Yeah sorry for the very trite thread but will a GPA of 3.86 UW be a significant disadvantage to my chances of getting into the most selective schools in the country (want to know where to early). I understand NOTHING is a guarantee and probability wise I won’t get in but I have taken a very rigorous course load, have a good weighted GPA (4.5/5.0), very solid SAT (1580), and plenty of ECs some of which demonstrate my academic ability- some of these are success at competitions that are significantly harder than school tests (I qualified for USAPhO and USAJMO, for example, amongst others). My class rank is just inside top 8% at a very competitive high school. My ECs and competitions are well within the level that extremely selective colleges want to see.
Basically, is my relatively low GPA something that should make me consider not earlying Harvard, for example?
Thanks!
And CC is the only place where a 3.86 UW GPA is considered low. That’s what, a total of 4 A- grades in 3 years among a bunch of As?
The USAPhO and JMO qualifications are pretty impressive. You may not get into Harvard, but there will be a Top-20 acceptance. CalTech is a possibility to try an application.
@above okay, thanks. The only issue I saw was that other people with higher ranks/GPAs (but perhaps less impressive accomplishments/ECs and equally impressive test scores) are also applying to some of the colleges I am. I was worried that they might just opt to reject me in favor of them (or just reject us all ).
Yeah, I understand how difficult it is to get into Harvard/YPSM.
@bg445522ar May depend on your HS. At son’s former extremely competitive Public HS (sends >30% to IVY+S+M most years) there were some pretty clear cut-offs on GPA/SAT visible when looking at the scattergrams on Naviance. If Naviance is used at your HS, AND there are sufficient numbers of students applying to the IVY’s, you should be able to get a fairly good idea whether your GPA gives you a shot at the schools you’re interested in.
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