Could I get admitted if I won’t have GPA 3.9 or higher? I attend one of the most competitive high school in my country and grades in my school are deflated. Most students get B’s and C’s and few A’s. I wonder is it possible to get admitted with lots of B’s but high SAT scores and other stats?
Depends… what are you standardized test scores? What do you consider “top universities”? How rigorous of a course load are you taking? What are your extracurriculars? Give me some more stats and I can give you some realistic predictions. What school do you go to by the way?
It depends on what you call top college and what else you’re bringing to the table. Also, college admissions officers are usually familiar with competitive high schools. Unless you’re an athlete or your family is donating $20M or are the president’s daughter, you’re not going to get into Harvard probably. But you may get into a top LAC (or little Ivy) like Middlebury or Vassar or Wesleyan or Carleton or Williams or Colby or Bowdoin. You may get into a great top public university, like UMich or UIUC or UVA. Also the Harvards of the world may not have the program that interests you. How good is it for theater tech? Marine biology? For theater tech, you might be better off at U of Indiana. For marine bio you might be better off at UCSB or UCSD. Also: Use Naviance wisely. If you need financial aid, you may want to target being in the top 30% of the applicant pool of a slightly lower-tier of school, like Rhodes, Lewis and Clarke, Whitman, Union, Agnes Scott–they would try to attract you with merit awards. If you’re concerned about how you’ll look to grad schools, it’s not just the name of your school that moves you along. All of the schools that I’ve mentioned regularly place students in top grad schools. But not 100% of the students from those schools get in just like not 100% of Harvard grads get into their choice grad schools. The determining factor for who does well is the student. Top grad programs take students from all kinds of colleges, high and low, because the student’s record and personality speaks directly to the program, not because he or she comes from a Top 20 College. I’d seek out carefully the programs within colleges that most interest you. Programs before college name, and financial considerations before that if you need FA. Look at the specialties of the professors. Are they doing stuff that interests me? How much research access will I get? Does this school tend to place people like me in internships that I like? If you do that, plus match scores on Naviance, you are more likely to find a school that makes you happy. So in this order 1) Financial considerations (what can my parents afford? how do I maximize financial aid with my scores?); 2) programs of interest at colleges; 3) tour for feel and to show interest.
I don’t live in USA and I haven’t taken SAT tests yet because firstly I want to find out if my GPA, which will be below 3.9 for sure, disqualifies me even with perfect SAT scores. Most of my grades this year are B’s and C’s (freshman GPA is higher because I was in middle school back then and most of my grades were A’s). Do colleges recognize that there are some high schools outside US where A’s are rare and can I get in Ivy League colleges with GPA around 3.6 or 3.7 with very good SAT scores?
Colleges realize that different countries have different systems and that even different schools within countries have different systems. What matters most is how you compare to other applicants from your country (class rank within your school), and your SAT/ACT scores obviously since this can’t change due to environment or the school you went to like GPA can.
GPA not so much, only SAT acts as a filter for colleges. So if you have a good SAT score most likely a college will look at your application.
@Dustyfeathers lol, so you think Malia had no chance of getting into Harvard if Obama weren’t president? Both her parents went there and that alone would probably get her in lol
@Meteoric Being a legacy doesn’t automatically guarantee someone acceptance, not even close. And I hardly think someone saying you need an amazing hook or stellar EC’s to gain acceptance to Harvard is the same as saying someone has “no chance” of getting in. The reality is, Harvard rejects hundreds of applicants with 36 ACTs or 2400 SATs, acceptance is highly unlikely for most people. Being a legacy definitely helped Malia, being black probably helped more, and yes, being the President’s daughter probably all but guaranteed her acceptance. She may have been accepted anyways since she’s a great student, but who knows.
Yes, definitely. Before making a decision, colleges factor in numerous factors. GPA is merely one of them.