So I have a question that came up with my counselor when we were talking about colleges, and it’s about GPAs in relation to Ivy Leagues. This is my counselors first year, so she doesn’t know too much, so any feedback would be great.
When we were discussing which colleges I should apply to, the subject of GPA came up, and after some quick research we found the folllowing to be the average GPAs of those accepted to Ivy leagues (we searched up Ivy Leagues because of the extensive amount of students that attended them from my school last year, so we had something to compare to)
After 10 minutes we came up with the following list
Brown… 4.8
Columbia… 4.16
Harvard…4.10
UPenn…3.93
Etc,etc,etc.
This may sound like an obvious question, but is this unweighted or weighted GPA? Our school averages a 4.7 Weighted, which is pretty high in comparison to the gpa of those accepted to the Ivy’s. I mean, I know it’s a holistic process, but having a 4.7 W makes you pretty competitive right? Anyways, that’s my train of thinking, which is why I’m confused about the whole GPA UW and W for Ivy’s.
Thanks!
Obviously, any HS GPA > 4.0 is weighted. But they may not necessarily be on the same weighting scheme, so comparisons are not valid unless you know that they are on the same weighting scheme.
But you can assume that, for any super-selective college, you need a HS GPA that is an unweighted 4.0 or very close to it in hard courses, barring some very unusual circumstances. Of course, while this is generally necessary for admission, it is nowhere near sufficient for admission.
@ucbalumnus well that’s the bulk of my question. What scale IS it calculated on? 4.0 or 5.0? The answer isn’t as simple as it seems, because I know it’s possible for students at my school to get above a 4.0 through extra courses. Our gpa scale is still on a 4.0 scale regardless
No one outside of your high school can tell you how your high school calculates weighted GPA. You need to ask your high school if that is your question.
And each college that reports weighted GPA may have its own method that differs from that of your high school and other colleges. And colleges may not make their methods public.
Here’s another list, probably a lot more realistic.
Brown University: Overall acceptance rate 9%. Average GPA of admitted students: 4.05.
Columbia University: Overall acceptance rate 6%. Average GPA of admitted students: 4.13.
Cornell University: Overall acceptance rate 14%. Average GPA of admitted students: 4.01.
Dartmouth College: Overall acceptance rate 10.5%. Average GPA of admitted students: 4.1.
Harvard University: Overall acceptance rate 5.2%. Average GPA of admitted students: 4.04.
University of Pennsylvania: Overall acceptance rate 9.4%. Average GPA of admitted students: 3.9.
Princeton University: Overall acceptance rate 6.5%. Average GPA of admitted students: 3.9.
Yale University: Overall acceptance rate 6.3%. Average GPA of admitted students: 4.19.
@ucbalumnus wrote: “But you can assume that, for any super-selective college, you need a HS GPA that is an unweighted 4.0 or very close to it in hard courses, barring some very unusual circumstances. Of course, while this is generally necessary for admission, it is nowhere near sufficient for admission.”
I completely agree.
For what it’s worth, one of my kid’s unweighted GPA was 4.0 and the other’s was something like 3.98 (on a 4.0 scale), both with extremely rigorous course loads. Both were accepted by their first choice colleges, Princeton and Duke respectively.