Honest Opinions - is there a big difference between a 3.9 and a 4.0?

Applying to College
1

<p>you can be brutally honest.</p>

2

<p>yes
...
...</p>

3

<p>yeah, I'd like to know this myself.. especially from people who've gone through the whole college applying process</p>

4

<p>depends on the class, at my school, the highest grade in the AP Lit class is a 91, so no there is not a big diff there, but in AP Stat it is very hard to drop to a 3.9 so yes.</p>

<p>unless you meant a diff in the way it is viewed by colleges, I can't help you there</p>

5

<p>yea - i meant how is it viewed by adcoms.</p>

6

<p>there both the same, calm down.</p>

7

<p>^i wish you were an adcom</p>

8

<p>well your in luck, i work as one of the adcoms in uva. :)</p>

9

<p>whats an adcom?</p>

10

<p>short for admissions committee member</p>

11

<p>depends on the HS. If a HS has rampant grade inflation, i.e., 30 people tied with a 4.0, than a 3.9 could move you to the second decile. OTOH, if a school is really miserly with A's, then a 3.9 looks great.</p>

12

<p>yeah its taken with consideration to your rank.</p>

13

<p>both are the same, because neither a 3.9 or a 4.0 will get u into a top school
both will get you past the preliminary "can he graduate" checks</p>

14

<p>^ What juzam_djinn said. There really isn't a big difference.</p>

15

<p>this is true as long as it doesn't affect rank. There is a big difference at the Ivies b/w 2/300 and 12/300.</p>

16

<p>is 12/300 supposed to be really bad?</p>

<p>crap.</p>

17

<p>well it depends where you go. But what I was saying is that a 4.0 would more likely be analagous to the 2/300 rank whereas the 3.9 would be similar to 12/300 (big time generalizing). The point is that rank is incredibly important anywhere; the only difference is competitive high schools allow you more room for error.</p>

<p>At Harvard, for example, there is more than enough Valedictorians to fill ever slot. They choose not to do that, but at the same time a 4.0 Val has much better odds than a 3.9 that is barely in the top 5%.</p>

18

<p>Yes. 12/300 is terrible. There are only 288 people stupider than you in the school. God. I can't believe that there are such morons at CC.</p>

19

<p>really
12/300 is good</p>

<p>U people stop freaking out
Be happy u got a 3.9...</p>

<p>In my school, u get an 80% u are a genius.... thats how evil our exams and marking scemes are</p>

20

<p>im happy with my grades - i worked my butt off for them. i was just wondering if they were competitive enough for top schools.</p>