My kids’ high school does not weight. But if you get an A+ (98%-100%) in certain classes you get a 4.3 instead of a 4.0. Looking at Naviance (so last five years of outcomes), the lowest grade accepted at an Ivy or other “top tier” school was a 3,85(ish)…with most clumped around 3.95-4.1. There were a few outliers with lower GPAs; mostly athletes (the kids know). Talk to the kids and they will tell you: B+ in any course is the kiss of death. You can deal with a handful of A- at best…but most of those need to be offset by A+. The push now by the parents is that you have to have over a 4.0…the feeling from a certain subset of parents is that the less than 4.0 kids are the next to get excluded.
True story: a friend of a friend is an alum of a highly sought after school in the Boston…as is his wife, dad, grandfather. Private Equity guy. His son was a junior…3.75…lots of AP/Honors…1500+ SAT…three sport athlete…student leader…nice kid…one of those kids who just has it going on. Dad sets up a meeting with admissions director at his alma mater. He is told by the director that his son shouldn’t apply…a 3.75 is just too low coming from our high school. I don’t know the dad but I know of the kid and I was just floored.
So why do kids freak out? Because they are getting a very clear message from admissions.