My school calculates GPA on a 100 point scale rather than a 4.0 scale. Additionally, students are not allowed to take APs their freshmen and sophomore years. I am currently a junior and my weighted gpa is a 100.18. I go to a rural, small public high school. I will probably be about 4/70 in my class, but not sure yet. Is this GPA high enough for a T20 school? I know GPA is just a baseline, but I feel like mine could be better. All my grades are an A+ apart from a B+ my freshmen year and a B+ from AP Calculus AB this year.
Is this GPA high enough for a T20 school?
Of course they are. But thereâs no admission assurance.
But thereâs a variety of school types and rankings and expense levels / financial aid. There are âmajorâ ranks. I hope you find the right school vs just top 20.
And donât forget if you are using US News as an example - some historically top 20 schools fell far - yet they are the same school. WUSTL and Emory as examples - will you dismiss them just for that reason ? Not top 20 if thatâs the rank you are usingâŠ
Others rose.
Good luck to you.
How exactly could they be better? Sure, you have two B+s but whatâs done is done and a B+ is a fine grade. You say yourself that the rest of your grades are A+s so Iâm not sure how your GPA could be any higher. Take challenging classes and do the best you can. Thatâs all you can do.
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So there is no generic answer to this question. Such colleges are going to look at your transcript in detail, including what courses you selected, and evaluate that at least in the context of your school report, and possibly your counselor letter, teacher recommendations, demographic data about you, your school, your residential address . . . . There simply is no way for us to determine what any one highly selective college, let alone 20 such colleges, are going to think after going through all that.
About the best you can do is see if you can get information about how prior applicants from your school have done at those colleges, and look for patterns. Even then, it would really help to have the assistance of an experience school official.
But absent thatâas a general rule of thumb, most unhooked admits to such colleges have near perfect grades in advanced courses in all the core areas, plus some advanced electives. That leaves some wiggle room, which is fine, but understand for almost everyone unhooked there is a good chance they wonât get admitted to any of these colleges. So, have a good set of likelies and targets as well, and then if you have near perfect grades in those sorts of courses, take your best shots at some well-chosen reaches.
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If your rigor is as high as it can be, these grades will likely not exclude you from consideration.
That said, how many students from your school are typically accepted at the colleges you are considering? Will you be submitting SAT or ACT scores? If your high school rarely sees students get accepted to top colleges, you will likely need to be submitting a strong standardized test score as confirmation of your academic abilities in order to stay competitive.
Many, many students with similar grades and high scores donât get accepted each year, so the combination is in no way a guarantee â far from it â but they will also not be the reason that you wouldnât be accepted.
My kids attended a rural, small public high school that uses a 100 point scale. The high school would have very occasional top 20ish acceptances, but were always difficult to predict. Since covid, when most colleges have gone to being test optional (high school classes of 2021, 22, and 23), there have been no acceptances of note.
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The answer to your question isâŠGPA is only one factor for these T20 colleges. You can have a perfect 4.0 GPA and not get accepted there.
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In fact grades may help you meet a benchmark but after that, admission is about other things. (It may help that you are from a small rural school, depending on location).
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Thank you for the help! Also I will be submitting my SAT score, which hopefully will help compensate. My high school sends about 1 or 2 kids every other year, so I am hoping that luck and hard work will be on my side!!
Thanks for the help! To answer your question, I am looking at a variety of schools, however, I was more curious to see if my grades and rank would even allow me to reach for a school of such selectiveness.
Thanks for the help! I will make sure to keep that in mind!
4/70 is enough that they wouldnât eliminate you based on grades. SAT?
Then itâs going to be down to other stuff. If youâre from a rural, small school they might find that interesting.
Thank you for your reply! I will make sure to just keep trying my best and focus on myself.
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Thatâs good to hear that itâs enough! I was worried that not being the âbestâ from an already lower school would hurt my chances. Although my rigor is definitely above those higher than me. My SAT is a 1570 super scored, so Iâm hoping that will balance things out?
There is nothing to balance out. Youâre a great student and any college would be lucky to have you. But as stated these are just some of the many factors they are looking for. Good luck.
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Yes, that looks great, especially from a small rural school. Go for it!
Thank you!!! That is very kind of you to say!
No one can get into any school of they donât apply so the answer is yes - they can work.
But itâs like my daughterâs valedictorian - a 36 act, perfect gpa with 10 or 11 APs and 0 for 16 in the top 20.
Someone is getting in. Maybe or maybe not you.
But apply and see if the school meets your need.
Good luck.
There is nothing to balance out. Unless those other people all apply to the same schools, no one will know their rigor is lower. And, there are only 3 people ahead of you! I would focus more on writing very strong essays and making sure you have solid extras to help you out. Even then, itâs a crapshoot.
What schools are you looking at?
Your âchance meâ thread from July indicated very strong rigor and a nice range of ECs. (The farm work is interesting, as were all the leadership roles.) It also indicated Princeton was your top choice and that you had run the NPC and your family was OK with the numbers it indicated.
Assuming you maintain your challenging course load, civic and school involvement, and grades, and submit your excellent test scores, gain convincing recommendations, and write strong essays, you should be in the running and earn fair consideration with other high-performing students. A couple of Bâs over the course of a high school career laden with rigor shouldnât be dissuasive.
Take your shot. Donât assume your circumstances in a small rural school are a negative. They are not.
Hi! Thank you so much for your reply! To answer your question Iâm looking at: Princeton, Yale, Swarthmore, Hamilton, University of Virginia, William and Mary, UMASS Amherst, Tufts, Charleston, and College of the Holy Cross.