<p>Which one matters more? My grades in gr.9 and 10 weren't fabulously high skimming the 90-92 average. Then gr.11 my average is above 95. In the 98th percentile at school. I think these grades could be better, but I have some pretty good ECs. Which one will the top schools weigh more?</p>
<p>For all schools, grades are the most important aspect of one’s application. After all, the academics are the main point of college.</p>
<p>Top schools factor ECs into admission because the overwhelming majority of their applicants have the stats that indicate they would graduate if accepted. Consequently, top schools have the luxury of being able to use ECs to pick and choose from a pool of students with stats so outstanding that most colleges eagerly would admit them.</p>
<p>^Well said.</p>
<p>Basically, you have to have the grades and SAT/SAT II scores yaddayaddayadda to get in. The transcript is the most important part of the application. ECs, like NSM said, only help to distinguish between already qualified applications and allow the adcoms to assemble a diverse, well-rounded student body.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot 
Do you think my transcript would be good enough compared to other students?</p>
<p>^ It depends. Many of the ‘Accepted’ posts I’ve seen on the HYP forums, however, often sport 3.8-4.0 cumulative unweighted GPA’s.</p>
<p>I’m in the Canadian school system and we get percentages. And that’s what we send in. But my rank is in the 98th percentile =/</p>
<p>I don’t really understand what that means in Canada but a 98% as a grade is amazing in the United States (two points shy of the perfect 100!) See if you can make it seem that like that’s what that means on your transcript. </p>
<p>Anyway, for really top HYP schools the grades qualify you and the ECs help you stand out above the other people with identical transcripts. However they don’t have a specific grade cutoff (like everybody above a 3.8 gets in and everybody 3.8 and below doesn’t, for example) and there are lots of other factors that go in.</p>