I’m currently a Junior with a 3.72 Cumulative GPA (for Freshman and Sophomore). However, at the end of my freshman year my regular unweighted GPA was a 4.0 and then I kind of let myself slip away from my education a bit during the course of my sophomore year and got 3 B’s out of my 5 courses, which hurt my GPA quite a bit at the end of the year. What makes me mad though is that they were all high B’s (89, 89, 88). This year I’ve been really motivated and am making all A’s, even in my AP courses.
I’ve always dreamed of attending an Ivy league school, but I know that takes a good everything basically, in order to be admitted (SAT score, extracurricular, essay, etc) and your not just taken into consideration because of your GPA… although that is pretty important to. Just talking strictly about my GPA in this thread, what would be my chances of being admitted into any Ivy league when it comes time to applying to colleges? Do colleges look at mainly your cumulative GPA or is the unweighted each year more important? I’ve done some calculations and even if I get all A’s on my record for the next two years, I will still only have a 3.8-3.9 cumulative GPA (depending on courses I take). What I’m basically asking here is do I have any chance whatsoever in attending Yale, Princeton, Harvard, etc? (obviously permitting that I have a good SAT score and all that jazz to go along with my GPA). This whole college admission process is so confusing yet so frustrating at the same time. I really don’t want to go to some state university or community college, but also I don’t feel as if I’m good enough for the Ivies. Everyone posting on this site has some major achievement, is founder of a bunch of clubs, all A’s, taken almost all IB and AP courses, 4.0+ GPA and is still rejected. It’s really not a confidence booster reading some of the threads. I have an interesting background, am Editor for the school newspaper and a participant of a few others clubs, and I’m very passionate about the sport I do. But that’s nothing compared to other students!
(Excuse any grammatical errors in this thread, I did not proof read and am writing this fairly late at night for me)
There are literally thousands of universities in the United States that aren't community colleges or Ivy Leagues.
Even if you apply to selective schools, you need matches and safeties too. Otherwise you could end up with nowhere at all to go to college. And wouldn't that be worse than "some state university"?
If you end up at a non-Ivy, don't go into it thinking the school is beneath you. Kick that mindset to the curb right now. You'll have an awful time and it will have been totally preventable.
I didn’t mean for that to sound rude and probably shouldn’t of put it that way, and I understand I will need to apply to safety schools which I have picked out. Thank you for picking out one sentence of my thread and responding to that and ignoring every other question I had though, your response was lots of help. I get what your saying, I do, but there is no need to be rude about it. .
okay so idk what i’m saying b.c i’m also a newbie to this but my counselor and everyone that i’ve talked to say that a lot of people qualify/overqualify for the ivy leagues and what really sets ppl apart/gets them are the essays and how much of ur personality u show in them. i’m also sure that they take ur course load & everything else into consideration. if they see that u’ve made upwards progress in ur grades i’m sure they’ll be very happy!! also there are a lot of great schools that have ivy league quality education so don’t forget to consider those too!! good luck, you’ll go far <3
“What I’m basically asking here is do I have any chance whatsoever in attending Yale, Princeton, Harvard, etc?”
For students with straight A’s throughout high school the chances at these schools are low. Your chances would be better if you can pull off high A’s from now on, and if you have a “hook”. Definitely don’t give up but also don’t count on it.
“I really don’t want to go to some state university…”
The two best software engineers that I ever worked with went to state universities. Both have been very successful in life. When I was a graduate student at a highly selective university many of the other students there, probably a majority, had done their undergrad at a public in-state university.
You can be exceptionally successful going to a state university. Also, going to a state university for undergrad does not stop you from going to an Ivy League school or equivalent for graduate school.
However, you are probably better off if you ignore rankings and look for a school that is a good fit to you. This is of course more difficult than looking at rankings.
Are you looking for a excellent education? If you are, you might spend more effort learning about the rich variety of outstanding opportunities that are available.
What do you actually enjoy about learning? What do you see yourself as accomplishing after college? College/university is the beginning of a new life and not the end of it! What do you actually plan on doing once you get there? :bz
You dont want to go to some state university of community college. There are thousands of colleges between the ivys and cc’s. Its not all or nothing. Hate to tell you this but some of the finest educations in this country are at state universities. If you look around successful people come from all educational backgrounds. Lets put it this way you and everyone else have a less than 10% chance of attending an ivy. And there is not one person other than the admissions officer who could tell you whether you will get in or not. Its a lottery for high stats kids in many ways.
