Chance shotgunning for Ivys with GPA on their lower end [MA resident, 3.75 GPA, 34 ACT, business, PPE, or political science]

Chance Me / Match Me
21

So again, just to be very blunt, the most selective colleges get a lot of applications from kids with perfect or near-perfect grades, and they are going to reject most of those because they have no choice. They don’t have nearly enough room for them all.

And they know lots of those kids faced serious adversity at one point or another in HS, because things happen–divorces, deaths, illnesses, and so on. But that stuff happens in college too, and so their ideal applicant faced such adversity and managed to continue to perform consistently in school anyway.

I am mentioning this not to discourage you, but to help you make realistic plans. It is just asking a lot for them to pick you in these circumstances, when they know they are already going to be rejecting lots of kids who overcame a lot of adversity, and they still don’t have room for them either.

Which doesn’t mean they never make exceptions in such circumstances, but I think it is very, very rare for them to do that, and basically only if you really give them some other compelling reason to admit you. Like, they absolutely love what they read in your recommendations and essays, and they really want to admit you, but your grades are not up to their normal standards, but they are satisfied this won’t be a repeat problem, so they go ahead and take you.

But if they didn’t already really want to take you, I don’t think that is a very realistic story anymore. Not at the most selective colleges.

Again, the point of all this is that I really think you need to focus on writing the best possible applications for some select colleges where you really believe they would be a great fit for you, AND you would really be a great fit for them. Give them your best pitch, and hope they think the same thing.

And hopefully your counselor or perhaps a teacher can discuss the adversity you faced. But the main point of what you do would not be trying to get an excuse for those grades, but instead giving them some other reason to think they just have to have you at their college.

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22

Since not as many posters are familiar with Western University, I will chime in the program you are looking to apply to is in the Ivey business School, thus it would also be considered a reach with your Current GPA.

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23

Its based only on senior year I thought?

24

They do look at all grades unfortunately( they want to see a strong academic history), but more emphasis is put on 12th grade. It has about an %8 acceptance rate.

25

For the US schools, UMass is possible/likely. IU for the school but maybe not Kelley. Bing yes. Maybe UIUC. Maybe.

Mostly rejections.

Sorry

Just my opinion.

26

Look into Babson College. It would provide a superb education for what you’re interested in and they have a well respected reputation within the business community as well as a large alumni network.

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27

Also, take a look at other details on your post that could identify you (such as the Boys’ State post number, which could also be used to identify you from news releases) and ask the moderator if these can be removed/edited.

28

I like to think of myself as an independent thinker on CC, but not this time. Please know I am “generously” calculating your unweighted GPA closer to a 3.6 and am reasonably sure you are not in the top 10% of a top 25 public in MA - and I know the top schools very well. A 35 or 1500 might help you get lucky with one of the harder ones, but truly do not think so. Your business major in some will nearly gurantee denials, although I do especially like your activities for that major. Even though I like PE and what you say you did, peoeple know that there are no official intern programs for HS students, so do not oversell it. Consider calling it a shadowing or apprenticeship.

My list for you (from your list) would be:
I am assuming business in my admissions odds.
BC - High Reach
McGill - Reach
Florida - Reach
BU - Low Reach
Tulane - Low Reach
Indiana - High Just Right
U Mass - Low Just Right
U Conn Low Just Right
Binghamton - Safe

Good luck.

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29

I like the recommendation of Binghamton. By all reports and anecdotally by personal experience, it is the rare state university where there it is not harder to obtain acceptance as an out of state applicant. In fact, out of state applicants seem to be accepted at a higher rate than in state applicants. This is indeed unusual for a state university as highly regarded as this one is. Combine that with reasonable cost for out of state students and it’s quite a good deal.

30

I’ve talked to my councellor and while we don’t do class rank, she said I’m in the top 10%, also I have maximum course rigor and thats why my UW is higher (A+ - 4.0, A - 4.0, A- - 3.7, B+ - 3.3).

Also for the PE internship, I got it by cold emailing and it isn’t pure PE but a search fund (typically for college freshman and sophomores), and I have a recommendation letter from the MD/CEO.

31

In regards to how I’m in the top 10%, its because my school has tons of grade deflation (only 2 students in the grade with 4.0, salutatorian won’t even have a 4.0 [thats possible because of A+s])

32

It is an easy thing for them to say since you do not have it and can’t use it. I bet against it but it does not matter since your GPA speaks for itself and will be recalculated by the college.

I think you may be having a miscommunication because rigor is not considered in unweighted GPA’s.

[quote=“arnavpalawat, post:30, topic:3692722”]
Also for the PE internship, I got it by cold emailing and it isn’t pure PE but a search fund (typically for college freshman and sophomores), and I have a recommendation letter from the MD/CEO.

That is not a private equity internship, but I am sure you had a solid experience. Don’t oversell it.

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33

That is for Canadian students.

34

I was a math major in university. Let’s do some math just to set perspectives (and yes, you do not need any university math courses to do this).

According to a quick Google search just now, and most likely based on Google AI, about 3,900,000 seniors graduated in high school in 2025. This suggests that 390,000 students were in the top 10% of their class.

Let’s suppose that the top 6 universities in the US are Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and Caltech (with apologies from the many people active on this site who graduated from a different highly ranked university). These schools in terms of the number of incoming freshman that they will have next month will have very roughly about 1,700 + 1,500 + 2,200 + 1,100 + 1,700 + 270 students. Rounding upward this comes to roughly 8,500 students.

Suppose that we add Columbia, Penn, Chicago, Duke, Cornell, UCB and UCLA. This adds 2,500 + 2,400 + 1,800 + 1,700 + 5,800 + 13,700 + 12,700 students, for a total, including the 8,500 above, of about 49,000 students. USC might add roughly another 5,000. This is greater than 1% of the number of graduating high school seniors in the US, but is still way lower than the number of “top 10%” students.

Of course admissions is hard to predict. Many of the top 1% and top 10% students just choose to go somewhere else. Your ECs are excellent. Your guidance counselor could explain the reason for your drop sophomore year, and you have bounced back with an excellent junior year of high school.

Just be aware that these reach universities are unlikely, at least for a bachelor’s degree (if you ever get to the point of applying for a master’s your high school grades will not matter – and what you did in university and on the job will matter a lot more than where you did it). Also be aware that you can get an excellent education at any one of a huge range of universities.

and best wishes.

35

UCB and UCLA do not enroll 13,700 and 12,700 new frosh each year respectively. The actual numbers for fall 2024 were 6,332 at UCB and 6,613 at UCLA.

36

Google AI has failed me. I am not surprised.

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37

I mean I guess this is a fun exercise, but of course we know top 10% at one school might be top 1% or top 50% at a different school.

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38

Coming back to remind you to change your username and not use your actual name in these forums. Instructions upthread.