<p>DON'T REPLY "have a high GPA AND the hardest courseload." WE KNOW that is the ideal way to go, but only a few of us have the ability to pull it off. Most students can only pull off one or the other.</p>
<p>So which is considered more important, course rigor or a high gpa?</p>
<p>do you like star wars too??</p>
<p>If you have a high GPA and are still taking easy classes then that really doesn’t look good. If you’re doing well in a class, always take the harder course if you can.</p>
<p>IMO, it’d be the harder course-load. I feel like an adcom would put more faith into someone who has experience with higher level classes like APUSH, AP Bio etc. rather than someone living on cloud-nine with straight As in how to make an airplane 4.</p>
<p>1s last bump</p>
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<p>The students who are admitted to the most selective colleges typically do both, and have top end test scores, and have high levels of achievement or awards in extracurriculars.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Could you answer the question? </p>
<p>As for what you just said, it is quite obvious top-tier students have both. But not everyone is a top tier student, who can manage all 3 fronts. My question was not meant to address the “top 1%” of students.</p>
<p>It depends on the college.</p>
<p>For example, some colleges may have a minimum level of rigor based on a set of required courses that you have to complete, so a high GPA but missing some of those courses is an automatic rejection, but once you have those courses, GPA matters more than additional rigor. However, they may give bonus points in GPA calculation for harder courses, so rigor beyond the minimum may matter more in that case.</p>
<p>If admissions readings are holistic, you can check the admissions tab for the college at <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com”>http://www.collegedata.com</a> to see what each college considers more important.</p>
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