Being a British international student I wanted to know whether I may get rejected from top universities such as Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, Emory and UChicago. Since I did not study or take any of the American curriculum exams. (APs, GPA) etc. Though I will be taking the SATs. Could someone tell me how international students are processed through admissions, will my Essays really save me through my application. I only have GCSE which are C grade so they are not the strongest I have currently taking A levels( british curriculum) So I’ll be taking the SATs and subject tests too.
Yes, there is a possibility you will get rejected, if only because the universities you're mentioning reject 90-95% of the students that apply to them. I can't really tell what your expectations are from the way that you worded your question, but no one, no matter how strong a student or how good their academics are, should really expect to get into many of these schools, much less all of them. The best students will apply to 10 of these kinds of schools and get into maybe 2 or 3. That's how their admission process works.
More towards your question, colleges will look at international students based on the systems in the country they're coming out of, so doing well on your A levels would be roughly equivalent to doing well in AP classes in an American curriculum. Now, to be clear, essays aren't really for "saving" people, because top universities will typically have cutoffs for things like SAT score and general grades. They almost never admit anyone who falls below those cutoffs, whereas above those cutoffs essays become extremely important in differentiating between similarly accomplished students. What I would do is compare your general accomplishments to people from your school or area who have gotten into these schools in the past—that's the best gauge you can get for how your process might turn out.
To keep this community safe and supportive:
Thank you for your response.
Would you advise me applying then or not? In regards to the universities that I have mentioned. I have not taken my A levels yet as I will be applying before taking them so I will have to add in my predicted grades. My GCSE’s are not the strongest so I don’t think I have a chance.Are there any other universities that you recommend I should look at?
The problem is that I don’t know anyone from Britain that has gotten in these top schools. How can subject test/SATs