I have a 3.61 unweighted, 4.22 weighted; yet, I’m in about only the top 20-25% of my class rank. I know that school reports are considered when viewing your gpa, but I’m wondering if the fact I’m not in top 10% will take me out of the running? Rest of application is STRONG. Yet, my GPA is lacking…are there any Pton students out there who’ve gotten the miracle acceptance letter without being top 10% or who had similar stats?
The thing is, your GPA is the most important aspect of your application. Here’s the deal. You know that PTon has about a 6-7% accept rate. That’s not 6-7% of HS Students – that’s 6-7% of super qualified uber APPLICANTS to Princeton.
You’re not even in the top 10% of your HIGH SCHOOL. If you were my kid, I’d advise you not to apply to PTon. When I give presentations on behalf of Yale, I ask bluntly if the students are among the top handful of students in their current class – then I say: “This MIGHT make you a viable applicant”
I think that GPA would put you at about 20% in many competitive HS.
If you have no hook, you already know it’s bleak. Don’t waste ED/REA on it, or too much time, but if it is important to you, give it your best shot. Good luck.
What will make Princeton excited about you?
Since you are lacking an attribute that 94% of accepted students possess, it seems highly unlikely thst you'll be accepted.
In order to overcome your GPA and rank, the rest of your application would need to be incredibly strong. Even if you were a recruited athlete your GPA would probably be to low. A Princeton coach recently told me that his recruits needed a minimum of around 3.8 unweighted to be in the running.
It depends on how competitive your high school is. But top 20% is too low other than a recruit athelete.
@Cantiger i disagree. i think grades at princeton are only lower since people waste their time getting mccoshed or netflix+chilling -> lower mental ability for classwork.
course work is clearly trivial if people are posting on yikyak at 3am since they clearly have enough nothing to do to not do anything until 3am and then post on yikyak. tc and tcl are beautiful examples of the results of the triviality of princeton.
I came out of high school with a 3.63 uw and just graduated with honors from Princeton in June (also accepted to Columbia and Stanford during my application cycle). White male, not a recruited athlete, legacy, or development case. You will be evaluated holistically, so if the rest of your application really is strong, your GPA and class rank are not disqualifying factors. What you need to do is identify what differentiates you from the rest of the applicant pool and milk it for all it’s worth.
@soulpatch, can you tell us what your differentiators were without compromising your identity?
My daughter has applied early action. She is in the top 10% of class, but her SATs are in the lower range of acceptable. She does have, in my less than objective opinion, some very differentiated ECs.
Thanks in advance!
@soulpatch You say you just recently graduated from Princeton which would mean that you were probably accepted 4-5 years ago. It’s been my experience that the admission process has gotten progressively more competitive and difficult at even less selective colleges and universities. That being said, the only way the OP will know is to apply and wait to see what happens.
While it has gotten more competitive, a drop from ~9% to 6% isn’t that meaningful to most people. But frankly, I can easily envision more fantasy-driven applicants holding onto soulpatch’s very unique situation and hoping beyond all hope that their apps move fwd. I think given the desperate nature of many applicants, they see stories like this as a possible lifeline and ignore the reality that soulpatch had some other very desired attribute (given the multiple accepts by top colleges).
I had a similar story – Asian male with top transcript & ECs but test scores around the 30th percentile of my targeted low-admit rate schools. I got into all of them – but I realize I was very unique and don’t share that aspect of my profile for fear it gives needless and false encouragement.
Hello, Im a international student, do you thing i have a chance? my school is really hard, my gpa is 3.68. but im the 2nd best student of 105
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
@AGuyFromBolivia Hijacking a thread is very rude to the original poster. Start a new post with your question, but you would need to provide much more information for anyone to chance you, including SAT scores and EC’s.
Sorry I didnt know that, I just have created my account. in new oh this
Full disclosure, 3.6 uw put me in the top 10% of my graduating class at a school that didn’t report GPA to colleges. I had a 35 ACT and similar APs and SATIIs. I was also a national competition level arts admit in what had been an underrepresented discipline, and, though it was only ever implied in my application through my ECs, I’m a sexual minority. I was the president several student groups and had recommendations that didn’t just glow, they warmed you from the inside out (or so my guidance counselor said).
But if you had asked me to describe myself my senior year of high school, I would have said I was just another sad gay kid: completely wracked with depression and anxiety; constantly ashamed that I wasn’t more perfect. Always striving toward nothing of consequence and always, always coming up short, (always, always ,always) killing myself for never getting the rock up the mountain. I had a decidedly subpar SAT I, non-existent volunteer work or job experience, and a series of people who told me my common app essay made me look like a weirdo. So, when I submitted my first application (with a completely different essay)–an SCEA to Yale which was first deferred and later denied–I didn’t think myself a candidate for any college at all, let alone a low-admit university, and I had let that opinion negatively influence the way in which I presented myself. As I revised my application for regular decision, I started to see just how poorly I was representing myself just in the way I was telling my story (what information was elevated, what was mentioned at all, etc…), and had a personal crisis that ended in me accepting that I was a) good enough to get into these schools, and b) content even if I didn’t because the odds are overwhelmingly against any applicant. Regular decision was just fun at that point.
T26E4 probably is right, and I’m just giving someone false encouragement. But any encouragement at all in this game is kind of false given the roulette spin we’re dealing with, and I don’t see any harm in providing a bit of hope if it allows an applicant to more ably present him or herself as the most desirable person they can throughout application season. There are no universals in high-level college admittance, so your application won’t be thrown out because you have an A- average without a directly counteracting hook. Sure, you probably won’t be admitted outright, but, if the rest of your application is at par or above, you’ll go to committee where it’s all about the weapons you’ve given an admissions officer to fight for you with. I just implore that you don’t deliberately blunt your knives because a stranger on the internet said it’s a gun fight. Use what you have and present who you are as authentically and attractively as possible, and above all remain optimistic. Otherwise, you’ve lost before you’ve begun.
@soulpatch Thanks for providing the detail and congrats on your success. I am a firm believer in stretching, as long as you are doing so with a fall-back plan. Years ago, I got into a top 20 school that never should have let me through the gates. It changed my life. I then went on to a top 10 MBA program.
What I learned out of school was far more important than what I learned in school. Going to a top school helps you get a good first job, which then helps you get a good second job. After your first two jobs, or four years of experience, no one cares where you went. I have worked for brilliant people that never finished high school and know a Harvard MBA who is an account manager (which, of course is an admirable job, but not one to which your typical MBA aspires).
CC is a fun forum for those (and their parents) going through the process. But these Ivy boards put way too much stress on getting in, and not enough emphasis on being a great person. After being in the real world for 30 years, the greatness of a person is not exclusively defined by what they attain. I believe one’s measure can also be seen in how hard one stretches their boundaries. I will take effort over talent every day. People that show great effort rarely give up. People with talent frequently don’t know what to do when their talent is no longer enough.
What’s worse is that people with talent tend to stay in safe places where their talent is dominant. People with who put forth great effort will go anywhere and do anything and can be successful out of their simple inability to quit.
Now someone will comeback and say, a student with a 3.9 and a great batch of ECs has put in more effort than someone with a 3.6. True, but that kid with a 3.6 may have had a 2.5 as a Freshman and is finishing with a 4.0 as a Senior (as was my case). Both might be successful at a top school, and I have more respect for the kid who turned it around - my money is on them when tested with adversity. Just my opinion, though.
Good luck in the future, SP. You seem like a great person.
Update: It is now February. I have decided to submit an application because not giving myself a chance would be worse than getting rejected. Will let everyone know the results. Wish everyone luck.