School Grades

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

So I kind of wanted to guage yall’s opinions on this. I want to pursue CS and Artificial Intelligence and aspire to attend one of the top schools like Stanford, MIT, CMU, Berk, UT Austin etc. I was wondering how much would each college weigh Bs in english classes. In my high school career, I got 2 Bs for both semesters of AP Lang. How much would this affect my chances or do they even care at all since I’m studying CS? I am still ranked 10/790 but idk if these colleges care more about rank or gpa. My weighted GPA is 4.715 and unweighted is 3.95.

2

If you get denied, it will not be because of a B. But if your basic question is: Does a B in math hurt more than a B in English (or vice versa), then the answer is no.

3

@skieurope Could you explain your reasoning? I just want to get a better insight as to why they dont? Maybe if you could link some evidence? Also to add, I got an 89 both semesters. Do top colleges make the distinction between an 89 and a 81?

4

If your transcript shows the numeric grade, then that is what they see.If it only shows an alpha grade, then that is all they’ll see. Your GPA is but one part of the application package. Keep in mind that an AO will only spend 10-15 minutes on your entire application, so they will not be microanalyzing your transcript.

With a 3.95 GPA and a rank in the top 2%, you’ve passed the academic threshold.

5

@skieurope Would you say that I passed the threshold for these top schools? I’m worried that I will be overshadowed by the kids who get all A’s but have an easy curriculum/work load. Like english in my school is brutally hard, not just like vocab quizzes and all, its actually insane. And the fact that I’m Asian can’t do anything but hurt me.

6

Yes.

The AO may be familiar with the HS. Even if not, the school sends a profile which lists, among other things, SAT/ACT range, courses offered, GOA distribution. And again, all A’s is not the golden ticket; Stanford and its peers routinely reject 4.0/36/1600 applicants while accepting some with lower stats.

No argument from me. But I wish you luck.