How do Harvard adcoms view g.p.a in correlation with rank?

DwightEisenhower
Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:43:30 +0000

GPA is a meaningless number by itself. If the only things an applicant provided were his name and his 3.9 GPA, you would have no idea what to think. Maybe the school is some tiny grade inflated nontraditional school where he is ranked 10 / 20 because everyone above him has GPAs 3.92, 3.96, and so on. Maybe it is a grade inflated school but he is still the best student anyway, ranked 1 / 200. Maybe it is an extremely difficult school and he is ranked 1 / 200 but the salutatorian has a 3.5 GPA, meaning this guy did exceptionally well.

So, GPA is looked at in conjunction with class rank, school profile, and the transcript itself. To answer your question, a 4.0 is obviously better than a 3.95, but its impact would likely be marginal because it won’t change your class rank at a huge school and probably wouldn’t have a noticeable effect upon your transcript.



If I was an adcom and I saw a 3.95 and rank 1 compared to a 4.00 and rank 1, I would choose the 3.95.



Why? I don’t get it.