No hooks: what is the lowest GPA to get into an Ivy in the past 5 years?

[Anonymous]

What is the lowest weighted GPA you are aware of for an applicant accepted to any Ivy without any hooks (legacy, URM, athlete)?

Anything less than 3.9? 3.5?

[Anonymous]

OP -- I assume your question is well intended but it's pretty meaningless without context -- depends on rigor of course work, test scores, public/private school, weighted/unweighted GPA, how it compares with other students in that school in terms of class rank, and, I would argue, there is no such thing as "no hook" in the sense that just about everyone admitted to the most selective ivies has something special /unique about them besides their grades and SAT scores. Beyond that, there is a wide range of selectivity within the ivy league itself even though all are highly selective.

If your school has Naviance you can see the GPAs of admitted students to different ivies from your child's high school. Otherwise, check out the common data sets or third-party web sites. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

And what Ivy? At our (public) school the kids getting in to HYP have 4.0s (hook or not). Kids getting into Cornell are a little more varied, might go down to a 3.9. Penn might be in between. Both groups would have taken 8-11 APs.

[Anonymous]

The selection process is extremely rigorous and out of the reach of most students - plenty of kids with the highest GPAs and perfect SAT scores have been rejected from HYP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP -- I assume your question is well intended but it's pretty meaningless without context -- depends on rigor of course work, test scores, public/private school, weighted/unweighted GPA, how it compares with other students in that school in terms of class rank, and, I would argue, there is no such thing as "no hook" in the sense that just about everyone admitted to the most selective ivies has something special /unique about them besides their grades and SAT scores. Beyond that, there is a wide range of selectivity within the ivy league itself even though all are highly selective.

If your school has Naviance you can see the GPAs of admitted students to different ivies from your child's high school. Otherwise, check out the common data sets or third-party web sites. Good luck.

Don't over think it. I'm just trying to get some data points. I've seen GPA's belwo 3.5 on Naviance, but Naviance doesn't flag "hooks" - I assume anyone getting in with less than a 4.0 has something extraordinary, but the real outliers are the three "hooks" - what I'm looking for is the minimum GPA to have a chance at ANY Ivy. If someone were to say "3.2, but the student was accomplished actor" - that would still be useful.

[Anonymous]

a bit under 3.7 at Penn

[Anonymous]

This is a really difficult question to answer b/c "hook" is such a vague word. If you mean the kid is completely normal in every way, then the kid isn't going to get into an ivy at all.

[Anonymous]

PP you are crazy, or just toying with the poster, or both.

No hooks, at Penn? You better have straight A's in the hardest curriculum offered at your school. No room for error.

And this conversation is so completely meaningless because of all the factors that go into it.

[Anonymous]

PP, that's what I was trying to say.

A kid with a 4.0 and 11 APs isn't unhooked. Being really really good at school is a "hook".

The question is which hooks count MORE and how much a hook makes up for a bad GPA which no one can answer.

[Anonymous]

OP, depends on a variety of factors. Is your child at a public or private school? Girl or boy? SAT scores? Subject test scores? ECs? How many APs? If your school has rankings, what is your child's rank? There is no blanket answer. And, kids with perfect every things are routinely rejected.

[Anonymous]

Forget the term "hooks" just exclude 1) Legacy; 2) URM; 3) athlete - anything else goes - if you want to state what that "something else" was fine, if you just want to state a school and a GPA that is fine too.

It is understood that every students has something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, depends on a variety of factors. Is your child at a public or private school? Girl or boy? SAT scores? Subject test scores? ECs? How many APs? If your school has rankings, what is your child's rank? There is no blanket answer. And, kids with perfect every things are routinely rejected.

All understood, but that's not the question. Stated another way, what is the lowest GPA you can confirm for someone who was no a legacy, urm or recruited athlete?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP you are crazy, or just toying with the poster, or both.

No hooks, at Penn? You better have straight A's in the hardest curriculum offered at your school. No room for error.

And this conversation is so completely meaningless because of all the factors that go into it.

Applicants are accepted at Penn with less than a 3.7

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/penn-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm

I suppose its possible that every single blue or green dot below 3.7 was a legacy, urm or athlete, but I highly doubt it.

[Anonymous]

This author claims a 3.4 got her into Harvard and Stanford.

http://www.hopelesstoharvard.com/ivy-league-admissions-guide/

I don't have personal knowledge, but I'd be surprised if she's lying.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who got into MIT with a 3.7 or so GPA (I don't remember exactly, but she had a few B+s and A-s on her transcript, maybe even a B). She had some extracurriculars, good essays, went to a competitive summer robotics program (but wasn't like an intel semi-finalist or a published author or anything), and took the hardest course load possible at a competitive high school.