<p>It just makes me feel horrible (with an 87 GPA) that it's "not good enough" compared to these kids who have like 95 GPAs who think that they aren't good enough and whine about it. Since when was an 85 a bad grade? Anyone else want to weigh in on this? It makes me feel bad how everyone brags and yet worries about how "low" their SAT and GPAs are when they are high.</p>
<p>^87 GPA is really kinda low in the era of grade inflation. My kids’ high school:
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<p>This is College Confidential - a meeting place for students to learn about the college admissions process. Naturally, students who are very serious about their education are going to be high-achieving students. So, CC is a place where you see kids who are WAY above the average. It’s sort of the nature of very smart kids, a big cocktail party of how “stupid” they are with their 30+ ACT and 3.7+ GPA.</p>
<p>My advice - stay out of the “What are my chances” forums. There is simply no good way to predict admissions to very selective schools other than having good grades and test scores. Kids will complain of their 35 ACT in there, their 3.99 GPA.</p>
<p>With an 87 GPA and 23 ACT, there are many state schools that would love to have you. You are in NY, a state with one of the best public college systems in America. </p>
<p>Truth is, getting into a “top 20” or “top 50” college is super overrated. There are over 3000 universities in the US. Going to a university in the ranked “top 250” is within the top 10% of all the nations’ universities. You are certainly able to get into many of them.</p>
<p>It does make me feel horrible too when I see that, but try to distance yourself from the students who behave like that (mostly endemic to the What are my chances? forum), and use this site to gain valuable info on colleges, financial aid, scholarships, etc.</p>
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That’s true. However, my kids’ high school:
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<p>I know it’s annoying–no one likes an over-privileged whiner!–but the reason you’re seeing so much angsting is that, nowadays, kids with excellent GPAs are simply not getting into top tier schools they would have been auto-admits for 20 years ago. It’s a terrifying new frontier out there: everyone is an over-achiever, which means being an over-achiever simply isn’t enough. There are no guarantees or short-cuts… you simply have to be as extraordinary as possible and hope you get lucky. Essentially, those kids you can’t believe are freaking out over a 95… may in fact “not be good enough.” Yes, it’s crazy. Alas.</p>
<p>I’m speaking as a former over-achiever. It is frustrating and nerve-wracking to realize that doing everything perfectly: 4.0 GPA, acing your SATs (or not… I’m STILL upset over my subpar SATs and I’m 8 years out of college and gainfully employed!), being President of Whatever is not good enough. That your future is in great part left up to chance. Where you go to college IS important depending on your field of study–college brings networking contacts, internship access, an alumni network. And an entire generation that was told “if you just do XYZABCDFG you’ll be set for life” are finding that that simply isn’t true. My generation was the first to discover it, actually (I’m an Old Millennial) but yours is the one that is really suffering for it–it gets worse every year as more “extraordinary” kids apply to the same schools with the same number of places available. (it begs all sorts of questions, like “are all these kids actually extraordinary?” answer: yeah probably not but whatever.)</p>
<p>If an 87 average (not sure what that is as a GPA?) is what you’ve achieved and you are happy with it–and happy about your school prospects–who cares about everyone else? Not being super psycho stressed while applying to college is a blessing, no matter what your scores are. I was a ball of stress!</p>
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<p>My son was looking at the graph in Naviance for kids from his school who applied to the Ivy he is applying ED to.</p>
<p>Plenty of 4.0+ 2200+ kids rejected. A range of GPA and SAT scores admitted. Reality is that they think that 3.98 unweighted won’t get them in an Ivy and 4.0 will. And they are wrong, because it is not just grades.</p>
<p>87 = 3.48 GPA unweighted. Totally not bad at all, could be Ivy League with the right ECs, LORs, and essays.</p>
<p>YES finally someone who understands. </p>
<p>Especially them asian females, talking about how they can’t get into college when they all have 4.0 gpas .</p>
<p>What am I supposed to be then?</p>
<p>
Grade inflation</p>
<p>Okay, even some of these responses made me feel bad. Since when isn’t an 85 - 87 good enough? I suppose you all answered that, but my post was more of a rant about colleges’ extremely high expectations. I understand why kids are worried but hearing about it all the time is frustrating.</p>
<p>I have a 4.29 weighted GPA and a 2300 SAT score. I never complained before the results. But, now that I know my results, I complain all the time that I am a â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– piece of turd.</p>
<p>Rejected by UCB, UCLA, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO
Waitlisted by UCD, UCI</p>
<p>So surprised Mangiafuoco that you have all those results already!??!</p>
<p>@babs55‌
I already graduated from high school. I am from the high school class of 2014.</p>
<p>It also depends on the school, largely - at most schools, grade inflation is a huge issue to the point where it’s commonplace. At my school (private college prep), we don’t have ranking or GPA, but to get on the highest honor roll list, you need to have at least a B+ average with no grade below a B-. Some kids here would and do start new threads if they got even a B in a class. I agree that it’s ridiculous, but I think it’s mostly their schools that are causing them to be ridiculous - not solely the students themselves.</p>
<p>EDIT Oh and I agree completely with @proudterrier‌ :)</p>
<p>It’s not reasonable to treat people’s complaints as invalid just because other people have worse problems. </p>
<p>Usually these people aren’t complaining about the grades themselves—they’re not actually mad that they have a 95 instead of a 100 or whatever. If it’s not false modesty, they’re complaining about how anxious they feel about the prospect of getting lower grades in the future and not meeting someone’s expectations. At the most selective colleges, you probably won’t be accepted even if you’ve done everything right.
