<p>I have a couple of questions regarding ivy league colleges and gpa in general:
a)what is the acceptable range for unweighted gpa?
b)how many B's or B+'s, if any, are acceptable?
c)How much would rigorous course load factor in? For example, if one took the highest number of APs in his school, but had a slightly lower gpa than others, which would be better?
d)Do colleges only factor in the first three years for gpa?
e) how important is gpa?</p>
<p>In my situation as a Junior, I've had all A's/A+'s in freshman, soph, junior year except one B+ which will bring my UW gpa down to a 3.95. I have taken more APs than any other student in the school (did summer courses to fit more in schedule). What would ivies think?</p>
<p>But that’s not a grade; it stands for “context.” The context of you, your school - that is, I think, what is most important in consideration of high school GPA.</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, it’s usually a good idea to have at least a 3.75 unweighted GPA to be competitive for the Ivies. Of course, the higher your GPA is, the better.</p>
<p>This confuses me. My school does everything out of 100. Is 94.5/95 UW really bad?</p>
<p>Will the fact that I had 2 B+'s, and 1 B- keep me out of Ivies? It was during a year when I had serious medical problems and missed a few months of school.</p>
<p>They don’t count how many B’s you have. GPA is just a single factor considered along with your SAT’s, SAT II, courseload, APs, rigor of your highschool, class rank,etc - to determine if you meet the academic threshold for admission. Thousands meet the academic threshold at the most elite schools with lots of B’s.</p>
<p>I believe that many of the elite schools are not looking for applicants obsessed over grades (who use one of their essay responses to try to explain the horrible events that caused them to receive their sngle B grade sophmore year). Go live life, show your passion for life and your community outside of the classroom. Learn to write better. These are things more likely to be determinative in elite school admission rather than whether you got 4 B’s or 9 B’s or 0 B’s.</p>
<p>First of all, it is always the best thing to have only A’s and no B’s.</p>
<p>Now, considering that this isn’t always possible, it is important to remember that many students without 4.0 GPA get in. A little below a 4.0 is acceptable, if it is like 3.75. 3.9, something like that. This means like 1, 2, or 3 B’s.</p>
<p>But more important, is the reason that a student gets these B’s. If a student is lazy and lapses in work ethic, then this is a bad reason to get a B. If a student takes too many classes than he could handle (like 5 APs and 2 honors classes), then this is also bad, because the students who get accepted take lots of AP classes AND get all A’s. However, if a student has extenuating circumstances such as a family emergency, financial disadvantage, or long-lasting illness or injury, a few B’s isn’t bad.</p>
<p>If the reason you got B’s was because of a long illness that made you miss over a month of school, then these grades will not hurt you. As long as you write an additional essay explaining your illness, how it affected you, and how you overcome it, Admissions Officers might see this as a plus, because you can overcome adversity.</p>
<p>Ok thanks. I tried to get a strong standardized test score (2300) to show my ability. My GPA will be around 3.78 when everything is said and done.</p>
<p>But other than that, I’ve really just pursued my passions, and involved myself in activities that I love. Hopefully colleges will see me as more than numbers.</p>
<p>^I disagree with beholder completely. I believe your GPA, SAT scores, and especially your outlook will serve you just fine in the admissions process to any school. Good Luck.</p>
<p>^This. unHooked and unUrmed, I was just accepted to 5 schools in the Top 12, with a 3.9 wGPA (3.69 unweighted?), plenty of B’s, lots of passionate EC’s, and essays that apparently hit their mark. Not that I dont think having all A’s would have been better, just that the adcoms can see you as a whole.</p>
<p>Thanks. When it comes down to it, I’m just a normal kid, I’m not a machine. I do what I like, and hopefully colleges will see my passion and personality!</p>
<p>At least this offers a little relief. I mean, have strong SATs and okay ECs (many medical/science focused) so hopefully gpa is not a major issue.</p>
<p>if you havent already, try entering into the siemens and intel sts competition. i got semifinalist for both and like i said b4 it didnt really guarantee me into any schools. but if you’re finalist thats a different story</p>