<p>Having a 4.0 probably would keep you from getting one of Papa John Pizza company’s $1,000 scholarships since the company tries hard to help students of good character whose gpas indicate they probably wouldn’t qualify for most other merit scholarships. Having a 2.5-3.0 is an asset for Papa John scholarships. Older S got one with a 2.9, besting students with much higher gpas.</p>
<p>It’s an old thread but it has occured to me that the sweet spot with the exception of a handful of lottery colleges is probably about a 3.8 unweighted, rigorous courseload checked on the counselor paperwork, with strong standardized test scores say upper 15%, a part-time job and a couple strong activities (sports, art, theater, whatever).</p>
<p>momofthreeboys, I completely agree. That’s the pattern I’ve seen winning out, especially at Stanford and WashU - though sometimes the part-time job is replaced by a serious volunteering commitment.</p>
<p>what about 4.0 gpa and a non stellar aCT, say, 26? Assuming no hook, does that negate or at least seriously reduce the value of the 4.0 (assume #8 out of 420 class in pretty good suburban chicago HS; also assume not interested in ivies certainly but maybe hold and aspiration for top 15-30/40 schools maybe).</p>
<p>a 26 would put the student in the 84pctile, while GPA would put the student at 98 pctile.</p>
<p>[ACT</a> Score Information: National Ranks for Test Scores and Composite Score](<a href=“ACT Test Scores | ACT Scoring | ACT”>ACT Test Scores | ACT Scoring | ACT)</p>
<p>26 is a good ACT score – as you noted it’s in the 84th percentile for all college bound kids. The 4.0 tells the school the student is a good, dilligent student. It’s a good position to be in. If the student took the ACT only once, generally a retake is good for a point or two as the student gets used to the pace. Also the ACT is somewhat knowledge based so taking it after junior year can sometimes garner an additional point or two on the math. My kids learned to read the questions first in the reading section and then read the paragraph knowing the questions and that “trick” was good for a point or two. With ACT you send only the score (or scores if the college superscores) that you want.</p>