<p>Which top schools would be most lenient with a low GPA, and would place more of the focus on everything else?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Example student...
-2150+ SAT
-750 and 780 on Subject Tests
-Top 10%, competitive SoCAL High School
-Very rigorous course load
-9 AP's, scored 4's and 5's
-Very unique and focused EC's
-A memorable essay, faced hardships etc...
-Superb teacher rec's</p>
<p>But...
-3.6 GPA (max=4.0)
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Many people seem to act like anything below 3.7 is death, but...
28% of the admits to UPenn had a GPA below 3.75
47% of the admits to Johns Hopkins had a GPA below 3.75</p>
<p>So, what are some other top schools which do not overly emphasize GPA?</p>
<p>It is not that those schools don’t overemphasize GPA, but many, if not all of the students who have less than 3.75 GPA’s are either legacies or recruited athletes. I can guarantee that MANY of those students who get into UPenn that have a 3.75 GPA or below are either legacies or recruited athletes.</p>
<p>I feel like I had similar stuff as you to work with (3.6 gpa), and I did pretty well earlier this year when I was applying to colleges. I applied Early Decision to Dartmouth and got in…I don’t know if I would have had I not applied Early Decision, and I probably barely got in…I sure didn’t receive any finaid which didn’t make them a very practical choice.</p>
<p>However…I went to one of the top high schools in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, I had a recommendation letter that I included from a family friend named Senator Tom Coburn, and I did several summer-study programs including one at Georgetown…among tons of other EC’s like student govt and real govt stuff.</p>
<p>What I would do if I was you (and I’m really glad I did this) is spend more time picking your safeties than your reaches. These will be the schools you actually have a good shot at going to. Your safeties aren’t just schools that…well you might go to if you absolutely had to. A better frame of mind when looking at safeties is which schools do you want to be the ones that compete to get you to go there over say, Dartmouth? </p>
<p>It would have only cost me $5k/year to go to SMU, and OSU was also nearly a full ride. When I went to Stillwater people got really interested in me and everyone I met wanted to unlock some door for me towards being a bigshot on campus. I think you would be very surprised at how state flagship schools will pull out all the stops to attract Ivy-caliber students to go there instead of Ivies.</p>
<p>osucowboys, How did you get out your Early Decision contract with Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Most schools won’t look at raw GPA-- as in they’ll recognize that being in the top 10% at your competitive high school is the same as being top 10% at a high school where that means having a 3.9.</p>
<p>Early decision at Ivies is not always binding like it is at others. It is very weird. Because I was deferred I was not required to honor my early decision.</p>
<p>I got into Pomona RD with a ~3.4 (top 20%), but higher SATs.</p>
<p>osucowboys, I didn’t know you got deferred. I understand now.</p>
<p>LOL yeah. Best of both worlds! Get to still brag that I got into Dartmouth, and then even though it was early decision not compelled to do $50k/year. (This is a very rosy outlook on being deferred…the credit goes to my shrink.)</p>
<p>The only way that one can compare GPAs is by knowing the quality of the high school, and the rigor of the course work. Also, it is not atypical for many, many high schools across the country to be very lenient with their grading policies. College admissions offices know the difference, and so the GPA is not always what it might seem to be to students</p>