<p>What would be a minimum gpa for Ivies to look at a college app? I know that they take into account many factors, such as extracurriculars, SAT/ACT scores, high school curriculum, teacher/counselor recs, etc ... </p>
<p>Would a GPA of 3.8UW suffice as a minimum? How low would a GPA have to get in order to be "too low"? </p>
<p>-Another rising senior freaking out about college admissions (surprising, huh?)</p>
<p>Ivy League schools don't set a minimum GPA, just like they don't set a minimum SAT or ACT score.</p>
<p>Minimum GPA is 4.0 UW. Oh, and you need a minimum SAT score of 2400 (ACT 36). If you don't have that, you're not getting in. Maybe try a good in-state university?</p>
<p>^By the way, threehit forgot to mention that they have a new requirement: You must have interned for a Fortune 500 company and worked to cure at least four different infectious diseases.</p>
<p>u guys should do stand-up ;)</p>
<p>sorry, there is just not enough time for stand up between curing cancer, and financing clean drinking water projects for sub saharan africa.</p>
<p>The minimum GPA is 5.0 W. Don't forget you also need to be the president of 5 useless clubs.</p>
<p>No one really is trying to help right now, except for the first person (thanks dchow08) ... but a lower gpa does hurt with chances, doesn't it?</p>
<p>Yes, of course. Lower SATs hurt. A 2370 is different from a 2300. Not having ECs hurts. Not having good teacher recs hurts. I mean, it's just a matter of maximizing as much as possible.</p>
<p>To get real for a minute, there are probably certain thresholds which make a student competitive for the ivies. Generally 3.8 UW (in rigorous coursework at highly ranked HS) to 4.0 (in less competitive HS) and SAT 2200 are benchmarks. But there are many factors which can make a candidate attractive to an ivy so that (slightly) lower stats would not be a barrier. In particular, recruitable sports talent, extraordinary artistic achievement, national science/math awards, unusual and extreme EC (start national fundraising effort; publish a novel; do original research), or compelling personal story in brilliantly written essay (backed up with GC recommendation). </p>
<p>Do your best. Do what you love. Write amazing essays that show what special talents you will bring to college. And good luck.</p>
<p>^or just lots of passion and interest can offset slightly lower scores, because honestly they'd rather take a passionate and interested person with slightly lower scores over a person who studies for SATs and gets good grades for gpa points etc.</p>
<p>madbean, what does benchmark mean? like, <em>you won't be rejected because of this</em>?</p>
<p>Benchmark means what you should aim for so as not to need something truly extraordinary to offset the GPA/SAT. If you have a 2280, then you don't need amazing ECs to make up for a bad SAT score.</p>
<p>Being a legacy also helps if scores/GPA are slightly lower.</p>
<p>yay baelor because thats my GPA, i think its a bit low =[</p>
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^or just lots of passion and interest can offset slightly lower scores, because honestly they'd rather take a passionate and interested person with slightly lower scores over a person who studies for SATs and gets good grades for gpa points etc.
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<p>agreed. yea, a lower gpa will hurt, but other things can make up for it.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. In mine (private prep), a 3.8 unweighted puts you in the top decile. No kid in my class will have a 4.0 upon graduation. We offer no AP courses, but many students take the tests, so we don't have weighted GPAs. Our school obviously does not have grade inflation.</p>
<p>So it just depends on the school. If you have AP classes, take them, and end up with a 3.8 UW, that will be different than not taking them and getting a 3.8 UW. They consider the GPA in conjunction with the courseload.</p>
<p>Well, in general I guess that I'd say a 3.8. It really does depend on the school, my school hasn't graduated a 4.0 in 3 years, whereas some schools graduate 6-7 every class. In general though, I'd say a 3.8 is minimum for 'average chances' I guess, although I have heard of people getting in with 3.7's.</p>
<p>Right. Some schools track admissions data, you might want to check that out if it is available. For example, the average GPA of the student accepted to elite schools from my school is 3.6-3.8. Remember, you are being compared against applicants from your own school, so knowing what kinds of kids your HS sends to different colleges will be helpful.</p>
<p>By benchmark, I mean that the 3.8 UW (from competitive non-grade inflated high school) would put your app in the consideration bucket. There is absolutely no guarantee you would get accepted. There are many many above 3.8 kids (even 4.0) who do not get into the ivies. In fact, there is some depressing statistic from one of the ivies (Princeton or Yale I think, but could be mistaken) that 70% of their applicants are "qualified" for acceptance, but only 8% or so are accepted. So that means of the 92% they reject :( , 62% are qualified (i.e. GPA around 3.8ish, high SAT, ECs, recs, essays great, etc). Pretty harsh! So everyone must to have a well balanced list of schools with at least 2 safeties and a few matches. All ivies are a reach to every student.</p>