Balancing GPA and Extracurriculars--is it neccessary?

[Aquilina]

Hi guys!

I am currently in the second semester of DP. I have good extracurricular activities. I did graphic design and science writing for a couple of international magazines (one in Spain and one in Lahore) and I will soon get my Periodic Graphics featured on University of Waterloo's magazine Chem 13 News. As soon as I return to school from the Spring Festival break, I will start a STEAM (STEM+Art) program with BUCT-RSC Chemistry Outreach Centre to create materials for institutions, Chinese science media and science/chemistry workshops mainly for teenagers. I will also illustrate (and probably edit) an astrophysics book which I heard will be reviewed by an Oxford professor and published. 

However, as I have lots of extracurriculars, I don't bother getting really high percentages for IB tests. For subjects like chemistry, design, Spanish, something that could be transformed to a 7 would be OK. And I don't really bother a 40/42. I can get a 39, but I am really not that good at math and I don't want to squeeze lot of my EC time to study math really hard. 

People are really emphasising on GPA here (like they say GPA is the most important thing; univs are going to admit the students with the best scores, not better extracurriculars; better ECs could not secure you a better place). I don't quite agree with them; I want to follow my unconventional passion in promoting STEAM education and be really outstanding at it. But I don't know if what they said are true. And I also don't want my teacher to get disappointed with me as I get lower percentages because of the ECs. 

What do you guys think?

 

Edited February 4, 2017 by Aquilina

[IB`NOT`ez]

I feel you should just keep on what you're doing. Being able to maintain 37-39/45 is good enough for the most prestigious US universities so long as you're not going for STEM e.g. Engineering, and having extremely unique extracurriculars will go a much longer way. Keep in mind this is only for the US though.

[kw0573]

Some top UK schools they may need 39-40s (or sometimes 7 in Math HL) but you have very good chance for most others schools around the world. I do think most schools would gladly accept you. 

However I would say that GPA is very important in your bachelor program. You should begin to develop good study habits and skills. I do think you should take a break from some of the designing work closer to exams to get good predicted grades. Some of your employers may also be able to write you some outstanding recommendation letters, which may potentially make up for any low grades (but 39 is already quite impressive!)

In high school, I did various extracurricular activities, including many leadership positions, mostly in school clubs. It seems to me that some schools want good grades and few ECs but done very very spectacularly. I can't say that your ECs are not so, but consider, if not already done so, to publish some collection of work (or a significant paper) consecutively so it could be a single big project. 

[Aquilina]

14 hours ago, kw0573 said:

Some top UK schools they may need 39-40s (or sometimes 7 in Math HL) but you have very good chance for most others schools around the world. I do think most schools would gladly accept you. 

However I would say that GPA is very important in your bachelor program. You should begin to develop good study habits and skills. I do think you should take a break from some of the designing work closer to exams to get good predicted grades. Some of your employers may also be able to write you some outstanding recommendation letters, which may potentially make up for any low grades (but 39 is already quite impressive!)

In high school, I did various extracurricular activities, including many leadership positions, mostly in school clubs. It seems to me that some schools want good grades and few ECs but done very very spectacularly. I can't say that your ECs are not so, but consider, if not already done so, to publish some collection of work (or a significant paper) consecutively so it could be a single big project. 

Oh yeah, these are parts of a single project. The project is called Alchemy, and I have a facebook page for it: facebook.com/alchemysciviz. We are getting lots of stuff published by the next semester. By the way, I am not considering about UK schools; I am considering about American top universities and LACs. I think I will work hard to do a good job on TOK and EE and get a 42/45. 

[Aquilina]

21 hours ago, IB`ez said:

I feel you should just keep on what you're doing. Being able to maintain 37-39/45 is good enough for the most prestigious US universities so long as you're not going for STEM e.g. Engineering, and having extremely unique extracurriculars will go a much longer way. Keep in mind this is only for the US though.

Yup, but I don't really agree that 37-39/45 is enough. It should be 38-40/42.

[IB`NOT`ez]

1 hour ago, Aquilina said:

Yup, but I don't really agree that 37-39/45 is enough. It should be 38-40/42.

