<p>So I've taken all AP/Honors classes in an accelerated track. My grades are slightly lower than the kids at the top of my class, but not too much lower. I'm probably top 5% in a class of about 130 at a competitive boarding school. Is this high enough for HYP? (I know GPA isn't everything, but does this 'complete the requirement' so to speak)</p>
<p>highest unweighted gpa in my grade = 94/95 something.</p>
<p>we have an exceptionally smart grade, compared to the others.</p>
<p>If your school regularly sends students to HYPS then it should be good.</p>
<p>Kind of. Not Exeter/Andover numbers but like 10-15 to Ivies a year. Some are athletes though.</p>
<p>I would imagine some are also legacies and URMs. I’d have to say probably no to HYP not being top of class without a knockout EC. Even at A/E, only the very top get in without one of those hooks. Your college counselor is in the best position to tell you.</p>
<p>Well I’m in the top ten. I mean it’s not public school… I’d assume it’s harder. And we don’t have too many URMs at our school - it’s predominantly white with some international students. And the URMs that our at our school normally don’t go to top schools even as athletes. I still have 11th grade. If I get it up to a 94 or 95 unweighted would that be better? Also, we don’t do official ranks or GPAs.</p>
<p>
Of course that would be better but, as you surely know, HYP admissions are extremely competitive. Redroses said it well, top of class and/or knockout EC to be in the game; any less, love your safety.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Edit: Even if you’re top of the class w/ knockout ECs, HYP are still tough; shoot for the stars, but have some matches and safeties.</p>
<p>Wait - top 10 isn’t at the top of the class? And what would constitute a knockout EC other than athletic recruit/music prodigy? Like a powerful focus in journalism/writing… editor-in-chief of both the newspaper and yearbook, writing awards, completely revamped newspaper from obscurity to professional, quality work, newspaper awards (national and state), internships, writing for real, professional newspapers, coupled with debate, of which i’m president of and have won state awards and done well in? I’m really trying to express the power of the word and voice and my passion/dedication/expertise in these fields. I hope it’s better than average in comparison to most “well-rounded” HYP applicants.</p>
<p>Honestly, a boarding school that’s all white and interntionals is not a very competitive one. I would not assume it’s harder than publics in general. I’d also assume, that like at average public schools, you’d need to be val or have a hook for any real shot at HYP.</p>
<p>A knockout EC would be a well selling published book, winning a national science competition, being an artist shown in galleries, a musician people pay to see.</p>
<p>But we get students who aren’t top ten into Stanford/Ivies…</p>
<p>CC is a disheartening place. I appreciate all the input, and hopefully I’m not being too close-minded or naive, but it seems a tad ridiculous that an applicant with a 4.0 UW GPA that’s in the top 10 of his/her class at a competitive private school has no shot at HYP unless he/she is a legacy, URM, athlete, or super standout in an EC.</p>
<p>
Really? Since when does ethnicity determine the intelligence/competitiveness of a school? We have a significant share of Asians, Jews, etc. if you want to play that card.</p>
<p>I’m not saying you don’t have a chance, but after reading a lot of results threads here I’ve come to learn just how competitive HYP are. Sub 10% acceptance rates, but when you take out the hooked (mostly athletes in terms of raw numbers) the actual rates are probably 5-6%. I used to believe that a lot of the rejected applicants were non-competitive and skewed the acceptance numbers downward but I’m not so sure of that anymore. </p>
<p>For perspective, I saw my son as a dream applicant (val, UW 4.0, Natl and State AP scholar, natl. community service award, etc., etc. ad naseum) but I’m afraid he wouldn’t have been accepted to his HYP school had he not been a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>It’s depressing.</p>
<p>Ignore the naysayers, do your best, try to stand apart from the crowd, hope for the best, and be prepared to attend a different great college.</p>
<p>As I said and meant before, Good Luck!</p>
<p>Stoompy - take a look at the results threads in the Ivies forums and you can see the types of EC’s an unhooked applicant without a perfect GPA has. Usually, when a student with a GPA < 4.0 is accepted, they come from a private school. Don’t lose hope. Being in the top 5% is a great achievement!</p>
<p>Thanks. I’m probs going to get rejected. I have a legacy at UPenn but I don’t want to use it in the early rounds to hold it out for Columbia, Harv, Yale, Princeton.</p>
<p>How do your EC’s and test scores look? Also remember that essays can be the tie-breaker. Take a look at the most recent post on the Yale RD thread - a student was accepted with a 3.77 GPA from a public school! I talked to her over PM and she said that she thinks that it was her essays that made her stand out.</p>
<p>
Yeah, that’s one thing that sucks about the system. To even try for HYPS, applicants must drop the ED advantage everywhere else. Just for the right to enter the HYPS lottery. That seems unreasonable.</p>
<p>YES. It sucks because I personally don’t like Penn too much.</p>
<p>I would say you have a low chance, but no lower than if you had a 96% or a 99%. </p>
<p>Obviously this sort of thing is a crapshoot. Go for it if it’s really what you want, but dont’ be surprised if you don’t get it. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Top boarding schools have large endowments which they use to create diverse classes. When there is that lack of diversity in a private school, in the vast mjority of cases it’s not a top one. Kids from Asia who can get into Andover, Exeter, St. Paul’s, Deerfield, Lawrenceville and Hotchkiss are there.</p>
<p>HYPS have tens of thousands of top applicants from all over the world applying. They take some very top students, a distribution from 50 states and as many countries as possible, 20% URMs, lots of athletes, 12% legacies, kids who are hyper accomplished in something…a just top 10 student from a good school has little shot. It’s kind of like asking why you can’t count on winning the lottery.</p>
<p>Your biggest issue will be whether or not you want to give up the legacy boost at Penn.</p>
<p>We have kids from Asia and the Middle East, Latin America, and Russia. We just don’t have a lot of American-born hispanics, that’s what I’m saying.</p>