Hi,
I totally understand a bunch of factors go into getting accepted into Harvard. But I am worried my unweighted GPA is not perfect and that may lead to rejection. My weighted is around 4.7 or something like that. I had one B freshman year and will have straight A’s in sophomore, junior, and senior year. I also have a 1600 SAT. Along with really really really good extracurriculars, do I have a chance?
Yes
Per their CDS, 25.7% don’t have a 4.0.
I don’t know if the CDS for Harvard is using UW or weighted but people aren’t perfect. Some are likely athletes.
Of course with a tiny admit rate - many like you will get turned down.
So have a balanced plan.
But you are not eliminated for not having straight As. By the same way you are not close to assured with a 4.0, 1600, and great ECs.
Best of luck to you.
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Is it possible? Sure. But please keep in mind that Harvard, with an acceptance rate under 5%,as well as other elite colleges routinely turn down applicants with perfect GPAs and standardized test scores. There are simply more well qualified applicants than spots available.
Apply and give it your all. BUT do not focus on one hyper- competitive school as your “dream.” Do the work to create an application list that includes reach, match, and saftey schools that appear affordable and that you would be excited to attend.
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Sure…if you apply, you have a chance of being accepted. Your one B grade won’t be the reason if you don’t get accepted. Remember, well over 90% of those who apply to Harvard do not get accepted. Most of the 90% or more are extremely well qualified applicants. Harvard doesn’t have the seats to accept all the extremely well qualified applicants who apply.
So…apply and wait and see. You might get accepted and you might not get accepted. You are a well qualified candidate and I’m sure you will land at a great college even if it is not Harvard.
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A single B isn’t going to be the reason you get rejected at Harvard. You have great stats and seem like a very competitive candidate - that being said, most very qualified applicants like yourself are rejected because there simply aren’t enough spots. If you have a hook of some kind - FGLI, a recruited athlete, legacy etc. - your chances are somewhat better. So, give it a shot, but make sure you have plenty of match/safety schools on your list.
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It depends on the context.
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Yes. Harvard seems to have a “good enough” threshold on academics, probably top 5th% (assuming no tremendous hook, like wealthy donor child, in which case it might be significantly lower). What they seem to be looking for (aside from the recruited athlete/wealthy donor/URM - although that’s up in the air after the SC ruling/legacy - which is probably less weighted than ever) are people who have very strong achievement in one particular area, in addition to across the board achievement in academics. Everyone in my kid’s year (who wasn’t URM/donor/recruited athlete/legacy) seemed to have achievement at the national level in something.
So, your GPA most definitely meets the more than good enough threshold, and obviously, so does your SAT score. You need fantastic letters, and very high achievement in something, that sets you apart from others. In your case, what would get you in would be if you had some sort of outstanding EC achievement that Harvard wants.
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The average GPA that is in the CDS is 4.2, so they’re using the average of the weighted GPAs. I have no idea what weighting they’re using, but it indicates that a decent number have GPAs that are under 4.0, likely more than half
In short, somebody with a GPA of over 3.95 is not going to be rejected based on their GPA.
Around 3% of all unhooked applicants are accepted. From what is known from a couple of articles published about applicants to Harvard, unhooked applicants with GPAs and test scores in your range are accepted at 2X-3X the average rate for unhooked applicants.
What that means is that roughly 91%-94% of all applicants with GPAs and test scores in your range are rejected. Since the numbers of unhooked admissions also include applicants who have national or international recognition (awards, etc), an even higher percent of applicants in those ranges are rejected.
It’s not a random selection process, so there is no actual way to say “you have XXX chance of being accepted” in any meaningful sense. What people can say is that you have a small chance of being accepted, but most likely you will not be accepted.
My advice is that, if you have submitted your applications, forget about it, and if you have not submitted your applications, submit it and then forget about it. It’s a waste of time and emotional energy to obsess about something which you cannot change, and the numbers are essentially against you.
The great thing is that, with that GPA and those test scores, there are literally dozens of amazing colleges which would not only accept you but would give you very large scholarships so that you would attend those colleges.
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Thx for the research.
GPA isn’t the “determinative factor”, according to Harvard Crimson:
For guidance, listen to what its president has to say:
So pay attention to the other stuff and see how you fit in—your grades are good enough.
That’s not news, nor is Harvard even trying to hide this. Look at the factors considered for admission on the Harvard CDS - all are “considered”, including GPA and Rigor. Other colleges with similarly low acceptance rates have GPA and Rigor as “Very Important”.
At a high level, what we learned from the Harvard litigation is unhooked people without absolutely perfect grades could still be rated academic 2s by Harvard (assuming enough course rigor and high test scores). Academics 2s in turn made up the large bulk of Harvard’s unhooked admits.
But there were also far more Academic 2s than Harvard could possibly admit. In that era, only 12.4% of Academic 2s were actually admitted, and the percentage would be even lower among unhooked applicants. Again at a high level, Harvard cut that pool down to the final size by essentially requiring unhooked admits to also have very strong ratings for activities and personal factors.
Personally, I doubt the big picture has changed much since then. Assuming enough rigor and your test score, I think it is very likely Harvard would consider you academically well-qualified enough. But only a small fraction of applicants like that can be admitted, and Harvard will cut down that pool with other factors.
As others suggested, then, if you don’t get admitted to Harvard, there are two main possible explanations. One would be that they didn’t like something about your course rigor. But assuming that isn’t true, then it would likely just be that you were one of the vast majority of academically qualified applicants who didn’t rate quite strongly enough in other ways.
So the answer to the question from all I think seems to say yes, you have a chance.
But not a good chance and it’s not because of the imperfect grade.
Interesting… it wasn’t like that in 2007-08:
when rigor is still very important and class rank is not only considered but important, too.
This is what it looks like today (since 2008-09):
when class rank is no longer considered, and rigor is less important (though considered).
This is not a surprise at all. There are numerous different ways to assign class rank. And also, there are more and more schools that actually don’t even provide this information any longer, or they report in deciles.
But back to the OP…do you have a chance? Sure. Is it guaranteed one way or the other…no.
My last aside - but I think that the “rigor” was just a way to give a boost to students from Harvard’s favorite private high schools.
Really? You look at the admits from public high schools and you can’t see how rigor is one of the distinguishing factors? In school systems where 15 Vals are not unheard of (all perfect GPA’s once you include gym, choir and the other non-core classes) and a kid WAY down in class rank gets admitted (no hooks)? The distinguishing factor for that kid is the rigor… even when it meant he “sacrificed” his GPA. I think it’s a bigger boost for the public school kids, frankly. Exeter and Groton don’t need a finger on the scale at Harvard…
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I’m not saying that private schools have higher rigor. I’m saying that Harvard could claim that they do and preferentially accept private school kids over kids who attended public high schools.
I’m simply trying to figure out why Harvard would include rigor as “very important”, but not GPA.
Harvard does have a history of weighing admissions decision in favor of graduates of private high schools, or, at least Harvard AOs do.
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Maybe because there are hundreds of ways to compute GPA. Looking at the courses and their rigor relative to what the HS offers is probably easier.
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