novices had complete SAT scores with ranges of 660-790. The costs of attractiveness of scholars is in the variety of 9%-10%. apart from the percentages of those applicants who go with to attend the colleges is in the variety of sixty 4%-seventy 9%. There instructions costs according to 300 and sixty 5 days are in the ranges of $32K -$35K. It keeps to be for one to come to a decision on East Coast or West Coast. that's as much as the guy.
Do I have a chance at Harvard/Princeton/MIT/Stanford?
You look a lot like I did, except perhaps that my school was slightly weaker (the last Harvard admit was three years before I applied, but we were considered the weak link in a strong school district, so I'm not sure whether that helped that much).I'm also double legacy at Harvard (where I was accepted Early Action). I was rejected from Stanford (but then again, I didn't put that much care into that application, already having been accepted at Harvard).This just as one data point.
Is Stanford University on par with Yale, Princeton, and Harvard?
From a STEM perspective, my “gut feelings” (which schools students talk about, what kind of resources and cutting edge science goes on, historical prestige, et.c) are:If it’s engineering+CS, Stanford is considered better than HYP. Only other school that matches Stanford across the board in eng/CS is MIT.For medicine and biosciences, Harvard is the only one that would stand with, and could possibly be considered better than, Stanford. Personally, I feel that bio research at Harvard in certain fields is a little dated and old school, but it’s not like people laugh at you for getting a biochem BA or biophysics PhD from Harvard. As for an MD, I still think “Harvard Medical School” has a brand name that just carries across the world.For pure math, probably Harvard>Stanford. For physics, Princeton and Harvard > Stanford.Honestly though, doing undergrad at any of those schools mean you get a lot of opportunities . Grad school and postdoc are determined much more by which lab and publications. Having said that, there are pros and cons in terms of size and resources for each of those schools. Taking a very specific example, Harvard’s biosciences community is very large, but only if you take into account the med school area. The Cambridge campus isn’t miniscule, but there may not be lots of other people in a similar specialist field as you.For things like business, econ, law, etc., you’ll have to hear from others who have specialized in those fields…
If accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT, which would you choose and why?
It should depend on your major. You do not study “at the University”: you study at the department of your major. Yes, you are required to take courses at other departments, but those are basic courses, usually taught by Teaching Assistants, they are the same everywhere. But when you get to senior courses, they are NOT the same.For example, I went to Columbia. And all I did there was study French with Professor Gita May. I took four or five courses with her — this was the meaningful part of my Columbia experience. I also took courses with other professors of French which she selected for the department. Thus, you could even say I took all my advanced French courses with Professor Gita May.Thus, if you meant UNDERGRADUATE, choose the University based on the rating OF THE DEPARTMENT, and by reading the description of courses and the requirements OF THE DEPARTMENT.If you meant GRADUATE, the above is twenty times more important, crucial, life or death.When you study at the University, you do not see that University. I spent four years at Columbia, and I do not even know where its History or Biology departments are located: never been there. I spent three years at Yale (Graduate School), and did not have a second to think of visiting other Departments.Thus, take Computer Science. Stanford will be ranked first. Yale may be ranked thirty first, huge difference. History would be the reverse. Yale would be fitst or second, and what’s MIT history? Do they have this department? It seems funny to go to MIT and major in history.In one word: look at the department ratings. Find the Professor you want to study with. Example: you want to study 20th century French literature. You come to the Department, lovingly created by Gita May, and find NO COURSES TO TAKE. You can study 17th century or 18th century, but the 20th century does not exist, so you are out of luck.Look, Los Angeles, CA and Washington, DC are great cities. But if you want to see the White House, you should come to Washington, DC. There is no White House in Los Angeles, and you will have to settle for many tiny, insignificant, uninteresting, forgettable white houses.
Do you think I have any chance of getting into Harvard?
Do you have a chance? Yes. Do you have a better chance than most people? Yes. Will you get in? I don't know. A lot of the admissions process, ESPECIALLY at schools that are so incredibly competitive, is difficult to understand. People have been turned down for one sentence in their essay that the people on the admissions committee didn't like. You can be better than nearly everyone, and still get rejected for no obvious reason. I had a high GPA, interesting extra curriculars, awesome test scores, etc and I was rejected from Brown. Not even waitlisted. I know someone with basically the same stats as me who got into Princeton, but was rejected from Tufts. It's all very weird. As a veteran of the process, my advice to you would be to apply. Do your best on everything, from tests to essays to getting letters of recommendation. However, I would also advise you to look at other schools that aren't as high profile that are just as good. Your list looks like you just compiled all the most competitive schools and decided those were the best for you since you are a good student (obviously, though, I don't know that this is what you did). Look into schools that match other things, like your interests, your personality, your values, etc. Ultimately I will be attending a small liberal arts school that was recently voted one of the top 3 best for undergraduate education in the country and is a good match for me, which should be more important than how much recognition the name of the school gets. *edit* My essays were, if I may be blunt, very good. I had several people read them over, including two high school English teachers, my high school counselor, my parents, and a few of my smarter friends. I think I ended up with interesting, unexpected topics that were pretty well executed and represented me very well. Maybe the admissions committee thought differently, though. I don't know. I'm probably bitter, so sorry if I come off a bit, well, bitter haha. *edit the second* Nope, not Vassar, although I looked at it! The school is ranked in the top three for teaching, which is probably different from a lot of the lists around for top schools (most of these take into account how many distinguished professors there are and other things like that). I'm off to Grinnell College :) I have friends going to Cal Tech and Michigan, by the way!
Could I get into Stanford, MIT, Princeton, etc?
A2A. From your comment, you accomplishments are:“I am currently lead programmer of robotics team but our team isn't good, i am developing a simple game in Js, am fastest on xc team, will get Eagle Scout by the time I apply, and am in the top of my class.”Based on your stated accomplishments and without any standardized SAT and SAT Subject Test scores or written essays, my guess is no. I see nothing in your accomplishments that would standout when compared to the other applications.Admission is a subjective evaluation and comparison of all the applicants, which means one year you may be admitted and another rejected with the same qualifications.There are 20,000 top students in US high schools, so being a top student may get you pass the first round, but you most likely would not compare well with other top students who have done amazing things.Because I get questions like this all the time, I pulled out one student who has applied to Harvard class of 2021. Here is an example of your competition for top universities where you can see she has done some remarkable things. I believe she has a good chance of getting into Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, or MIT, but even with her accomplishments, that may not be enough.The class size of “Ivy League like” universities are small, usually around 2,000 freshmen. And the competition is fierce. But the only way to know if you can get into any university is to apply. To help you with your application, see College essays, the last and most important step in an undergraduate application.Note: If you include your SAT and SAT Subject Test scores in a comment, I may be able to give you a different answer.