<p>@IvyApplicant,</p>
<p>Your SAT score is actually pretty good. But it’s low for Harvard. However, even if you were to raise your score a bit, the real problem is your GPA. These days, GPA is the first and most important objective criterion at which Harvard looks. A 3.4 is an okay GPA, but it’s not really competitive for an Ivy League school, or MIT or Stanford. And one’s GPA is difficult to improve significantly. If you had a 3.9 instead of a 3.4, a modest improvement in your SAT would start to make you a competitive applicant for Harvard or similar schools. </p>