<p>If you have a lowish GPA, you shouldn't lose hope, even at the really prestigious schools.</p>
<p>If you fit these conditions, a lowish GPA may be overlooked. I know this from experience.</p>
<p>My Stats:</p>
<p>GPA: 85%
SATI: 730CR, 800M, 680W
SATII: 800 chem, 780 bioE, 760 french
Acceptances so far: WashU, Oberlin (LL).
Rejections: none so far (knock on wood)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You have very high SATs
I had a C in first semester junior year AP calculus. Yes, I brought it up to a high B second semester, but still. I balanced that out with an 800 on my math SAT. </p></li>
<li><p>You have insane EC accomplishments.
My low (and by low, I mean LOWWW) SAT writing score was countered by my high english marks and the fact that I am both a published writer and poet. I won a prestigious playwright competition and my plays are performed on many stages and one has garnered a lot of press.</p></li>
<li><p>Your school is HARD.
I go to the hardest school in my province. It's known as "so brutal, it's actually unfair". Seeing as I am in the most masochistic program at this masochistic school, taking the most rigorous classes at a school that is already ridiculously rigorous, the rigour of my courses offset my imperfect grades (plus, there is no grade inflation AT ALL). </p></li>
<li><p>Your ref says you got the highest mark in his class even though it was just an 89 or something.
This shows had hard your school is and what the standards are.</p></li>
<li><p>Your counselor/teacher talks about how you're much smarter than your grades in his/her letter.</p></li>
<li><p>Your SATs contradict your grades.
This may or may not help you. I get my highest grades in English, the humanities, languages and social sciences. On the SAT I I did NOT do stellar in CR (730) or W (680). On the SAT II I got only 760 in French. In school my grades in math and sciences are lowest. On the SAT I I got 800 in Math and SAT II I got 800 in chem and 780 in Bio. If your ECs show your competence further (e.g. I'm a published poet and writer) I am sure they will overlook grades.</p></li>
<li><p>Your low grades are concentrated in one or two closely related subjects.
My math and physics marks are very low compared to my others. I have zero aptitude or interest in math and physics, and I have not applied to any SEAS, so schools may have overlooked that. Math and physics are often clumped together with bio and psych on the other end, and chem in the middle, overlapping both. They may overlook a low math student, for example, if they show TREMENDOUS aptitude in something else completely unrelated.</p></li>
<li><p>Your low grades are only in PE.
Everyone knows PE is stupid at most schools. Unless you fail miserably or are an athlete, most schools completely disregard PE. </p></li>
<li><p>Your country has a weird grading system
My province has a weird grading system. Often, adcoms put more emphasis on SAT and ECs as determinants.</p></li>
<li><p>You're an athlete/URM/legacy or have something the school really wants (i.e. a big enough hook to reel in a whale!).
If you are good at music, and Harvard needs a bassoonist for its marching band, and you're the only applicant who plays the bassoon and has won awards for it, they will overlook less-than-stellar grades to take you. It's to fill a class. Adcoms usually have a niche in mind for accepted students, in order to create a nice "whole" that is the class.</p></li>
<li><p>You're unique.
You've had some insane life experience, talent, or EC that makes them really believe you'd make a wonderful contribution to the school regardless of gpa. You have communicated them with insight and wisdom in your essays, which you have injected vitality and creativity into.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Wash U is famous for letting in B+ students with good test scores and Oberlin lets everybody in… I wouldn’t say that you’re out of the woods yet (i.e. that GPA may be a death sentence for Ivies/top LAC’s).</p>
<p>That’s very true; Oberlin is a great school and getting in is a major accomplishment. However, Oberlin also accepted Chester Gillette, who was convicted of beating his pregnant girlfriend to death with a tennis racket and throwing her body into a lake. If you think that you are a better person than that, then I would recommend at least applying.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about people who have already left or graduated, I’m sure you could dig up quite a few bad examples. This is probably not the best way to say: “Hey, you have a shot.”</p>
<p>Sometimes calling a 750 low is a way to assert that you have higher standards and that you just “made a mistake,” indirectly making others feel bad. I do it all the time. :D</p>
<p>Ah, okay I see. We have both counties and provinces here in the states- one school district or county could vary from another in terms of difficulty. So you did mean country.</p>
<p>I don’t think these points will necessarily help a student with scores which are considerably poorer than the average admittee at a particular school (i.e., even if you go to a tough school, if you have straight C’s, your chances of getting into Harvard will be very slim). But I do think the point is valid for student who are more “borderline” GPA-wise (i.e., a handful of B’s, maybe one or two C’s.) Despite what CC would have us think, not every admitted student at competitive schools has a 4.0 UW or straight A’s!</p>
<p>Well I was just trying to help him feel better by taking an example that I think that everyone on this website can surpass. Regardless of what your GPA or your SAT score is, at least you’re not a murderer. That could be your hook. “I might have a 2.5 W and an SAT score well into the single digits, but I promise that if I graduate from your college I won’t bring infamy to your school by beating my pregnant girlfriend to death with a tennis racket and throwing her body into a lake!”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is exactly my point. The standards here are so high that I feel as if I have to lower them with hideous examples of people who got into college anyway just to keep people from losing all self-respect and slashing their wrists.</p>
<p>Think of it as the reverse Bill Gates effect. Anytime someone expresses anxiety about college, people point out that Bill Gates dropped out of college to pursue a career of being a billionaire. I like that, but I want to also add examples of people who did get into college and turned out to be serial killers instead.</p>
<p>Bill Gates is an exception that unfortunately many people have taken to be sort of a rule. I’m not saying that the expectations on CC are often too high and rather obnoxious or that you have to attend a good college or any college at all to be successful, I’m just saying that you have to remember where the guy dropped out from. He obviously isn’t representative of the majority of the population</p>