<p>Hello</p>
<p>I have a GPA slightly above 3.7, but I wish to apply to Cornell early decision. This GPA isnt that acceptable for such a great school. How can I make up for this? My SATs are definitely acceptable, but can something make up for my gpa? I am in the top 2% of my class, just thought i'd mention.
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>If you put your class rank in, the 3.7 GPA won’t matter because the admissions people will know that your school just grades more harshly than others.</p>
<p>If you look at Cornell’s CDS <a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000464.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000464.pdf</a> (see page 6)
you will see that class rank is **less **important than GPA, rigor of secondary school record, standardized test scores, essay and recommendations. So they will look carefully at what that GPA means given the difficulty of the courses taken.</p>
<p>@BeanTownGirl That may be a result of prestigious highschools with ridiculous class ranks. Also there’s an additional comments section which you can use to explain your GPA. If you’ve gotten Bs in freshman year and improved since then or something similar, it shouldn’t hurt you too much.</p>
<p>Well my bs are spread out over the years (2 freshman, 2 sophomore, 1 junior).
I do take the most rigorous courses that my school offers for me to take, but wont most people do that? I feel like class rank is more important than that…</p>
<p>A school like Cornell gets applications from diverse schools all over the country. They surely aren’t accepting GPA at face value. If class rank is not heavily weighted, then they must be using other performance measures to interpret grades.</p>
<p>You won’t see GPA distributions in the CDS or USNWR profiles for most of the Ivies. This may be because, with many students admitted from highly competitive high schools, and enrolled in the most challenging courses, their average GPAs would look unremarkable compared to some less selective colleges with averages of 3.9-4.0.</p>
<p>Putting together a good application package (including strong essays and LORs) is about the best you can do now to compensate for less than perfect grades. Choose a good balance of reach, match, and safety schools; don’t get too emotionally attached to your reaches; be sure to factor affordability into your safety school selection.</p>