My GPA is too low, would I get accepted? (Get Accepted to Your Dream University Part #3)

- Action.

- Hey guys welcome to another

educational video.

In this video I'm gonna teach you

how to assess your chances

of getting into your dream university.

Because sometimes you're like,

oh I want to get into Harvard.

But how do you know if you're good enough?

How do you know if you have

good chances of getting accepted?

One key to it is looking

at an average class profile,

and I'm gonna teach you

all of the tips and tricks

that you can use to assess your own chances.

So if you're interested,

continue watching this video.

(upbeat music)

So basically what you want to do

is go to your university's page,

go to the admissions page and

sometimes they would even publish

the class profile.

A lot of MBA programs do that.

If your program does not publish

the average class profile,

and I know that a lot of bachelors

don't do it, a lot of masters,

you can basically reach out to

the admissions committee and

tell them hey, my name is Marina,

I'm an international student applying

to your program,

could you please tell me

what was the average GPA of the

students you've accepted last year?

And maybe you could also advise me on,

you know, the amount of work experience

they've had or maybe what you're looking at

when you're considering an application.

Because this would give you an idea

of what to strive for,

maybe you should do more volunteer experience,

maybe you should double down on your tests,

because again,

average class profile is what you should

strive to become and

if you're at least 10% better,

the good chances are you're getting in,

you're getting some financial aid.

If you're 10% worse on each category,

like your GPA is 10% worse,

your work experience is 10% less,

then maybe it makes sense to

postpone your application for

a couple more months and

dive deeper into tests or

maybe even apply next year.

Or maybe lower the plank of your universities and

look for some low ranking ones but

that have more chances of you getting accepted.

Let's take a look

average class profile.

Let's do Harvard.

So what we have here is

9,000 applicatants, 900 got accepted,

less than 10%.

69 countries represented,

perfect a lot of international students,

41% women, 37% international,

nice but what interests me a lot

is first GPA,

is my GPA high enough?

Like, if you are getting this 3.71 GPA,

the average, and yours is like 3.3,

that means you have to show really high

geomet score, like higher than average.

Because you have to be,

on average I would say in order to

get accepted and get financial aid,

you need to be at least 10% higher

than average on every single criteria.

Like GPA and work experience, test results, et cetera.

But if you're not,

like be careful here.

This is something that I will

always pay attention to.

Background.

Like economics, humanities, STEM.

Like this doesn't give me a lot of information,

but for example,

if I'm applying from an economics background,

I know that I'm in the majority.

Which means that I have better chances,

slightly better chances of getting accepted.

Average age 27,

sounds good of you're a 29,

if you're a 25 that's all good.

If you're like 45,

you might be a little like,

because again,

universities are looking for

diverse classes.

But they also want everyone to

get well on together.

So they would be looking at

people from different backgrounds,

but also like different ages.

But not like way too far,

so maybe if you're 45,

I would recommend looking at

executive MBA programs.

Because BA programs are always like,

so much fun,

like parties and stuff.

I don't know if you're interested in

that at the age of 45.

But maybe if you are,

again no worries here.

GMAT and GRE,

because they accept both,

they're gonna give you like,

median.

Okay so the median is 730.

If your GMAT is 690,

well for Harvard,

I wouldn't really apply.

Maybe try,

but the chances are low.

Again, ideally your GMAT is like 740.

Or if you're taking GRE,

it's almost like 170 on both.

170 is the maximum here,

so again you want to be

at least 10% better.

Or at least like,

not more than 10% worse.

When I was at this Harvard MBA meetup,

what they told me,

like you always have a chance of

applying later.

Right?

You always have those three deadlines,

the ideal situation is that you apply in

the first or second deadline.

If you're applying in the third deadline,

there are really low chances of getting accepted.

But sometimes you're like,

maybe I should apply in the second deadline,

instead of the first.

So the decision making process here

should look like,

would I be able to improve my test scores

but 35% if I apply in the second round?

And if the answer is yes,

then just postpone your application,

work a little more on your tests,

and apply later.

Another important thing to mention,

again what I've done when I was

communicating with the universities,

I was communicating with them,

like writing emails.

It's real important to show that you're interested and

I was attending all of the seminars and

webinars that they conducted for

international or like, any applicants.

There would be like 20 people

at those seminars,

especially if it's a small university.

But they're gonna remember you.

They're gonna remember as an active student.

For a top ranking universities,

they would want you to come on campus,

maybe to take a tour,

this is like an ideal thing.

And they always ask for it.

Like, if you look at an application,

you would always see a question,

like have you attended any of our open days?

Have you attended any meetings?

Have you met with our admissions committee?

Because they want to see how interested you are.

(hands clap)

Hey.

How much you're willing to commit to this application,

are you willing to travel for it?

Are you willing to go to another city for that?

Because sometimes they have like,

travel admissions committees

and you can just meet them in

different places of the world.

So, if you don't have the chance to travel,

at least go to all of their seminars,

webinars and stuff and

use your real name while registering,

because again,

this is the way for them to remember you,

and this really works.

Thank you guys so much for

watching this video up to the very end.

My goal with this video is

that you finish watching it

with a full picture in your brain,

like what are your chances of

getting accepted?

Where do you stand regarding to

the students who go accepted last year?

And I hope you enjoyed watching it,

I hope it was useful.

Please don't forget

to like this video if you enjoyed it,

if you're new here subscribe to this channel,

there's a red button below,

click it and I'll see you soon,

in the next videos.

Bye.