<p>They are considered peer schools and roughly equally difficult to get into, but I noticed this somewhat interesting fact. The average (HS) gpa of Harvard students is 3.94 while it's 3.86 at Princeton, a sizable difference. From anecdotal experience, this is sort of confirmed, the lowest gpa to any Ivy League school (aside from cornell), MIT, and Stanford was at Princeton (3.9 vs 3.94 at other schools) and a girl with a 4.0 who got into Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Columbia, and upenn was waitlisted at Princeton. Maybe Princeton treats a 3.8 the same as a 4.0, while other schools want as high a gpa as possible? Just something interesting I noticed. </p>
<p>1) .08 is a “sizable” difference?</p>
<p>2) No, Princeton doesn’t treat a 3.8 as a 4.0. They treat a 4.0 as a 4.0. Maybe they seek different qualities in their applicants that goes beyond just the numbers.</p>
<p>3) Hypothetically speaking, if Princeton treats a 3.8 as a 4.0, why wouldn’t they treat a 4.0 as something spectacular? Your anecdote doesn’t really apply to the point you are raising.</p>
<p>4) Is there a specific question you would like to be discussed on this thread?</p>
<p>Well .08 is somewhat significant, it’s not statistically insignificant. I was just thinking maybe it does show Princeton really is more “holistic” and less numbers based perhaps.</p>
<p>Another possible thing to consider is the purported discounting of freshman year grades at Princeton that may still be going on, like in the past, though it’s difficult to say.</p>
<p>3.94 at Harvard is a self-reported GPA of those who answered The Crimson survey. How accurate that is can be put up for debate. I don’t know where the 3.86 figure for Princeton came from, as I have not seen Princeton officially publish that. Regardless, the difference, IMO, is meaningless.</p>
<p>I saw 3.86 on naviance’s super match.
Harvard’s number being self-reported is a good reason. Regardless, it’s significantly different, 3.86 means more than 2x as many slip ups which I’d call significant.</p>