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<p>IMHO, it is not a healthy attitude to live with the goal of impressing your parents. It may be difficult to get out of this mode when you are young (e.g., I believe almost all preschoolers live like that), but sooner or later, it is better for you (and for your parents also) if you can live for your own ambition/happiness.</p>
<p>If you are admitted into these schools with your academic merit (this is commonly referred to as one of the “fit” factors) and work hard there, it is very likely that you could get a GPA higher than 3.1. I would guess that there are certain percentage of students (say, 10%) who may struggle academically there, but the majority will do fine as long as they try hard enough. Also, there are a lot of support for students to do reasonably well at most private schools – including a friendly “academic warning.” A pretty high percentage of students there (including some with a very good GPA) will get this kind of friendly academic warning one time or another. For example, if the students happen to take classes in an order that is not balanced (e.g., take a foreign language or general education requirement class a little bit too late), the school will immediately issue you a warning, and for a more severe case, the school will immediately send your assigned freshman counselor (a senior who usually did very well academically) to have a friendly chat with you in order to help you.</p>