Currently feeling really discouraged with my grades. I understand that grades are far from everything, but I believe there is some kind of threshold. Any success stories from people who didn’t get all A’s?
It really depends on what your school is like. Some schools pass out As liberally and some do not. Some schools do not have A+s and some do. The school report that goes with your transcript will show your GPA in relation to the difficulty of your school and where you stand in your class. You should be taking the most challenging courses that you can to show your academic excellence and growth. So, people do get into the schools you list with GPAs that are less than 4.0 but the school wants to be sure that you can handle their academic program.
in another thread you wrote " math has never been my strong suit. Currently teetering on the edge of a C for this quarter" Competitive candidates may not have a 4.0, but many of them do better in challenging math classes. A lot of HS kids think of these schools as a brand name associated with them they want and give little thought to actually taking classes. Perhaps you should rethink whether being around the top students in the country is really a good fit for you.
There are tons of amazing colleges and universities out there. Stop obsessing over prestige. When the time comes, look for schools that will be good fits for your academics and for what you want in a college.
Dont think you should worry much regarding grades just like Tash61 mentioned.
Read a couple of days ago in a UPenn thread – a person ranked 63rd (around 15% in the class - if I remember right) with 4.0 UWGPA!
Hope colleges are smart enough to understand how much grade inflation happens in this country in many public school districts! It is time to investigate schools and school districts that do this to cover up for their teaching and student performance. They inflate the grades and anybody with a B now has 4.0 GPA! There is NO way 20% of the class get a 4.0 UW GPA unless it is a private school or a gifted class room etc. Most of those class sizes are anyway very small compared to a public school!
I think it would take a pretty strong hook to get into HYPSM without a 3.7+. But think about it… do you buy the brand name of everything at home? Don’t you ever buy store brand food, or generic brand garbage bags, etc.? You probably do (I do). Why? Because you and your family experimented with those different products and found which store-name brands are just as good and which are not. Colleges are similar. Do more research and you’ll find one that gives you everything an ivy can, except the fancy packaging.
You probably think that because colleges publish there 25th/75th percentile so you may be thinking gpa is a key.
Well, sure, gpa is important. But so are lots of other factors. ECs, recs, essays. SAT, etc As your gpa gets lower your other factors need to be even more amazing. One huge factor you don’t seem to be considering is your transcript. Top colleges don’t just look at your gpa, they look at how you earned it. Were you taking honors and AP classes? Strong applicants take tough classes like AP Calc and get A’s in them.
If your weaker grades are in honors or AP classes then your chances have become even slimmer. You can spend your time dreaming of the most selective colleges in the country as per your post here, but IMHO a more productive use of your time is to find colleges that are likely to accept you and that have the factors that make them a fit for you. By fit I mean class size, advising, location, study abroad opportunities, type of students that it attracts, etc. If your concept of fit is focused around brand name then the application season may be tough on you.