<p>With so many students having 4.0 uw gpas, is a gpa in the 3.85-3.89 competitive for top colleges?</p>
<p>bum p</p>
<p>Yes. Top colleges are quite aware that the difference between a 4.0 and 3.85 GPA is really only a few unlucky Bs. The top 20 schools could probably fill themselves entirely with perfect GPA kids if they wanted to, but that simply never happens.</p>
<p>Depends on when you got th B, if you have an explanation for it, and how hard your courses are.</p>
<p>Even so, I believe 3.9+ is competitive</p>
<p>On my transcript, I have 25 A’s and 5 B’s beginning with 2 high school classes (Algebra 1, Spanish 1) taken in 8th grade up to the end of junior year’s first semester. The B’s were in the 2 semesters of my first AP class taken during freshman year (89 and 88 respectively), a semester of geometry during freshman year, a semester of spanish 3 during sophomore year, and a semester of chemistry during sophomore year. By the time junior year ends, I should have 32 A’s and 5 B’s. This isn’t counting fluff classes either like BCIS (computer class) or pe.</p>
<p>Definitely! If your application is supplemented with plenty of extracurriculars and test scores to boot, a 3.8-3.9 GPA is definitely in the running. I can only say that from personal experience. I had 3 (became 4) B’s and got into Stanford, and I knocked out the valedictorians and many others with 4.0 UW.</p>
<p>The GPA only defines you to a certain point, but it isn’t your whole character. The top tier schools recognize this, so don’t fret too much.</p>
<p>^ In regards to your schedule, that is a definite factor as well. There are many, including valedictorians, who take easier classes, TA, or put off non honors classes to boost GPA and rank, and this does not necessarily work. If you’ve been taking a rigorous schedule and get B’s, it’s totally fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great advice guys. Does anyone else have any more input?</p>
<p>well, I got B’s in my freshman year and tons of A-'s throughout hs for a gpa of 3.8.
I ended up getting into Wharton.
Pick your battles. Clearly GPA only means something if it’s low.
You’re not going to get picked if you have a 4.0 solely because “you have a 4.0”</p>
<p>it really depends on the difficulty of your courses. a B in honors chem looks way better than an A+ in normal chem, for example.</p>
<p>And schools dont only pick for qrades. they look at how well you handle thins, so if you can, stick some extracurricular stuffs in there.</p>
<p>qood luck! =)</p>
<p>It’s all relative, of course.</p>
<p>While not having a 4.0 won’t immediately take you out of the running, it’s worth noting that only one student has gotten into an Ivy from my school without perfect grades. But I imagine that’s a combination of my school not being well-known to top schools and a 7-point grading scale without pluses and minuses (93-100 A, 85-92 B) that makes the difference between a 92.4 and a 92.5 (which rounds up) much greater than at other schools. </p>
<p>So, again, it depends. What’s your rank? How many kids does your school typically send to top schools? What are your SATs? SAT IIs? Will teachers rave in your recs or just send off an unoriginal template? Etc.</p>