<p>I received two A-minuses in my freshman year of high school (two 93s) in Honors Trig and Honors Chemistry. I've gotten straight-As in a variety of much harder AP classes (both math/science and humanities), and have strong test scores and ECs.</p>
<p>Will these two 93s hurt my chances of getting into a top university (HYP, etc.)?</p>
<p>You’re not the first person to make a thread like this. Prepare for plenty of joke responses about how getting an A- ruined some one’s life.</p>
<p>These are the possible responses:</p>
<p>-Dude, go outside and play.</p>
<p>-No–seriously. The difference between an A and an A- is minuscule, and it totally doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>-Yes, obviously. An A- isn’t the highest grade possible, is it?</p>
<p>-That depends–did it adversely affect your rank?</p>
<p>The “real” answer (meaning the one that you’ll find true based on your admissions results) is probably somewhere in the gray area between these responses. From personal experience, I had one B (an A is 93-100 at my school) my junior year and another this semester on my midyear report. I’ve done fairly well in the admissions process so far, getting into all of my EA schools with scholarships offers and receiving one likely letter to a T10 school. </p>
<p>While I don’t subscribe to the threshold argument (that there’s a certain point beyond which higher grades don’t matter) I do think that the adcoms are very good at looking beyond the GPA to the student’s accomplishments. It truly is a holistic admissions process, and every part of your application will be considered. (I think the fact that my B was in a class totally and completely unrelated to my intended major and my ECs helped as well.)</p>
<p>It’s also entirely possible that adcoms will consider your 93 an A, assuming that your number grades are listed on your transcript alongside the letter grades.</p>
<p>druval: you should review the admissions criteria of the top colleges. There, you’ll discover that top GPA is needed, not perfect GPA. Therefore, you may well be misinformed about other areas on which you’ll be evaluated. Maybe it’s worth time to review, no?</p>
<p>What do you mean by “top GPA”? Relative to the rest of my class or relative to the rest of the application pool?</p>
<p>long answer: wow, you messed up. a MINUSES??? are you stupid or something? what is WRONG with you? you’re not getting in absolutely anywhere…maybe community college, but probably not even that…</p>
<p>the shorter answer is: no.</p>
<p>“What do you mean by “top GPA”? Relative to the rest of my class or relative to the rest of the application pool?”</p>
<p>the answer is on the schools’ websites.</p>
<p>EDIT: OK, I’ll spare you the pain of doing research by yourself. You’ll be evaluated holistically. 4.0 students are routinely rejected. People with lower than 4.0 are also admitted. Why? That’s for you to discover</p>
<p>How dare you come on this site with not one but TWO 93’s oh my god.</p>
<p>What you have to understand is that there are kids who don’t have even one A-. Some kids have almost all A+s. You are immediately at a disadvantage when comparing yourself to them…</p>
<p>So yes, those 93s will hurt you somewhat substantially, but certainly not irreversibly. You still have a shot at top universities, but if it’s you or the guy without the A-s and everything else is roughly the same…</p>
<p>Not at all. First, those two A-minuses were attained during your freshman year. Some colleges do not regard your 9th grade transcript, and if they do, it is not as important as your 10th, 11th, and 12th grade transcripts. And your grades are just one tiny part of the admissions process.</p>