hey!
my gpa is 3.71 unweighted… should i even try for any ivy leagues?
my act is high (34) and i have tons of extracurriculars, major in chemistry, family issues that affected my grades…
and my essay skills… r okay? i hope ahaha
should i even try for it? is it even possible?
They aren’t going to care about family issues that affected grades. There will be kids applying with perfect grades who have seriously difficult lives. Appy if you like, but understand that the odds are slim for anyone, even kids with perfect stats. ECs are good, of course, but almost every applicant will have good ECs, right? Focus on your match and safety schools first.
Why do you want to go to an Ivy League school? Tell us what you think you want/need from one of them and we might be able to makes suggestions of other schools.
“Any ivy leagues” suggests to me that you are looking for prestige rather than a good fit. The Ivy’s are very different in culture and location- which one drew your interest; look for less selective schools that are similar to that Ivy.
You asked a similar question on the chance thread. Short answer – it is fine for you to put a couple of reach schools on your application list. Just be sure to also apply to match and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be happy to attend.
Why not? But spend more time on finding match/safety schools like @happy1 said.
Probably not quite Ivy level. You don’t mention AP exams / SAT IIs, which are critical for top schools. You need good scores on these to compensate for the grades. Also were you taking almost all AP classes? Again, you need this for Ivies.
3.71 doesn’t exclude you. A student from our local HS got into Stanford with similar GPA and 32 ACT. He has a personal challenge which is very unique which made him attractive to Stanford.
It’s fine to apply to Ivys as reaches. However, what they are really looking for is a lot higher GPA with almost all AP classes and general and subject tests that go along. Having a lot of ECs helps, but you generally need a hook like recruited athlete or something if you have a 3.7 and your level of classes and test scores are similar to the grades.
And they don’t admit by gpa.
They’ll see your transcript, the course rigor (or not) and where you got less than an A grade. If those are in stem, for this OP, that’s a problem.
I agree, the family issues aren’t a tip. It’s different when a student triumphs despite a challenge. Tippy tops can cherry pick among kids best prepared for the four years.
I don’t think that a 3.71 will by itself make admission to an Ivy League school impossible. However, I do agree with @KKmama that you really should have a reason to go to any top school other than “prestige” before you apply to one.
@lindagaf “They aren’t going to care about family issues that affected grades.”
It depends. My wife does alumni interviews for an Ivy. If there is a story that is significant and not fully captured in the application, I have seen her write pages and pages of information and submit it to admissions. That is they type of thing they want to know. Is there anything about this student that could be relevant to the decision, but isn’t reflected in the application.
DadTwoGirls, it matters what courses got less than A. Gym? Fine. Foreign language, when the kid wants stem? Maybe. (Maybe not.) Math/sci classes, not so good. Adcoms can worry about challenges actually keeping up in college claseses, whether the student’s prep is enough, compared with peers.
Much2Learn, backstory helps when the applicant is already on the mark. We don’t know enough here about strengths.
It is hard to tell without more information. You need rigor of courses and good AP exams / SAT IIs. The weaker grades themselves will not disqualify you. However, I am not sure if OP just messed up grades in some courses or has good ACTs but not the level of work Ivies are usually looking for.
@sattut Applicant’s need a rigorous schedule, not necessarily APs. Some schools don’t offer APs whether it’s a different system or too small. Some boarding schools don’t offer APs.
Yeh, whatever. APs or equivalent. If OP is going to a private school without APs the courses may be harder and 3.7 a good average. I just mean that you need rigor. Ivies all want SAT IIs. If OP has 700+ SAT IIs and a rigorous schedule, OP has a shot at Ivies.
If you don’t apply your chances are 0. On the other hand, there are plenty of candidates with perfect scores, gpa (with rigor) and a decent list of EC’s who are rejected. If you want to objectively assess the strength of your application, you need to ask yourself, have you taken the most rigorous courses your school offers, where do you stand in relation to others in your class with a 3.71, are your grades on a upward, flat or down trajectory?
@Much2learn is correct in that one of the questions Yale interviewers are suppose to be on the look out for is “unusual circumstances”. I don’t doubt the AO is on the look out for that as well. However, I think the point there is not that the circumstance becomes an excuse, but how the candidate handled/handles it.
You got good advice from all the posts above. The most important one is to make sure you have a good list of matches and safeties. By all means go for a couple of reaches, but realize that the “Ivies” are different in so many respects, size, urban/suburban/rural, academic emphasis, social life/vibe and selectivity.