<p>@CrispyBullet: They analyze closely in context of high school, courseload, and then probably AP/IB/SAT II’s if the applicant sends them, thus many “lowish” GPAs will gain admission at places like these. For example, I would trust a 3.4 from a very competitive HS much more than a very high GPA from a less competitive HS in say Georgia (IE most Ga public schools to be very honest. There are certainly good magnet programs, but there is grade inflation, curves, and all types of protective measures to ensure students remain competitive. The same could be said for some private schools). Emory UG isn’t as shallow as professional schools for example. I think they pay very close attention to the nature of HS’s (especially those that feed/give a lot of applicants to it and other peer private and public schools). I’ve met many “imperfect” students GPA wise who were from such schools and ended up actually outperforming most students at Emory by a long shot. Often the competition at the persons HS was higher than here. </p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel : Good theory, but if true, Emory should be careful. It may fall in the GPA/“amount in top 10% of graduating class” category. In addition, it is hard for Emory to matriculate such folks assuming that the person’s “low” unweighted GPA resulted in a reasonable rank at the HS (say top quartile. admittedly other schools wanna just rack up top decile ranks from those who attend schools who report rank). Admittedly, the scheme could result in more interesting students that are up for challenging themselves.</p>