<p>Say...</p>
<p>2200+ SAT
Perfect SAT IIs
5s on AP Tests</p>
<p>Could that offset a bad GPA? If not, coupled with amazing ECs, could they? Amazing ECs like... better than 95-99% of HYPS applicants' ecs.</p>
<p>Those are great stats, so I would say that those, plus EC’s could be taken into consideration on an application. What years did your bad grades occur? If they were as an underclassmen, it’s not as much of a reason to sweat, or if they were in AP/IB classes. That said, GPA is still THE most important factor to HYPS and the like. There are lots of other great colleges out there that don’t place as much emphasis on GPA as other factors. I guess it’s all relative, and it depends on what you consider to be a “low” GPA.</p>
<p>Yes. However, better ECs than 95-99% of HYPS applicants requires one of the following:
- Winning IPho/ICho/IBO/IMO/Intel/Siemens
- Founding a multi-million dollar charity/company
- Making it onto the NYT best-seller list
- Brokering Mideast peace</p>
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<p>5% of HYPS applicants have that? ._. ahh, nevermind then 
. and i thought my ecs were good haha >.>; </p>
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<p>Freshman and sophomore year … fun times :)</p>
<p>^ Then honestly, as long as you didn’t fail any classes, you should be alright. As long as you have continually improved throughout high school, colleges should be able to recognize that bad grades often happen during freshman/sophomore year.</p>
<p>thsfan345 is overestimating the average applicant. Feel free to share your ECs and people can tell you where you stand. 5% of applicants are not multi-million dollar charity/company founders, Seimens winners, or NYT best sellers. Obviously.</p>
<p>The test scores, no, Those scores will essentially be expected at HYPS.</p>
<p>Incredible ECs would be extremely helpful, but at the end of the day, nothing really makes up for a bad GPA. Your GPA is the best indication of how you perform as a student, and thus a good indicator of your success in college. You have to remember, colleges want to more than just intelligent and active students- they want GOOD students. Stuents who sill study and do their homework and excel in class. The kid who built a nuclear reactor in his garage got rejected from MIT…</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that really can save a bad GPA is an upward trend, and it sounds like you have that. Bad grades fresh/sophomore year then doing well junior/senior is FAR more favorable than average grades all 4 years, even if the GPA comes out to the same number.</p>
<p>I got really lazy sophomore year (at my lowest I had a 3.3), but started taking a bunch of college classes and worked it up to a 3.75 weighted and I managed to get into two great state colleges even though my SAT scores were lower and my EC’s were good, but not great.</p>
<p>I was exaggerating for effect. No, not all HYPS applicants are that amazing, but to stand out, you will need to do something special.</p>
<p>However, with the things you specified, you’d still be able to get into a great school, and possibly one that’s more fine-tuned to the major you want to pursue.</p>
<p>Pancaked- Ahh that’s a relief! Although my grades this year aren’t stellar either, they are much higher. </p>
<p>Acuraman93 - We have the same gpa! :D. Well, UC GPA assuming that’s your UC GPA haha</p>
<p>thsfan345- well, i have done something similar to what you have listed…i haven’t earned millions but i have earned quite a lot. :-)</p>
<p>Good is subjective so… well I’m going to be applying for some of the toughest majors to get into in the school of engineering/computer science (depending on what the school offers). That’s probably not going to help my case. But good would be… UCSD and above.</p>