<p>^ Question’s up there.</p>
<p>(BTW I go to one of the top public schools in California and they make an A- a 4.0 NOT a 3.7)</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Of course not! Yale looks at the whole application. They defer and reject those that have the top scores all the time. I think it has more to do with the individual as a whole. Like what type of assets/skills would they bring to the campus. They all know their applicants are capable of the workload, but what other things can they do. I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Thanks Galaxy :)</p>
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<p>While that’s hardly an argument that lower scores/grades are a non-issue, I agree with galaxy’s general sentiment. Your biggest problem will be how those grades affect your rank, which, since they’re considered A’s, they will not.</p>
<p>This is a tricky one. Lets say there is an average joe student. They do a ton of volunteer work and even started their own program to help kids in broken neighborhoods. They made a difference in their community through service and demonstrate a ton of new ideas that could help with key future issues. Would they choose the average joe who spent the time to go out in the world and apply himself, or the overachieving scholar in school that only did volunteer work to impress and is towards the top of the class. I think they would pick the average joe. Sure, grades/ranks are important, but the person as a whole is even better.</p>
<p>The honest answer is that because Yale looks at the whole package, no one thing makes all the difference, unless it’s very good or very bad. That being said, though, everything good helps you and everything bad hurts you. An A- is not as good as an A, so it will hurt you if you are competing with people who have similar qualifications but have As instead of A-s.</p>
<p>If you are taking the hardest available curriculum in your school, and if nobody else (or very few people) in the history of your school has got A’s in those classes, and your admissions officer is aware of this, then you are okay.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I agree with Hunt.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. </p>
<p>@Hunt and Vicariousparent:</p>
<p>If what you’re saying is true, I think I’m in a good position, because not many (if any) people have my story to tell, so I hope you’re right :).</p>