<p>I got an A- (91%) last semester in my online Pre-Calc class. This semester, I managed to score a very high A (96%). Even though I got an A- last semester, my GPA is still a 4.0 (IDK how). Will colleges look down upon the A-? Or will they see that I put in more effort second semester to receive an A? I know many people say that I am VERY picky, but I know how hard it is to get into the ivies (Which is where I am planning on applying), and everyone seems to have perfect stats...Thanks for your help!</p>
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<p>Neither, really.</p>
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<p>Well, “picky” sounds so…judgmental. I’d say you’re worried about the wrong stuff.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing about your grades and your standardized test scores at most of the insanely selective colleges: they’re good enough, or they’re not. An A- in Precalc is good enough; so is an A. Beyond that, they’re not going to scrutinize.</p>
<p>Most of the people who apply to the Ivies and their academic peers are academically well qualified; that is, they’re smart enough and they’re diligent enough students to do well there. So these colleges and universities toss aside the relatively small fraction of applicants who just don’t have the academic chops, and then they decide how they’re going to select a freshman class from among the thousands of remaining applicants who do have the chops. And they usually don’t make this selection on the basis of academic merit, because everybody who’s left in the pool is pretty hard to distinguish from everybody else on that basis. This is when they start looking at your extracurricular accomplishments, your teacher recommendations, your essays, etc., to try to get a sense not of how smart you are, but rather of who you are. And they try to assemble a freshman class that’s good for the college, with what they think is the right mix of athletes and musicians, poets and scientists, entrepreneurs and debaters, preppies and rural Midwesterners, etc.</p>
<p>What does this mean your scholastic target needs to be, realistically? You should be one of the few most accomplished students in your class. If you are, then the difference between your A- first semester and your A second semester won’t really matter. And, on the downside, if you’re not one of the top few students in your class, the difference between the A- and the A probably won’t really matter then, either.</p>
<p>Yes, just like Sikorsky said, the vast majority of Ivy League applicants already have straight A’s (perhaps with some A-'s), 2200+ SAT, and are in the top 10% of their class. The determining factor usually lies in other areas of <em>you,</em> e.g. your EC’s, awards, interview, recommendation letters, and essays. Colleges like to build a diverse class full of people with varied interests, rather than build an entire class of 2400 SAT, 4.0 GPA bookworms with nothing “interesting.”</p>
<p>Thanks for the really great responses everyone! They really put me at ease. I was worried I was going to be one of those they toss out right away since I had an A-. Apparently, the rest of me (other than the numbers) matter more than the minute details in my stats. Thanks!</p>