Miracle acceptance stories?

<p>Does anyone have any miracle acceptance stories where people who were below average or far below average in stats got accepted to a top school? For example, I remember that a kid on CC with a 3.4 UW GPA got into Stanford without any hooks. That would be a miracle acceptance in my eys. I need some motivation, because I'm feeling completely hopeless at the moment about getting into my reaches T_T (I'm still trying my best though)</p>

<p>3.0 GPA got accepted to Grinnell. It’s not hard for an acceptance to sound amazing when you only hear one part of the story. That kid with a 3.4 UW probably had top test scores, crazy ECs, and research experience.</p>

<p>Congrats man!</p>

<p>And this is the person who got in with a 3.4: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/579065-really-bad-sophomore-year-do-i-still-have-chance-some-these-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/579065-really-bad-sophomore-year-do-i-still-have-chance-some-these-colleges.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Even though everything else was great, it’s still astonishing that she got in with such a low GPA because everyone keeps emphasizing how grades are by far the most important aspect of the application and that nothing can really make up for bad grades.</p>

<p>I’m currently in the same situation as the Stanford kid (same GPA, higher test scores, better… or maybe worse ECs), and that story really gave me hope.</p>