<p>After sifting through these forums for a while I've noticed that the majority of accepted students to Ivies and other top tier universities don't have perfect 4.0 GPAs. I'm assuming this implies that they've received Bs throughout their high school career. I've seen several GPAs as low as 3.7 that have been accepted to Stanford, Penn, and MIT. How is this possible? I assumed that you have to have all As to get into those schools. I have a 3.95 and I'm very worried because I've received a B.</p>
<p>One or 2 Bs is fine. However, if you have more Bs than As, that is not fine. Because they look at more than just your grades.</p>
<p>Lol not having a 4.0 doesn’t mean you get Bs. In my school A+ is 4.0 and A is 3.8.
And the “several” 3.7s getting into those schools have some type of hook</p>
<p>Lol. Don’t worry. I have a friend who had B’s and he’s going to Stanford.</p>
<p>To the OP: Yes, young grasshopper. Congratulations for stumbling upon this tidbit which 80% of CCers just can’t seem to grasp</p>
<p>They’re going to look at your transcript and see what those B’s were in. Gym, fine. AP classes? Well, understand plenty of the competition will have As. And really, rigor and performance in classes related to your possible major is always good.</p>
<p>Don’t the adcoms look at the context of the grades? At kid’s HS, someone gets 4.0 once a decade. My daughter didn’t get an A grade in math during HS but has several at Harvard. She never did better than a B in math in HS but got 5s on 2 AP math tests. All high schools, grades, AP classes are not the same and I’d hope that adcoms widely recognize this. </p>
<p>Ok, so I don’t plan on getting any more Bs, it’s just nice to know that some mistakes are accepted. My junior year course load is quite heavy and I’m worried about the possibility of getting a B in English or French class.</p>
<p>It also depends on the school you’re coming from and the courses you took - if you have a 4.0 from a large, not-very-well-regarded public school, it will not mean as much as a 4.0 from a top private school. I went to a competitive private school, and while we’re certainly not top 10 or anything and we don’t have GPAs, there has not been a single person in the past 4 years, who, to my knowledge, has graduated from the school with perfect As all 4 years.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, a B at Phillips Exeter Academy ( or any rigorous school ) is what can be forgiven since the academic rigor is insane + on drugs there. But a B at a not-so-difficult school is kind of a red flag, especially if you have more of them than As. They’d be extremely worried if you wanted to be a chemistry major and you got B-'s in a not so rigorous chemistry class. </p>
<p>My son got mostly B+ in foreign language. It kept him from a 4.0. His rigor was high, scores high, recs great, essays great, in the end it didn’t matter. But, if you don’t have the offset, that’s a different story. </p>
<p>Rank is important too. That’s why the Common App asks for it. It puts the sub-4.0 grades into context.</p>
<p>Also, admissions officers at the most selective schools don’t each review a bazillion applications. They have a limited territory (population-wise), and if they don’t already know the standards used at your high school, and the kind of rigor that’s available to you, they will find out. That’s their job.</p>
<p>@WasatchWriter , fewer and fewer schools provide rankings (in Northern NJ, I think it’s the exception). That said, the admissions officers, as you say, know the schools and what an UW 3.85 means in school A vs school B. </p>
<p>Colleges also care about extracurriculars and not just grades. Plus, different counties have different grading systems.</p>
<p>
Depends on the college; top-tier privates, yes. Publics to a lesser extent.</p>
<p>Ok, so I have a 3.95 and I’m in the top 6 percent of my class. I have no idea if that’s competitive or not. I have had A+s so far besides Pre-AP geometry, which I got an 87 in. </p>
<p>@su1xsu2xsu3 , your GPA will not be a problem. Don’t obsess over the B. </p>
<p>B in pre-AP geom can be ok if the rest of the transcript shows rigor and performance. And the rest of your app shows the qualities they look for. Are you actually reading the websites of your target colleges, so you can gain more perspective? Kids should. And explore from other (non-CC) angles.</p>