Think of how many students have perfect GPAs. Several of the Ivies get about 30,000 applicants and about a 6-8% acceptance rates.
It’s not that the school won’t tolerate low GPAs; it’s that there are so many other applicants with high gpas–the whole package. The Ivies could fill their classes many times over with kids with perfect GPAs. Why would they bother finding kids with lower GPAs? Maybe if that person had an imperfect GPA but also designed a new rocket ship and successfully got SpaceX to launch it to the moon–or that person won the world’s piano competition at age 9 – or that person was awarded the Nobel Prize at age 15 after being shot for fighting for the rights of the underprivileged – or that person did something else that was similarly impossible seemingly to do and on the world stage, they might over look a slightly slipped gpa. Otherwise, what’s their incentive?
Do yourself a favor and apply to several other nice schools that are not Ivies.
It’s not the school that makes the person, it’s the person who makes the person.