Which is better? Most rigorous or higher GPA?

thibault
Sat, 21 Dec 2019 19:06:00 +0000

At the most selective private colleges, for unhooked applicants from schools not well-known to the admissions committee the GPA and rigor debate is for all intents and purposes moot. The unhooked/unknown HS applicant’s chances of getting admitted to an Ivy+, even with a ‘1’ academic rating, are next to zero.

I assume that the poster knows this harsh truth, in which case this discussion to be useful needs really to focus on the relative importance of GPA vs rigor for what you’re calling “moderately selective” colleges ie public ivies, flagships, second-tier non-Ivy plus private universities.

Here’s a suggested decision tree for the applicant - ask yourself these q’s:

1. Do I have a hook? If no, go to step #2.

If yes, then do your homework, talk to the appropriate contacts at the university and determine what the actual academic threshold is for those in your cohort. For ex., the Academic Index (AI) for Ivy League recruited athletes will give an indication, roughly, of what a football/basketball recruit needs to attain, what a rower or fencer or tennis player etc needs to attain.

1. Is my school well known to the admissions committee? If no, go to step #3.

If yes, call the adcom and have a conversation with them to determine whether/how closely they evaluate particular courses and teachers at your school. If your school is well known, it’s likely that someone in a senior capacity on the adcom knows who the really good/tough teachers are at your school, and will weight that course appropriately.

1. If like 80% or more of the applicant pool you lack a hook, and your school is not well known or has never sent anyone on to that particular highly selective university, then you have to make inferences based on the Common Data Set info (nb. Chicago and Columbia refuse to publish this info).

Do a search on [name of university.edu] + “common data set” and scroll down in the .pdf document or web page to SECTION C, “Freshmen Admission,” and look for sections C9-C11, “Freshman Profile.” Section C9 = Standardized test brackets, C10 = Class rank brackets, C11 = GPA brackets.

Generally speaking, most highly selective colleges will only provide C9 and C10, ie SAT/ACT brackets and C10 class rank brackets. Moderately selective colleges will also provide GPA brackets.

What this tells us is that for the most selective eg Ivy+ universities, GPA is a first screen: there’s no point in even bothering to apply to such schools if you’re unhooked, your school is unknown, and your GPA doesn’t place you in the top 10% of your class.

For the moderately selective universities, the scale is less steep, and typically the Common Data Set will indicate GPA brackets as well. But the logic still obtains: GPA is the gating criterion, closely followed by Rigor and Rank.