<p>If someone had a lot of extracurriculars, amazing essays/reccomendation letters, 5's on AP exams and near perfect SAT/ACT scores, but they got one "B" freshman year, what would be their chances of getting in? considering that there are atleast 20 other people with 4.0's.</p>
<p>I don’t think one B in freshman year would make much of a difference, if at all.</p>
<p>Then again I wouldn’t know for sure.</p>
<p>Don’t worry. Lots of folks with 4.0 get rejected, too.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, if you have an occasional grade lower than an A, I don’t think that will seriously affect your chances of being accepted to Harvard.</p>
<p>One ‘B’ is not an issue, but keep in mind that this year Harvard rejected 83.7% of all applicants that applied SCEA and rejected 95.8% who applied regular. With those kind of odds, you have better luck in Vegas.</p>
<p>At least 20 people? At least 20,000 other people.</p>
<p>It’s not about GPA. If Harry has a 3.9 GPA but he’s the valedictorian, and Jillian has a 3.9 GPA but she’s rank 20 because there are 19 students with GPAs ranging from 3.9 to 4, do you think Harvard treats them the same?</p>
<p>GPA is evaluated in the context of your class rank, course rigor, and school profile. So we have no idea what your GPA means but you should aim for flawless and go from there.</p>
<p>@rdas: If the extent understanding of the subtleties of Harvard admissions is stuck on the 4.0 or not issue, then can I suggest you really drill deeper? There is a lot involved beyond GPA. You’ve not even scratched the surface.</p>
<p>One B in Freshman year will not harm your chances at all…not even a little bit. Like T26E4 said, there is tons more than GPA you should focus on. Do somethings you love, write those amazing essays and make them spectacular, and enjoy your life. :)</p>
<p>3.95 and interesting > 4.0 and boring absolutely any day.</p>
<p>I can’t tell whether I’m being so concise because it’s late or because of something else, but I can distill my best advice about increasing one’s chances for extremely selective colleges into two words: be interesting.</p>
<p>exul,
It is absolutely true :-). But, keep in mind the old saying: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is also difficult to define “being interesting”.</p>
<p>Being interesting = being different = standing out from the crowd. </p>
<p>Many students look the same on paper – great ACT/AP/SAT/SAT II scores, instrumental music, math trophy winner, student newspaper editor, debate team medal of honor, volunteer of the world, etc. I imagine when you review thousands of applicants, your eyes start to glaze over at the sameness of everyone. On the other hand, when an admissions officer comes across an applicant who really has done something unique, they tend to perk up and take notice.</p>