<p>Skier: I applied ED (accepted) and I certainly didn't have a stellar GPA by any means. It was fine (I think their avg. GPA for acceptees is like 3.8, and mine was well above that, but I don't have like a 5.0 or anything). But I do go to an incredibly intense private school (it's like nationally ranked as top 50), so I'm thinking they definitely took that into account. My dollop of advice is to, as antoinetheswan said, WORK YOUR ESSAYS. Ultimately, there are a lot of people who have great tests, gpas, recs, ec's, honors, grades, blah blah blah, but no two applicants will have the same twist on the essay...don't just write them for the sake of filling up space or trying to sound remotely intelligent; my focus on my application was on my essays, and I think it helped me a lot.</p>