Is it possible to get into an Ivy league school with a 3.5 unweighted gpa?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello,

Since the end of my freshman year, I’ve always wondered, would it be possible to get into an ivy league school like Yale, Princeton, Cornell, or Stanford despite my mediocre grades?

My freshman year was a terrible one, I ended up getting a 2.52 weighted gpa, and a 2.45 unweighted gpa, but since then, I’ve acknowledged my mistakes and adjusted so that my sophomore year would be better. I’m currently in the 3rd quarter of my sophomore year and I’ve drastically improved my grades, and as of right now I’m averaging 90s in all of my classes. But I still don’t think this would be enough to get into a prestigious school like Yale or Princeton

I’ve gone as far as to calculating my grades up until the end of junior year, if I were to earn a 95 on every class I take until the end of my Junior year, im likely to get a 3.5 unweighted gpa.

Despite my GPA, I’d like to point out some other things on my resume that could perhaps make up for my low gpa

-I’m part of the founding class of my High School, we only have 2 floors, and they don’t offer any challenging courses, with the exception of Honors Bio, which I took freshman year. We don’t have a lot space to pursue after school activities, therefore I’m limited to my extracurriculars, And we also lack motivational support from someone like a guidance counselor, which is something every other traditional high school has that we don’t. Luckily, my High School will be getting a new building by the start of my Junior year.

-I’m also a URM, and FGC I’ve heard that being a minority and the first person from your family to go to college really helps out, luckily, I classify as both

I also have great extra curriculars such as…

-Debate (9-10)
-Basketball team manager and player (10th grade) (Basketball was just introduced for our High school this year)
-Student Government
-Summer internship with my father working as an advertiser for a Taxi company

I also have some other goals for my Junior year that could help me become a stronger candidate for the Ivy League such as…

-Joining the Flag Football team
-Joining Robotics
-Joining Science Olympiad
-Running for Vice president
-Studying over the summer for the PSAT so I could become a National Merritt Scholar
-Spending 2 weeks at a college for a summer internship

To clarify, I set these goals upon myself not because I think they’ll better my resume, but because I’m actually passionate for them, but I also think they’ll really stand out to the Admissions Committee…

I know that the Ivy League may seem as a reach for me, considering my low unweighted GPA, but I really think that my extracurriculars, future achievements, and overall growth from Freshman to Junior year can give me the slightest chance of being accepted.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear feedback on my situation

Thanks in Advance!

2

If you can rock your standardized tests and subject test scores, take the most rigorous courses offered at your school, and continue to show a strong upward trend with your grades, I think it’s possible to still be a competitive.

3

It would be a great idea to learn about all the great colleges out there. No use rejecting 99.9% of the schools in favor of a focus on the 8 that reject 85-94% of their applicants.

4

One problem appears that the school has no rigorous classes other than H Bio, which the student took, the other appears to be no guidance counselor. Is there another school in your area that would offer more rigorous academics
and better guidance? You will be competing with students with “hooks”, athletics, honors, AP, dual admission courses, guidance departments who have a developed a relationship with top tier schools, GPA’s of 4.0+, and very high standardized test scores. What is it that you are seeking from an IVY?

5

“What are your thoughts?”

I think that your improvement from freshman year to sophomore year will help you significantly regardless of where you end up going to university.

I think that you should continue to strive for high grades for your sophomore and junior years and see where you stand at the end of your junior year. Also, you should do some test preparation before taking the SAT or ACT.

Also, keep in mind that there are hundreds of very good universities and colleges in the USA. You should keep an open mind, and think about what you want in a university. You should visit some big schools and some small schools and some in-state public schools, and see what you think of them. If possible get a guided tour and sit in on classes or have a chat with professors.

I think that with your improvement in grades you are now on track to do very well.

I might also note that I did go to graduate school at a school “like Yale, Princeton, Cornell, or Stanford”, and many if not most of the other students there had done their undergrad at affordable in-state public schools. Of course, if you get in then how affordable Ivy League schools are for you will depend upon your budget and on your eligibility for need based financial aid.

6

I’ve talked to some of my teachers and the principle himself, and they’ve told me that they’ll be implementing Ap classes next year such as APUSH, Ap Lit, and Ap chem. And recently we’ve had a new counselor join our school.

As for your question, Ivy leagues are recognized for being elite schools that offer some of the best resources in the world, I’m just trying to get a great education in general, and I feel like an ivy league can offer that.

7

You can get a great education at hundreds of schools! And for some majors, the Ivies aren’t the best in those fields.

