@GMTplus7 Your last point is very odd. Your credentials are compared to your peers. It doesn’t matter if you think having a 3.5 GPA is great, compared to a 4, it’s not. You’re lacking the credentials comparatively. Sure, that 3.5 might let you go free to community college but in no way is it good compared to your peers when apply to top 20 universities. It’s all relative and with the rise of the common app, everyone applies to everywhere they “might possibly” want to go.