In many cases the other applicants will have higher grades, and you have to compete with them. That’s all. </p>
<p>If you’re not concerned with getting into one of the top few schools, you don’t need to worry as much as most of the people on here. For the most part, the acceptance rates go up very quickly as you move down in the rankings. </p>
<p>Ahems, I feel like people that complain about their GPA’s or SAT scores or feel like they can’t get into college usually feel that way because 1) colegesarereallystartingtolookatwhatyoudooutsideofschoolratherthanstaringatabook. There. I said it. Extra-curriculars and extra stuff students do is more important than simply your GPA. More than not, your ability to get across to admissions through your essays goes A looooong waaaaaay along. Just a thought.</p>
<p>People have different ambitions and priorities - for some, the difference between a 95 and an 85 is the difference between getting admitted or rejected from a graduate program, a fellowship, a scholarship, etc. </p>
<p>I have, in my own academic career, been upset over A-'s and content with C’s - depending on the circumstances. Never have I ever made any sort of remark, self deprecating or otherwise, about my grades with the intention of shaming or embarrassing other students. I recognize not everyone has the same goals or mindset as me. I’m taking Calculus I next semester as a Pass/Fail course. I am in a section that was originally designated for pre-med students (I am not pre-med) – I will no doubt be seated alongside students who are gunning for some of the most selective academic institutions in the world (literally). They will probably be fanatic over getting an A. I won’t be. I’m aiming for not-an-F. I’m not going to beat myself up because so-and-so is hysterical over an A- when I’m pleased with a C (or, cough, P). I understand that I have different ambitions than they do and vice versa. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about other people. Set your own standards and goals and work towards them. That’s what your peers have been doing all this time. </p>
<p>85 % of the people on here lol</p>
<p>
Grades, course rigor, and test scores are the most important factors for almost all colleges (you can see this by looking at Common Data Sets). Selective colleges consider extracurriculars and essays because they need a way to differentiate among their applicants with high grades and test scores.</p>
<p>It’s easy to get annoyed by the onslaught of threads with themes like “I got a single B during my undergraduate career! Are my chances at grad school shot? Am I destined to dig ditches for the rest of my life now!?” Or perhaps “I got a B my freshman year of high school and an A- my sophomore year! Is the door to Harvard shut for me now!?”</p>
<p>Many (most) of the students here are the high achieving students though, and it’s important to keep this in mind. This community paints an often very inaccurate picture of the admissions process. It makes it sound like the only students with a shot at the top school are the 4.0, 36/2400 students that have built (at least 3) houses in Africa, cured a disease, raised $50,000+ for charity single handed, all while sitting in the first chair in school band, being student government president, and leading several other clubs while also working a part time job to help support their family. </p>
<p>The very large majority of students do not fit into this picture. Relatively average students get accepted into top schools all the time. One does not have to get into a top 10, top 20, top 50, or even top 100 school to get a good education. If you’re trying to go the HYPSM route, then you do need to at least marginally fit into this picture, but HYPSM takes on plenty of 3.6, 32/2000 students that have only participated in a few extracurricular activities as well. Their chances of getting accepted are certainly less, but far from non-existent. </p>
<p>I found CC shortly after starting college. Upon reading many of the threads here, I almost started to panic. I’m a community college student and I’m in my last year at CC now. I’m also a high school dropout with a GED. I’m now majoring in physics. One of my first threads posted here was about the chances for a CC student to transfer to a school like UIUC. One of the first replies was along the lines of admission for CC students to UIUC being incredibly difficult, and that it would be near impossible for me given that I have a GED. Well…this was nonsense. UIUC accepts a ton of CC transfers and a GED is perfectly acceptable to them. Decisions don’t come out until April, but I’m about 99.9999999% sure that I’m going to be accepted there. </p>
<p>Point being, a lot of the comments on here have to be taken with not just a single grain of salt, but an entire salt shaker. </p>
<p>The reality is that, no matter how good your grades are, you just can’t be sure.
Children of foreign heads of state, children of gigantuan wealth, 5th generational legacies, children of various large donors, celebrity kids etc. are applying, and colleges seek after these kids to increase their prestige. Colleges are going to do what’s in their best interest and your 2400/4.0 makes no difference. Of course, obviously it’s possible to get in, but you can’t even be reassured about that mathematically.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, I just wanted to say that this is not the fault of the CommonApp or application fee waivers being sent out. Those two things just result in more ridiculously unqualified applications being sent , with kids being fooled into thinking they have a shot because Harvard sent them junk mail, or just plain delusional, or “I might as well” thinking. I just read a thread last week. A girl thought she was competitive for Harvard with a composite SAT of 800 and a GPA of 2.7. (Was that a joke by the way?)
More unqualified kids applying doesn’t decrease your chances of getting accepted, just the acceptance rate of the school. Your chance of getting accepted is not the acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Lastly, I don’t think it’s overrated to try to get into a highly ranked school, for those who are saying it is. For example, there are firms that exclusively hire from specific schools. Getting into a good school will heighten your network abilities, I think mainly because it’s guranteed that you will be surrounded by people just as motivated, talented and hardworking as, if not more than, you. I don’t want to be surrounded by people I can’t have an intelligent conversation with. Correct me if I’m wrong about any of these things, but I see nothing that should suggest it’s overrated.</p>