Question about grades and college admissions--what is really required?

I will only address the UC’s.

The UC’s are now permanently test blind so GPA and HS course rigor along with her PIQ (Personal Insight Question) essays will be Very Important in her application review. Her EC’s can help differentiate her from the other competitive applicants.

Class rank is not considered other than in the context of ELC (Eligibility Local Context) which is part of the 13 areas of application review criteria.

There are plenty of applicants for the UC’s that have a 4.0 UW GPA that do not get accepted into their top choices and there a plenty of less than 4.0 UW GPA applicants that are accepted. Also she will be evaluated within the context of her HS so as stated by many, a 4.0 at one school is not the same as 4.0 at another.

She will be competitive but she should first focus on finding some true safety schools (affordable, guaranteed admission and willing to attend). Having a balanced college list is important, so anything beyond identifying these likely schools, is icing on the cake in terms of college admissions.

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