8

But what can you offer the Ivy League school that thousands of other students cannot offer them?

9

Perhaps the stereotype that Ivy leagues are the best schools has been embedded in me, I’ll look at look at others schools as time progresses…

10

It is fine to shoot for the stars, but do it with open eyes.

It is unlikely that you will get into an Ivy League (or equivalent) college with a 2.45 freshman year GPA. It is also unlikely that you would get into an Ivy League (or equivalent) college if you had a 4.0 freshman year GPA. The fact is that acceptances rates at these colleges are typically under 10 percent (some under 5 percent) and there is simply not enough space to accept all of the worthy candidates. In addition to having an outstanding GPA successful candidates to the top tier colleges will also need outstanding standardized test scores, wonderful recommendations, insightful essays, interesting and meritorious ECs.

In addition, understand that saying you like all the Ivy schools is indicative of a person who is gunning for prestige and hasn’t researched each school in depth. The Ivy League is a sports league and while all the schools in it are excellent academic institutions, they have important differences. For example a person who loves the open curriculum of Brown likely would not like the extensive core found at Columbia. A person who enjoys the more rural atmosphere of Dartmouth may not like the very urban Penn. Please do not clump all the schools together. When the time comes do your research and seek out schools that are right for you. Do not pick college based on “stereotypes.”

When junior year time comes along, work with your high school guidance office to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be happy to attend. Get your hands on some good college guide books at the library (ex. Fiske Guide, Princeton Review) and read up on options. Do not focus on a few “dream schools” – the people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on a small group of hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Cast a wide net and recognize that (assuming no major hook) the Ivies and equivalent colleges are a reach for pretty much everyone.

I strongly encourage you to work as hard as you can and do as well as you can so you have the most opportunities open to you for college. It is simply too early in the game for you to target any specific colleges.

11

(con’t)
FWIW neither of my kids ended up at an Ivy level college. Yet they both had wonderful college experiences, got fantastic educations, and ended up at top universities in their field for grad school. In no way am I disparaging the Ivy schools, but understand that there are tons of colleges and universities that can give you a great 4 year expereince and get you where you want to go in life. As I said above, work hard to create as many options as you can down the road.

12

Thank you, I’ll try dreaming, but with an open eye…

13

Focus on enjoying the journey.
If that is your goal right it down and what you will do to accomplish it. Review it every Sunday evening.

14

@Steven808: short answer, yes - if you are a national figure skating champion, for example…

15

What if I we’re to do something like, win 1st place at a Harvard tournament competition? would that bolster my chances?

16

Have you checked the websites and Common Data Sets of the colleges you’re interested in? That will give you some idea of what they look for.

17

A long essay about what Harvard looks for: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/apply/what-we-look/valuing-creative-reflective
Excerpted here: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21965494#Comment_21965494

18

Hey,
Just wanna point out that Ivy League is not your only option. They reject a handful of applicants with straight 4.0s.
If ur just looking for quality education, I would suggest looking at liberal arts colleges.

For your Harvard question, if your referring to Harvard Debate Invitational, the answer is No. Sure It would boost your chance, but it wouldn’t be much. I debate public forum and policy for four years( Qualified for TOC and won second place at prestigious national tournaments), and yet I felt it didn’t really matter in the college app season( I spoke with several debate coaches at T10 schools.)

I had a bad freshman year too, and in my sophomore year I felt this urge to go after the most prestigious school possible to prove my self, But sometimes it may not be the most feasible/suitable option. So I decided to ED a T20 LAC, got in, and rejected EA offers from T30 universities.

19

As others have pointed out, it is extremely difficult to gain admission to the Ivies, no matter what. However, you have an interesting background and seem highly motivated, so, assuming your grades remain on an upward trajectory and your test scores are strong, I don’t see any reason not to give it a shot. You never know. At the same time, it is important to cover yourself by applying to some solid matches and safeties. There are a lot of great schools out there.

20

To the OP… No, no and more no’s. You are just educating yourself on colleges now so congrats on that. I know many perfect everything students with being the national debate champions for 3 years running that got shut out of the ivys. Still going to a great school…

Don’t focus on what you “think” they want. Focus on what interests you. Take the most rigorous courses your school offers, make yourself interesting in your essays and strive to get the best grades, standardized scores you can. Do activities that speak to you.

Pro Tip :do some activities for more then 2 years. Schools like to see you have interests that you stayed with for 3-4 years. These can be anything that interests you. Also join some clubs etc at school. If your active in your high school community then there is a better chance you will be active on the college campus community… They want active students!