<p>Is a 3.73 GPA too low for a school like MIT? I know that many people who go to MIT did not have perfect averages in high school but is mine too low? Just curious</p>
<p>Around 98% of admitted students are in the top 5-100% of their class, so if a 3.7 GPA keeps you in that range, you're fine. It all depends on the context of your own school. You can find out more about what MIT is looking for on its undergraduate admissions website under "Information for Schools". If your GPA is lower but you have some compelling story to explain it, coupled with a strong demonstrated interest in some area of study relevant to MIT, then you should still apply, imo.</p>
<p>I'm def still in the top 5-10% of my class but I was concerned if my GPA was still going to be too low. Thanks though</p>
<p>I agree with everything CalAlum has said, but I have a question - weighed or unweighed?</p>
<p>unweighted sry</p>
<p>(Once again, this is a sidenote - but a 3.73/4 isn't bad =D.)</p>
<p>lol thanks. its sometimes easy to lose track of whats good and bad right before admissions time</p>
<p>I often hear the top 5-10% statistic, but how do you look at this when a school ranks on an unweighted basis? My son also is in the 3.75 range (unweighted), but may not be top 10% because at his school there is a big difference in rigor between regular and honors/AP classes, and many slots in the top 10% are taken up by people who have taken few if any advanced clases. YOu have to have about a 3.85 or higher to break the top 10.</p>
<p>The counselors keep saying that colleges take into account the fact that the rankings are unweighted, but I keep hearing this 5-10% figure, and as most school seem to rank on a weighted basis, it's hard to tell how that compares when your school does not. It's really apples and oranges. We are trying to get our dsitrict to use weighting for ranking purposes (or drop ranking altogheter), but it will be too late for my son. It's very frustrating because if his rank were weighted, he'd easlily be in the top 5%. Do you think this will make it difficult for him? Or will the realize that the rankings are somewhat meaningless if there is no weighting. In other words, is the 5-10% figure really only applicable to weighted rankings?</p>
<p>I think your guidance counselor will be able to explain this in his/her recommendation. If it would make you feel better, it might be best to talk with him/her just to clarify how the school usually explains their system to colleges.</p>
<p>When people around CC use the 5-10% benchmark, we're almost always talking about rankings based on weighted GPAs.</p>
<p>In the Secondary School Report of the common application, the school counselor will indicate either the student's rank in the school, or in the case of schools that do not provide rankings, the student's standing in terms of quartile, quintile, or decile. As I recall, MIT's report asks for the same information. Our local high school does not rank students, but when it comes time to fill out these reports, the counselors do take into consideration the level of course difficulty. In California, high-school counselors provide a list to the University of California System of all students within the top 4% of students, for example. Such students are guaranteed a slot within the system, and admission rates for such students at places like UCLA and UCB are over 60%. Last year a female student with an unweighted 4.0 GPA did not make this list, and I assume it's because none of her courses were honors or AP courses. At a school in a rural area, one that offered few advanced courses, she definitely would have made that list.</p>
<p>In a case where the student is thinking about applying to top tier, highly competitive schools but is not sure whether he or she falls into the top ten percent of students, it would be a good idea to sit down and have a conversation with the counselor to get a clear sense of the student's standing. A good reach school is still one that is within the realm of possibility, even though the outcome is still sometimes like a crapshoot.</p>
<p>MIT does consider weighed grades vs. unweighed grades - most schools with unweighed grades will have the situation above. Really, it's more about the rigor of the classes taken compared to the rigor possible in the school, and how well was done in these classes.</p>