<p>I was just thinking about this and for TOP schools out there. Like I heard extracurriculars and letters of rec are like “deal makers” and like AP/ACT/SAT/SATII scores and GPA are “deal breakers” meaning even if you don’t screw up, they don’t make the “deal” but you’re considered safe until they evaluate your extracurriculars and letters of rec</p>
<p>So should people like me who have everything else over the top with perfect ACT/AP test scores and really awesome extracurriculars even worthy of evaluation with my 3.3 GPA? (even with a sharp upward trend?) is it even worth it? Or would I be considered lazy and not get accepted? Should I bother? </p>
<p>I mean people say it doesn’t hurt to try, but it does doesn’t it? Time, money and a loss of self-esteem when you get that rejection letter.</p>
<p>How would your GPA be impacted if you omitted your freshman year? Some schools (like Stanford) don’t include it in calculating your GPA. Most non-state schools are also likely to cut you some slack if the trend is in the right direction. </p>
<p>And I think your ‘deal makers’ and ‘deal breakers’ sums it up pretty neatly. (Just add your essays to ‘deal makers.’)</p>
<p>I also like the “deal makers” v. “deal breakers” idea. At the most selective schools, the question for a candidate with a 3.3 GPA (unweighted, I assume?) is whether that candidate makes the threshold cut of applicants who will get close scrutiny. Or, to be blunt in the use of your terminology, whether the deal is “broken” before it ever gets off the ground. I guess I wouldn’t get my hopes too high with that GPA, even with “perfect” test scores and “awesome” extracurriculars," unless the extracurriculars put you in the recruited athlete category. </p>
<p>That said, I wouldn’t abandon all hope. You say (or at least imply) there’s been a sharp upward trend in your GPA. Some colleges are very forgiving of your freshman grades, so if your GPA without freshman year is within the range they’re looking for, there’s definitely a chance. It would also help to have a teacher or GC say that it took you a while to find yourself academically in HS but that you’ve overcome that rough start and become a model student—though of course you don’t control what goes into their letters. The chief concern colleges have with students who get top test scores but not-as-stellar grades is that it suggests a lack of focus on academics, and/or a lack of diligent effort, and that is most assuredly NOT what they’re looking for. Stellar ECs in a candidate with top test scores but a less-than-stellar GPA might actually reinforce that impression. So you’ve got to prove by your post-freshman GPA and course selection that you’re not an academic slacker.</p>
<p>In the bigger picture, the world doesn’t revolve around the most selective colleges. Even if you’re not Ivy material there are plenty of very good colleges out there that would be happy to enroll a candidate with outstanding academic potential (as evidenced by your test scores and recent grades) who has turned things around academically (as evidenced by your rising GPA and teacher and GC recs) who is also a “doer” and leader (as evidenced by your ECs). Keep at it. You’ll have an opportunity to soar somewhere, and get a very good college education.</p>