<p>Why do people always tell me I wont get into an IVY league with a 3.6 GPA when schools like Upenn have these statisitcs:
* 72% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
* 17% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
* 5% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
* 5% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
* 1% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
and Princeton:
* 81% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
* 11% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
* 6% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
* 2% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
why are IVY league schools looked at as the schools where you need 4.0 GPA with a 2400 SAT?</p>
<p>Generally, those with lower scores/grades are hooked applicants (either an athlete, legacy, urm, etc.)
However, if you are not hooked, then your chances of getting in with lower statistics are much more slim</p>
<p>GPA is generally a poor indicator for admissions. Class rank is more useful.</p>
<p>Penn is particularly picky about rank. Valedictorians have a huge boost even over salutatorians, and you can pretty much forget Penn if you’re not in the top 10%.</p>
<p>The only thing overrated about Ivies is capitalizing the name for no reason.</p>
<p>Class rank doesn’t measure anything!
I’ve taken 9 AP classes my high school year and I’m ranked 100/642 with a 3.6 weighted
but there are a BUNCH of kids with 4.0’s who took regular classes all their years ( not honor or APs)</p>
<p>^that puts you outside the top 10%, and a 3.6 weighted really makes your chances of admission very slim. If you look at the princeton website:</p>
<p>[Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/)</p>
<p>people with an unweighted gpa of 3.6 have a 5% chance of admissions, your unweighted is probably well below 3.6. Now consider who, with these grades, would actually apply to Princeton, they would have to be phenomenal enough to think they have even a slight shot at acceptance. Princeton still takes few of them because their academics are below par. 95% of princeton’s accepts were in the top 10% of their classes, and across the ivy league 90%+ of accepts were in the top 10%. The remaining 10%, usually comes from extremely competitive schools (think Harvard-Westlake, Choate, Phillips Academy), and usually has something non-academic that stand out from the rest.</p>
<p>Frankly, taking a difficult courseload and getting a sub-standard gpa just doesn’t cut it anymore. You really think the top applicants to ivy league schools have taken the easy route in high school? Most of the ivy league accepts have taken the most difficult courses and excelled at them, you would have to compete with the very best from around the world. You might be bitter that the meritocracy is imperfect and that your rank is cheating your achievement level, but you should definitely re-calibrate your judgement of what it takes to get into a top college, and aim accordingly.</p>
<p>“Princeton still takes few of them because their academics are below par.”</p>
<p>Please explain.</p>
<p>The figures pacers7ind cites are for matriculated students. The stats of admitted students at Penn may well be significantly higher (don’t know for sure because the data does not seem to be published). About 1/3 of Penn’s admits choose to attend other schools; presumably, many of them are among the most qualified admits.</p>
<p>And of course, GPA and scores are not the only admissions factors. If your GPA or some of your scores are below the medians for accepted students, the pressure is on to demonstrate other attractive qualities, such as “hooks” (legacy, URM etc) or exceptional ECs. In Ivy League admissions, the standard for exceptional ECs can get pretty high indeed. The Ivies attract applicants who have published novels, acted in movies, and performed on Olympic teams. Not in huge numbers of course, but the ECs of other students admitted despite below-average scores and grades are likely to be exceptional especially without hooks. Team captaincies and other school-level distinctions (as opposed to state or national) would be fairly run-of-the-mill. Then there are “story” kids (think, kids who survived on nuts and twigs for years in the Alaskan tundra, performing emergency surgery on themselves, discovering new life-saving medications among the forest herbs, learning fluent Inuit …)</p>
<p>I got these statistic from college board</p>
<p>^ And College Board must have gotten them from UPenn, which I believe would have sent them the stats for a recently admitted class, same as they report in the Common Data Set. Unless there was explicit wording to the contrary in your source.</p>
<p>The answer is simple - GPAs are not created equal. Your 3.6 GPA from run of the mill public school is not the same as a 3.6 from a very competitive private school with a more rigorous curriculum.</p>
<p>it’s overrated for the bottom of the ivies, like cornell, upenn. </p>
<p>for example, plenty of people get into cornell’s state schools with SATs in the 1200-1350 range. I think you’re right that the difficulty is often exaggerated. you don’t need a hook.</p>
<p>good sat score (1400+), 3.5+ gpa, top 10% at a good school, and 2 or 3 solid extracurriculars with some leadership experience, is all u need on paper. most people don’t know how to write the life stories to get in, the essay is key, if you can do that, you’ll get in.</p>
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<p>Sorry, I meant even though their academics are below par.</p>
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<p>No neeed for outrage. The only sure way to find out whether you will be admitted to an Ivy League school is to apply. Then you’ll find out for sure. Just make sure you have some solid safety schools too.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Exactly. You’re free to spend your time and money applying to any and all Ivies that you want. :)</p>
<p>Just be sure to have some safeties, because your ranking is going to hurt you (not top 10%). Your ranking suggests that you weren’t at the top of your class.</p>
<p>Again, some of those lower GPA admitted students have tremendous hooks - they will play a sport for the ivy school, they went to a top elite private prep school, they are Concert Mistress/Master of a renown youth orchestra, they are a male URM, they had a best-selling book published… who knows. But, they aren’t a run-of-the-mill good student from Standard Public High School.</p>
<p>Actually, standard high schools also get kids into the Ivies. It depends on what the parents can do for the child’s education outside the classroom sometimes.</p>
<p>Since the OP chooses to capitalize every letter in the word “Ivy,” I take it he/she buys into the hype and is painful denial.</p>
<p>^^I think you are reading too much into capitalization choices. You may be right about the OP, but I would base that more on post content than punctuation or capitalizations. Lots of teenager don’t use capitals at all. I wouldn’t take that to mean that they are free of hype or denial.</p>
<p>*Actually, standard high schools also get kids into the Ivies. It depends on what the parents can do for the child’s education outside the classroom sometimes. *</p>
<p>That doesn’t contradict my statement. My statement was: *But, they aren’t a run-of-the-mill good student from Standard Public High School. * What you described is not a run-of-the mill good student. The point was about a 3.6 GPA student without a hook, whose not top 10%, and doesn’t have a hook.</p>
<p>The admit rate for Princeton class of 2013 applicants with a GPA of 3.6 - 3.69 was 5.6%. 95.2% ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating classes (most of them surely with lots of AP/IB credits.)
[Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/)</p>
<p>^^ and with other impressive credentials as well.</p>