<p>I mean, whenever we see someone with a chance thread for an Ivy league, a 4.0 is a must
But disregarding Ivy League and Stanford, do 4.0's look really good?</p>
<p>@aHashtag, a 4.0 is most definitely not a must. Although a perfect GPA will help most competitive colleges such as the Ivies and Stanford accept GPAs at 3.8+. If you look at the common data set for these schools, the average is definitely not 4.0.</p>
<p>Stanford: 95% of applicants 3.75+
Penn: average is 3.9
Harvard: 91% higher than 3.75</p>
<p>You can look it up for the other schools but I am just giving you an idea that 4.0 is not a must.</p>
<p>Ooh, if it is not a must in those schools, it must help a lot in lower tiered schools</p>
<p>It really depends. If you don’t have a rigorous schedule it means nothing. </p>
<p>Most schools will compare the rigor of your courses as well as the school academics of the school you attend. Having a GPA over 3.5 or so while applying to state schools often helps with scholarship chances (or at least my state).</p>
<p>Having a 4.0 is great, but not necessary.
For HYPMS caliber anything 3.8+ puts you in the competitive range. This also applies for competative schools with higher acceptance rates -like UC Berkeley, Cornell, CMU, or DUKE.
For state flagships 3.5+ is fine
Of course this is contingent on you taking a rigorous schedule (as defined by your school’s opportunities) and on year scoring decently on your SAT/ACT and subject tests.
For HYPMS caliber 2200/34+
For UCB, Cornell, etc 2100/33+
For state flagships (it really depends on the school) I’d say 1700/26+
You can always check your schools’ freshmen profile to find the average GPA and middle 50% SAT/ACT scores for incoming freshmen. </p>
<p>That is a wealth of info @saif235
Thanks so much you guys for posting, bookmarking !!</p>