do y’all think a 3.7/3.8 uw gpa (w tons of aps and honors) from a rlly competitive national topping hs would be competitive enough? my only problem is that they never post any stats about their gpa accepted so while i know my sat is fine im worried about that component… sorry for bringing the stress into the thread aha you guys are the only ones that understand yanno
@calilurv i’d say 3.8 is fine but 3.7 might be pushing it a bit. i think 3.8–4.0 is probably the safe range for ivies
your SAT score can give context to your grades. if it’s very high, then that might indicate that your school has grade deflation or something. i think your rank is incredibly important as well, since columbia (and other ivies) accepted 90%+ of their students from the top 10% of their class. (there are some exceptions of course, like if you graduating class has like 10 people lol)
GPA is relative. Your class rank is more of an indicator. Top 5% is not a disqualifier. But who you knows? Valedictorians are turned away. The whole process seems rather arbitrary to me.
i go to a school where like the top 40-50% is 3.8+ so i don’t really know how columbia is gonna decide “who’s better than others” in that aspect ya feel? i know my essays and ecs have a fighting chance but dont wanna be removed on just that gpa aha
Big mood. I’ve got a 3.9 (UW, my school doesn’t weight) but I’m not entirely sure if I’m top 10% (which is 5 people in my grade of 51) because my school doesn’t rank, it only gives quartiles if requested (I’m in the top 25%). Going to such a small school makes the comparison really tough because the pool is so small.
@calilurv if almost half of the school has a 3.8+, then that would raise a question in my mind. it either means that you go to a very competitive high school or it means that your grades are being very inflated (aka getting an A at your school is easy). i don’t really think either situation is all that ideal, because inflated grades means you would have lower grades at a different high school, and not performing at the top of a competitive high school means that there are more attractive candidates for the ivy league (if you have other applicants from your school). what’s your rank? that might help us understand your situation more.
@katewithak if your GPA and SAT/ACT is good, i think you should be fine. i dont think having a relatively small class is inherently bad.
yeh and another thing is like students in my grade sometimes take way fewer aps than students like me and have way higher gpas than i do
@1984ad my school doesnt rank but my school is 11 in the nation… not to give too much of it away… and we have around 100+ kids going to ucla and uc berkeley alone (we’re in the LA region) and a ton going to ivies, and other top privates as well so it’s pretty tough… an A in an AP class is deffo well-deserved but the kids in my school also sleep for like 4 hours a night aha
@calilurv okay, so that means that your school is competitive. also, how does someone taking less APs have a higher GPA, doesn’t your school have some type of weighting system?
either way, i don’t think it changes the situation too much. if you have similar stats as the kids who go to ivies, then there’s nothing to worry about. if your stats are lower than the people who get sent to ivies, then that’s a different story
@1984ad makes sense and nope no weighting, just unweighted here! my naviance doesn’t show the scatter plot of all those accepted so I’m just praying for the best lol but thanks for putting it all into context for me 
I’m pissed off at my school because they rank only unweighted and there are a lot of kids that take regular and a couple of honors classes and get straight As that are ranked higher than me which is why I really hope CU takes the time to look at what classes I took vs just seeing my rank.
@calilurv I think my school has the same system. We go by unweighted which aggravates meee. We always have around 5 valedictorians too because as long as you get straight As no matter if one person with straight As took all regular classes vs a person with all straight As that took APs, they’re both valedictorian which is craaap. It also peeves me when people take easier classes and have a higher unweighted GPA than me and act like they’re smarter. Sorry for my rant, but thinking about is makes me so salty.
@AcademiaSavvy yeah, that sounds really dumb, im not sure why any school would operate like that. however, having no weights is fine as well because columbia can understand why your gpa might be a little lower
Would you guys rather get rejected or deferred? Sometimes I think I’d rather get rejected bc IDK if my anxiety can hold up till late March.
@AcademiaSavvy I hear ya. I am in the top orchestra at my school where no ECs are weighted. I would have a higher GPA if I took a study hall instead. Where’s the logic in that?
@1984ad Yeah that’s what I’m hoping for!
@AcademiaSavvy i like saying that i would rather be rejected than deferred just because im melodramatic but in all honesty wouldnt everyone prefer a deferral just for self esteem purposes :))
tbh i just really want the decision now, it’s all i can think about. it makes it even worse when you have no idea who you’re competing against! :(( who even knows what kind of crazy things these applicants have done. i like taking solace in the fact that CC tends to have students who are more motivated/care more about college so we almost self-select ourselves for admission haha
i like all of you so much though! i wish that all of us could just be the class of 2022
@AcademiaSavvy I would definitely want a straight up reject if it’s gonna be reject anyway. Deferral would be nice only if there was a considerable chance I’d get in RD. I do like the melodramatic response @1984ad mentions– my friends and I say this all the time.
I just want to know the decision!! ugh why is columbia not letting us know :((
I thought it was a good idea to take hard classes senior year so it would look good, but now my grades are going to be slippin and slidin this semester(all my eggs are in the ED basket). But hey, I’ll graduate with 15 APs. Was it worth it? No!