Do A minuses hurt you?

Applying to College
1

<p>I've always had a 4.0 UW GPA (junior here right now) and as my first quarter of junior year comes to a close I have realized two things:</p>

<p>1) There is almost no way for me to get a solid A in my English class (teacher is a beast at grading essays; only around 4 people each semester out of ~90 students out of all his classes get any sort of A) but an A-is certainly doable.
2) Reading on CC, I see many people saying that the adcoms look at apps holistically. </p>

<p>Would getting an A- (or maybe two, if I'm feeling particularly daring) affect chances? I'm looking at schools like HYPS by the way.</p>

2

<p>ummm i have gotten straight A- in high school, so I certainly hope not haha.</p>

3

<p>If only four people get an A then you will still be in the top of your class. Class Rank is generally more important than GPA in college admission, particularly at the top schools.</p>

4

<p>How competitive is your school; in other words, does your high school send dozens to top schools every year? Also, how much, to your knowledge, would the A- affect your class rank (if you do indeed have class ranks at your school)? </p>

<p>An A- probably won’t significantly hurt your chances, but it may depend on the above factors. At Stanford, 16% of 4.0 GPA students were admitted where something like 10.6% of 3.90-3.99 GPA students were admitted, but without context, this statistic is not worth much.</p>

<p>At my HS, which sends dozens to the Ivies every year, a 3.7 could most likely push you into Cornell. For a student at the average American high school, not even a 4.0 would have that much of a pull.</p>

5

<p>This topic is ridiculous.</p>

<p>People get into HYPS with B’s</p>

6

<p>In my school all variations of ‘A’ equals the same 4.0 (or 5.0 if weighted class).</p>

<p>So in essence, a A- can be the same as an A.</p>

<p>Class rank is more important than GPA. Worry about your rank</p>

7

<p>I don’t know about the exact competitiveness of our school, but to the best of my knowledge, we had around 15 people going to Berkeley and probably 2-3 go to top-tier Ivies.</p>

<p>We don’t have class rank.</p>

<p>A-s do not affect GPA, but like I said, I read that adcoms look at the transcript holistically.</p>

8

<p>it all depends on your school and grade inflation there.</p>

<p>i have 5 B’s on my transcript out of 15 core grades (which im sure shocks many CC straight A students)… and i’m in the top 2% of my class.</p>

<p>so it’s hard for us to say if it’s bad for you because we don’t go to your school, especially since you guys dont rank</p>

9

<p>Technically speaking, even though we don’t rank, I know that if we did, my class rank would be 1, since I have taken the most AP classes of my graduating class, and I’ve gotten A’s on all of them. Unfortunately, we don’t rank. Actually we do (sometimes it’s on an updated report card, etc), just that our district doesn’t want to release the information…dunno why.</p>

10

<p>Specific Ranking can cause friction and upset some parents. Htat is probably why some school don’t release the data. Your school WILL say, AT THE LEAST, what quartile you are. Tell your counselor to mention that you are probably the top student at school because of your multitude of AP’s. That should do the trick.</p>

11

<p>is it an honors or AP class? Because if it is you have nothing to worry about…actually, you have nothing to worry about even if it’s not honors level…</p>

12

<p>Let me try rephrasing my question. I just re-read the original post and I think it was kind of fuzzy.</p>

<p>Will adcoms think differently of an A-, or would the consider it the same thing as an A?</p>

13

<p>^ It’s a different grade. A grade is literally a distinction of quality, so an A- is not the same as an A or A+. However, admissions decisions are not made based on tiny transcript differences.</p>

14

<p>Ugh. I’m pretty much hookless (non-athlete, non-legacy, Asian-American) so I need all the help I can get… hopefully I can bring those A-s up to As by the end of the semester.</p>

15

<p>Haha I spent like 2 minutes trying to figure out what the title was…A minuses?..A min-uses?..A mi-nuses?..A minu-ses?..then I realized it was A- . I feel really silly now, lol. </p>

<p>As for the OP don’t worry about it if you get an A- but still work towards an A. ;)</p>

16

<p>See…I dont really know. I could see colleges doing one of two things. One, they could just see that you are in the “A range” in your classes and not care that all your As are low ones. However, they could also see that you live on the border with regard to your grades, which could hurt you. At my school, students within a percent or two of an A are often bumped up to an A by our teachers too…and I am sure colleges are aware this happens. However, its best to get all As and A+s if for nothing else, a greater certainty that you will end up with an A in the class.</p>

17

<p>I was wondering the same thing. I have all As and A+ except for one A- (91). Would I still have an UW 4.0?</p>

18

<p>As far as I know, most high schools don’t account +s and -s into the GPA… but since adcoms look at grades holistically, and as previous posters have mentioned, it still matters.</p>

19

<p>This question is meaningless without context. It all depends on how your school reports ranks/grades/etc and what types of classes you’re taking. People get into the best schools even with a very light spattering of B’s. An A- is likely not going to kill you.</p>

20

<p>I mentioned on the bottom of the second page that we don’t have class rank, but if we did, I would be 1 - I’ve taken the most rigorous schedule possible (and over, actually, since I challenged into two more APs sophomore year) and gotten all A’s.</p>