At Princeton (for example) 3.9 would be exactly average.
I don’t know exactly how Princeton’s 3.9 CDS average is calculated; it may be driven down (if 3.9 can be considered “down”) by a high percentage of students entering with many IB/AP courses at highly competitive high schools. Still, a 3.9 GPA by itself may not be low enough or high enough to make a difference one way or the other. Combined with the OP’s high scores, it might be almost enough for a few of the 22 schools I listed above. Otherwise, I would expect the outcome to turn on other factors. At most of those schools, BOTH high grades AND high scores are necessary - but not sufficient - to admit an unhooked applicant.
BUMP
The stats of students who chose to matriculate doesn’t tell you how admissions views stats or that they focus on stats more than anything else. And all colleges which use the Common App agree to review holistically. They are in a position to cherry pick, but you still need the whole picture they look for. Seriously.
This.
@TooOld4School @MrSamford2014 it must depend on the school because my D was waitliated but not admitted to Rice with those stats (2300 SAT, 3.98 UW GPA) - was also not admitted to Cal, Cornell or Chicago. Based on score ranges she was pretty confident of getting into at least 1 or 2 of those 4 so that was a big surprise (she didn’t apply to Vandy or WashU - they didn’t come up on her radar). She didn’t apply anywhere ED though, which in retrospect she should have done. Lesson learned.
Those schools are called reaches for a reason.
@insanedreamer , sometimes it just comes down to individual admission officer preference. At Vandy, our son was greeted by name at the admitted students days and the AO remembered lots of details about his profile. She also mentioned other people from his school and knew it quite well. Clearly she had advocated for him to the group. Very impressive considering the huge number of applications that they receive!
@TooOld4School Yes, I’m sure that makes a difference. I think your stats get you into the pool of “qualified” students for a school, and after that it’s intangibles, something that catches the AOs’ attention, or sometimes just the luck of the draw. It’s also possible admission to certain majors is harder than others within the same school. I know that’s definitely true of Cal and other large publics, but I’m not sure if that applies to selective privates like Rice, Vandy or Cornell?
(In retrospect, Vandy would probably have been a good one for my D to apply to, but she refused to consider anything in the south because of the hot weather, with the exception of Rice as her cousin was admitted there.)
@insanedreamer , that also depends on the public university. Many admit by area (e.g. college of chemistry, engineering, computing, etc.) whereas privates tend to admit to the university. Most still have some supplemental requirements for engineering students, however.