Can I get into an Ivy League (2)?

Question

I want to know If I can get into an Ivy or equivalent school (MIT, Caltech, Stanford.) I was born and raised in Puerto Rico so I get a big break from that. My GPA is 3.96 of 4.0 (school has no honors). My max scores on the SAT were M-700 CR-680 W-580 but I want to study Engineering so the writing shouldn't matter too much. I'm in my school's math and science teams, belong to the NHS and Student Council, and took the most advanced courses my school offers, some of which were basically made for me exclusively. Even with that though, I know it's still pretty hard to get into schools like Harvard and MIT. Do you think I can make it? If not, what can I do to help my chances?

I played French Horn in a band, practiced fencing, and help with charity drives when I can.

I've heard of non-foreigners getting 1800s and getting into Stanford so

You have no idea how terrible the education system is in Puerto Rico. I think I specially deserve a writing SAT score bonus since my native language is Spanish! I'm obviously gonna do pretty bad at correcting sentence errors that only someone taking a regular English class could correct.

Answer 1

The problem you have is that you are using standards which apply to far less-competitive schools, saying you get a "big break" from being from Puerto Rico and saying that the writing shouldn't matter too much because you will be in engineering. This would be true if you were looking at a lesser school, but you are talking about schools which regularly turn down people with 2400 SAT scores and perfect grades. Yes, these schools want diversity, but they don't have to compromise their academic standards to get it. My guess is that you would do well at a major research state school, but that the Ivies and equivalents would be out of range for you.

Answer 2

1380/1960 SAT is completely out of range for top Ivy League schools/and/or equivalent.
Puerto Rican is not a under represented minority anyways; its mainly African American and American Indian. You will get no "break" from this.
You have chances of going to a 15-30 ranked school; even those are reach schools. Just to let your know Harvard/MIT/Stanford are three of the five hardest schools in the US. (Harvard/Princeton/Yale/Stanford/MIT aka HYPSM). CIT is also incredibly difficult due to its SAT requirements.

Answer 3

Sorry.....but I think you have virtually no shot of getting into an Ivy or equivalent with those SAT scores, A 700 in math is not exceptional by Ivy standards....and in the bottom 25% at MIT and Cal Tech.

My son is currently enrolled in his sophomore year at Princeton and I have met three of his friends who are international students (from Japan, Austria and Nicaragua) and their English is exceptional. You are competing against the top students in your country and many of them have impeccable English skills....so don't expect your big break to be that big.....as I said before, there are many students applying from every country who will have outstanding test scores.

Sorry....the competition is intense......

Answer 4

Your SAT scores aren't good enough. Despite your "big bump" based on where you were born and raised (which matters less than you probably think), you aren't getting in.

Edit - Yes, some people with lower SAT scores than yours often get into top-flight schools. However, these are usually kids who have major, major accomplishments in their past or some other compelling reason (e.g. legacy) for admission.

As solid as your credentials are, they aren't that different from all the other applicants those schools get. And sorry, but the Puerto Rico thing just won't matter - you need to get over that.