<p>What are the chances of getting into an Ivy with an UW 3.7 GPA (.005 away from a solid A..steady upward trend: 9th- 3.4, 2/5 H's taken, 10th- 3.7, All H's, 11th- 3.9, 3 AP's, rest H's) & W 4.5, top 7% of my class (Weighted rank)?</p>
<p>...Assuming that the applicant has strong EC's, essays, standardized test scores & recs?</p>
<p>P.S. & the school is public, not highly ranked in the state but challenging & most teachers suck</p>
<p>Top 7% would be low for all but some schools at Cornell. Especially applying from CT which is very overrepresented. Bring up rank.</p>
<p>Really… I thought that most who get in to Ivy Leagues are in the top 10%?</p>
<p>I am in a class of over 500.</p>
<p>Actually, I think that I’m in the top 5%, not 7%.</p>
<p>It depends. Do you offer the school geographic or racial diversity? Are you a legacy? How incredible are your ECs? etc</p>
<p>Geographic diversity: No. I’m from CT.
Racial diversity: I’m 50% Moroccan… does that count for anything? My Dad is a foreigner.</p>
<p>I think that my EC’s will be pretty good… can I run them by you?</p>
<p>bump:] 10char</p>
<p>Look at even the mid tier ivies, over 40% of the accepted are top 2 in their class. When you back out the hooked and kids from underrepresented places, that’s most. Top 10% is simply a US News measure.</p>
<p>Look, we’ve assuaged your fears thoroughly. Stop posting these threads.</p>
<p>My son has a 4.15w, 3.85uw. Is in the top 3% of his class in a large suburban school that’s very competitive. Heavy weight EC’s, yada, yada, yada. I don’t want to take ANYTHING away from my son, but he’s not even looking at Ivy League.
Go for it, but don’t expect it.</p>
<p>btw. I’ve never seen a grading scale that makes an ‘solid A’ 3.705… and the colleges don’t care if your teachers ‘suck’. The best students assess their instructors, their teaching style and what they can expect to receive in the class. They then determine what if anything they will need to do on their own outside of the class to ensure they succeed.</p>
<p>How far does top 10% get you? Do other great schools like Carnegie, Vandy, USC, etc. consider you if you’re in top 10%?</p>
<p>Ctgirl628, I had a 3.7 Unweighted GPA from a high school that doesn’t rank. I can promise you that you’re transcript won’t put you completely out of the running, but you definitely want to invest some time in your extracurriculars and other factors. At least for Dartmouth, I believe 91% of the student body were in the top 10% of their class, so top 7% would be great when coupled with strong factors in other areas of the application. </p>
<p>P.S. If you’re 50% Moroccan, I’m quite sure that you’d be considered URM, in which case, you definitely have a shot. Don’t lose hope!</p>
<p>blueiguana - if your son has taken difficult classes and has qualifying SAT scores (2100+) then he is a qualified Ivy candidate. Your example is not pertinent to the OP’s question IMO.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses… I didn’t describe the teachers in my school accurately. When I said that they “suck”, I mean that the vast majority of them could not care less about what we learn, our futures, etc. For example, my math teacher teaches us 40-50% of the time, and lets us watch Glee and talk, the other 50-60% of school days. Sure it’s fun, but I’m not learning anything. My English teacher last year was absent for almost the entire school year. When he was there; he gave us easy work, if any at all (It was an Honors class), then threw an incredibly irrelevant and difficult midterm paper at us… (which I aced :], but still)</p>
<p>Hollow- Thank you… your reply helped me the most. I’m really curious if I could qualify as a URM. Does anyone know how I can find out?</p>
<p>A 3.7 unweighted isn’t exactly a desirable position to be in if your aspirations are for an Ivy League school. Weighted, you would definitely want to be at least 4.3 (on a 6-7 point grading scale, if 10 point grading scale you’ll want to be much higher than 4.3), and a weighted 4.3 stripped of its weighting stands significantly above a 3.7.</p>
<p>Ctgirl, hol didn’t help you, he just told you what you want to hear. He’s wrong. Go focus on high school and stop obsessing. Non profits and other gimmicks won’t help and miracles like going from top 7 percent to Val don’t often happen.</p>
<p>What does work is being passionately involved in school and community.</p>
<p>Work hard and good luck!</p>
<p>Ctgirl:</p>
<p>Take Redroses advice seriously. The obsession path you are on will hurt you more than you realize. Adcoms will see right though your “check-off-the-box” application where your high school years are dictated by your doing what you think they want to see. </p>
<p>The fact that you can list dozens of ECs on your college apps isn’t what’s going to get you into a top college. It’s who you were and what you accomplished while investing time in the ECs. </p>
<p>Based on your obsession to “do what you have to do to impress adcoms”, do you think any teacher or guidance counselor will write a recommendation that will make you stand out above the competition at those top schools? No way. Good letters of recommendation come when the teachers see a student who is unselfishly invested in their high school life on many fronts, and not just the self serving areas.</p>
<p>You’ve ignored many who have tried to give you this reality message. If you continue to ignore it, then make sure you apply to a few safety colleges - as you will definitely need them.</p>
<p>^Agreed 100%.</p>
<p>Redroses, I was not delivering the OP what she wanted to hear. I’m saying that I was an unhooked applicant with a 3.7, and that our OP is not completely out of range. Other than that, you are precisely correct. There is certainly more to life than impressing an admissions officer, and the passion you put into what you do and what you write will make a significant difference in your admissions chances.</p>
<p>I think his point, though, is that she liked your input and disliked the others because she wanted to hear your input and didn’t want to hear the others. I’m not sure if he was accusing you of anything.</p>