Hello CC members 
What are my chances for the Ivies + Stanford with a 3.67 GPA and a 2400 SAT? I had a severe downward trend junior year because of extenuating circumstances in my personal life (which I mentioned to my counselor and may or may not be in my counselor rec). I’ve taken the most rigorous classes all throughout high school, and before junior year my GPA was around a 3.77. I’m doing better now in my classes, and if I get a 4.0 for first semester senior year (or a 3.86 with one B+) would that make a significant difference to the college admissions committee?
I can’t post details about my extracurricular activities/awards here because it would be too obvious to the people who know me who I am ><, but let’s just say I have very very strong commitments to my activities and have won numerous awards (local, state, and national).
THank YOu guys
GPA is UW (my school doesn’t weight GPAs) and my school doesn’t have class rank.
About the same as someone with a 2100 SAT and a 4.00 UW…
Yeah, not really helpful, right?
Like most people, your success or failure at these schools is going to come down to your application, and no one can realistically access your true chances without a lot more detail than you have provided here.
I’m assuming that the award’s you’ve won and your EC’s are pretty famous/prestigious if we would know who you are from them. Well, that’s a good thing. GPA is the only thing holding you back, but at this point, there’s nothing you can do to change it a lot. Why not give those schools a shot?
Extremely hard to give you your chances unless you give us your ECs
Ivies and Standford are among the only schools who place an equal emphasis on ECs as GPAs and Test scores
Your stats give the impression of a very smart kid who is not willing to dedicate his time to school work (your GPA was not strong even before your junior year debacle). So why those elite schools should believe that you will change your behavior and suddenly become dedicated to college intense and more competitive environment?
They will look at you, given your strong SAT. It would be better if you could squeak that GPA above 3.7, though. I’d say you still have a reasonable shot at the Ivies with higher acceptance rates (Cornell, Dartmouth for example). My kid with a 3.75 and 2380 superscored SAT got in everyplace she applied, including UChicago, Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Carleton, and a bunch of other schools with good merit aid. She honestly didn’t think any of the Ivies were a fit for her except maybe Columbia, but she hates NYC… You probably have some very good choices, but the tippy top colleges do expect slightly higher grades. However… any student who wants to know their chances at “The Ivies” isn’t looking very hard at fit for their colleges, that is just chasing prestige. No student would be happy at any Ivy, as they vary quite a bit. Get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and build a list of matches, safeties, and a few reaches. You can certainly have Ivies or Stanford as those reaches. But broaden your search focus.
@intparent
How was your son/daughter’s school in terms of rigorousness? Like was it difficult for him/her to keep an A which resulted in her getting a 3.75? I have a 4.0 GPA and high SAT 2320 but low class rank (top 11~20%). I’ve already applied to many of my “reach” schools ivies+stanford+washu+swarthmore+UChicago+duke+Williams+amherst+bowdoin+middlebury+jhu+northwestern+vandy+rice+Georgetown+emory…
I felt like most of my application was strong (Test scores+EC’s+somewhat prestigious awards etc) except my class rank (I was not within top 10% of my class. However, my school reports rank in quintiles, so I was reported as “top quintile”). Should I not expect to get into any of these “reach” schools? I’m honestly hoping for at least one! 
Her class rank was about where yours was. But she applied only to schools that were a really good fit for her, and I think that showed in her essays, recs, ECs, etc. Your odds don’t improve with just expanding to a large list of shot gunned schools, in my opinion. Your list just seems prestige focused. And you shouldn’t hijack other people’s threads.