How do people with low GPA's get into IVY??

<p>^ Quality post right there.</p>

<p>or just have more money than everyone else which means more opportunities. but it’s whatever.</p>

<p>thank you iluvbooks94</p>

<p>but cmon now guys, really, if you’re FOCUSING on getting into an Ivy League school or any of it’s equivalents, well, you’re doing it wrong.</p>

<p>they want unique, individual people who can play their part in having an awesome student body, not to just say “yeah I got accepted, now my life is easy”</p>

<p>college admissions doesn’t work like that. it will be a rude awakening in March for some of you as you focused your four years on getting into that ONE school instead of cultivating yourself as a person. </p>

<p>your acceptance will never come down to one factor or component of your application, it will come down to you as a person.</p>

<p>^too true. it’s funny how people think they can work hard in HS, get into an ivy, and then be set for life. it doesn’t work like that. if you get into an ivy, you’ll have to work harder, and then harder for a good job, and so on</p>

<p>I still think a person with a 2.0 GPA can get into an Ivy though.</p>

<p>Descuff you are 100% wrong.</p>

<p>TL;DR on the rest of this thread, so maybe this has already been brought up, but how could someone who can’t get above a C average in high school even do the work at an Ivy?</p>

<p>Just look at ivy league schools and their college data set. You will see that 0% of enrolled freshman have a 2.0 GPA. Not saying it is impossible, but it’s very close.</p>

<p>Common data set for Cornell - which is generally considered the lowest of the Ivys: <a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000504.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000504.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Scroll down to page 9 and you will see that 1% of admits were in the bottom half of their high school class, and 0% were in the bottom quarter. The 25th to 50th percentile of weighted GPAs in my school is probably about ~2.9-3.3, so students with these grades make up 1% of students at Cornell - and this 1% is completely made up of recruited athletes and developmental admits. You will not see an un-hooked student admitted if they are in the bottom half of their class, and NO students will be admitted if they are in the bottom quarter (with a 2.0 GPA).</p>

<p>If this doesn’t prove it to you Descuff I don’t know what will.</p>

<p>What’s dumb, IMO, is when Ivies send acceptances to legacies or other extreme cases when CLEARLY, the student has no chance of succeeding at the college. The Ivies are actually hurting the student because they are accepting a student that evidently belongs at less prestigious school. A student could be learning at a slower pace and therefore be getting a better education at a school that’s unheard of; instead, they go to a school where they cheat their way through admissions and then can’t handle the workload. Oh, but wait. Please excuse me; the student’s education does not matter because they are just going to inherit billions from their rich daddy anyway, so what use is an education when you know you’re inheriting a fortune?</p>

<p>I honestly didn’t think about Ivies until the middle of my senior year. O___o I picked my top choice for its financial aid primarily.</p>

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<p>Ivys don’t accept legacies that won’t succeed - I was rejected from an ivy with legacy and I’m pretty confident that I could’ve done fine at the school. Legacy only gives you maybe a 10-15% higher chance of getting in than the normal acceptance rate. The only students who are accepted and may not be able to succeed are recruited athletes and developmental admits. That said, many athletes and dev admits will be able to succeed.</p>

<p>I don’t understand. technically when they are no “limit” there are still limits if something is too low? Then aren’t colleges wrong to say that it doesn’t matter how high or low ur GPA, sat, class rigor, etc. are?</p>

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<p>Descuff, If a student has a 2.0 in advanced classes, they are averaging mostly C’s with maybe a few B’s or even a D or two. Those grades will not make you competitive at an ivy league. Yes, some students have personal struggles BUT with a gpa that low most colleges will not take them because the student was barely passing high school classes-how will they succeed at one of the top colleges in the nation?</p>

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<p>Descuff, if your hypothetical student with the 2.0 attended a highly competitive school, where most of those with a higher GPA also scored just as high on the SAT or ACT (meaning the median score at the HS is a nearly perfect score), and has significant ECs and leadership ability, wonderful essays, and and LORs (your student who had lower grades due to angry teachers isn’t likely to have those), might stand a chance if the 2.0 is unweighted. But that high school doesn’t exist. </p>

<p>If said student spent a year at a state school, getting A’s and proving himself, he might be able to transfer in, a year later. But that 2.0 from high school is going to raise questions.</p>

<p>There are no hard and fast limits, though there are lower levels where the likelihood is very minimal. Harvard won’t set a specific limit, because that would be arbitrary. If they say 3.0, what of the student with 2.99 GPA? If your hypothetical student did in fact exist, Harvard might want the opportunity to consider him.</p>

<p>^it seem ridiculous to say that they won’t succeed in college it not like 4.0 would be able to succeed</p>

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<p>The 4.0 student has a higher chance of being able to succeed because they know how to study and it’s likely they’re more intelligent in general. They might not continue to have a 4.0, but they will do reasonably well. (Someone with a 4.0 who’s never had to study would have problems.)
Barring learning disabilities, I think most people can get a B in at least a few classes. Someone with a 2.0 hasn’t been trying very hard.</p>

<p>It all depends on your high school. While I was able to get in to an ivy with a ~3.65 at my highly competitive high school (the school sent more kids to ivies than any other public school in the state last year and has the highest ACT average of any open enrollment school in the state), I also was ranked ~top 5% in the class and had taken the most rigorous courseload. I know plenty of other students who were completely capable of succeeding at an ivy but were unsuccessful in the college admissions process because their grades were too low (like ~3.3). So the bar is different at different schools but there is still a standard you must meet. Also, in regards to the comments about people with 4.0s, I met plenty of people in college who had 4.0s in high school who had a tough time in freshman year of college because they had just skated using their intellect. Some of these people never were able to fully adjust and develop the work ethic required to be successful. That was actually something I appreciated about my high school. I knew what it was like to work really hard and receive a B. I was able to cope with that and learned how to deal with that kind of experience so I could change my approach and do better in the next course.</p>

<p>@Poeme
Having attended a tough-grading foreign high school for my freshman year, I understand what you mean. After I transferred, I have been getting straight As in all my courses while taking an AP-loaded schedule and an additional 5th course via online, and my school is, according to my friends, the most rigorous and competitive public school in the county. And even though my study habits and work ethic are far better than several of my classmates, I am still left out of several awards/honors because my grades from my last school brings me down.</p>

<p>My case here? Quit obsessing with raw grades alone. As I’ve said several times, the school and course rigor need to be taken into account. Some schools have so much grade inflation that a 4.0 from one would be nothing special.</p>

<p>How do you tell if your high school has grade inflation?
My school doesn’t weight GPA. I think there are three people in my class with a 4.0 because I have a 3.98 and I’m ranked fourth.</p>