Any chance at any Ivy League with a 3.0?

[Sdma89]

<p>"Also, it is in the school's interest to say that grades are more important. More people have high grades than high SAT scores. If the school encourages the highest number of people to apply, their acceptance rate decreases, making them appear more selective and also driving up the rankings."</p>

<p>This does hold truth to it. I did read in one of Michele Hernadez's books that even if admissions officers know that you have no shot of getting into their schools (either with a low SAT score or something like that), they will still encourage you to apply to their schools. For one, it is a lot easier to go through a "joke" application. Secondly, by advising more people to apply, they are promoting their school, and the acceptance rate of the school will go down. Hence, they will appear to be more "selective." This is a bad practice, but it does happen.</p>

[ohmadre]

<p>I think, from what I have observed, the truth may be that, within the context of a certain basic level of acheivement demonstrated by SAT scores, grades really are a strong determining factor. All other things being equal, which of course is impossible, applicants with excellent grades and/or rank and an SAT score which is average for the applicant pool can get (and certainly have gotten) the nod over applicants with higher SAT scores, good ecs but lower rank. Even then, however, it has, fortunately, much to do with the strength of the whole package and, unfortunately, something to do with the college's sense fit and particularly needs. It is therefore critical that the parts of your application you have control over give the adcoms a good sense of who you are .</p>