Not necessarily – for the US, at least (the UK may be another matter, but I still don't understand how you would not consider 39/42 to be enough; 777666 is a 4.0 perfect GPA already)

Referring to the IBO's Guide to US Institutions (http://www.ibo.org/contentassets/5895a05412144fe890312bad52b17044/recognition---international-student-guide-us--march2016---eng.pdf.pdf), which is updated for 2015-2016, the average DP score for top tier schools like UC Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania is 38/45. The ones that are slightly higher than those schools e.g. Stanford probably won't have averages exceeding 40. A reason is that they place equally, if not higher values on standardized testing e.g. SAT/ACTs.

Assuming ECs, interviews, recommendations, and essays are all out of the equation and it's only IB grades + SAT scores that are present, they'd more likely choose someone with 38/45 and a 1500/1600 SAT than someone with a 41/45 with only 1400 SAT (this is just an example my counsellor, who has had experience as an admissions officer, used to give me an idea of how much more value is placed on standardised testing than the IB). Another way to look at this is with the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns: the best schools stop caring about IB grades once they're past a certain benchmark e.g. 38-40/45. There's only so many people who can achieve amazingly high IB scores (40+) and can still attain stellar SAT/ACT scores (32-36 in ACT or 1450-1600 in SAT); you only need both components to be high enough to meet their standards, and then let everything else e.g. extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations shine through as they will do so much more than a marginal increase to your grades by that point.

Unless you're thinking of Oxbridge and LSE in the UK, you don't need to be sweating if you're already at a 39/42 or even a few points less. Personally, I highly doubt an admissions officer for a school like Brown to look at someone with a predicted IB score of 45 and simply because of that, think "hmm, he definitely deserves a spot here".

 

Edited February 5, 2017 by IB`ez

[Aquilina]

3 hours ago, IB`ez said:

Not necessarily – for the US, at least (the UK may be another matter, but I still don't understand how you would not consider 39/42 to be enough; 777666 is a 4.0 perfect GPA already)

Referring to the IBO's Guide to US Institutions (http://www.ibo.org/contentassets/5895a05412144fe890312bad52b17044/recognition---international-student-guide-us--march2016---eng.pdf.pdf), which is updated for 2015-2016, the average DP score for top tier schools like UC Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania is 38/45. The ones that are slightly higher than those schools e.g. Stanford probably won't have averages exceeding 40. A reason is that they place equally, if not higher values on standardized testing e.g. SAT/ACTs.

Assuming ECs, interviews, recommendations, and essays are all out of the equation and it's only IB grades + SAT scores that are present, they'd more likely choose someone with 38/45 and a 1500/1600 SAT than someone with a 41/45 with only 1400 SAT (this is just an example my counsellor, who has had experience as an admissions officer, used to give me an idea of how much more value is placed on standardised testing than the IB). Another way to look at this is with the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns: the best schools stop caring about IB grades once they're past a certain benchmark e.g. 38-40/45. There's only so many people who can achieve amazingly high IB scores (40+) and can still attain stellar SAT/ACT scores (32-36 in ACT or 1450-1600 in SAT); you only need both components to be high enough to meet their standards, and then let everything else e.g. extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations shine through as they will do so much more than a marginal increase to your grades by that point.

Unless you're thinking of Oxbridge and LSE in the UK, you don't need to be sweating if you're already at a 39/42 or even a few points less. Personally, I highly doubt an admissions officer for a school like Brown to look at someone with a predicted IB score of 45 and simply because of that, think "hmm, he definitely deserves a spot here".

 

Yup, I do know that standardized scores are most important (I am aiming for 1500+; or if I am lucky enough, 1550+). But my aim is the Brown-RISD-Dual-Degree and our councellor says that Brown wants 39/42. And when I went for the Brown infosession, the admission officer confirmed this. 

By the way, what can be considered as a good recommendation letter? I have heard some schools don't show the students the letter. How can I know if its good or not, then?

Edited February 5, 2017 by Aquilina