What GPA Is Necessary For HYP Admission from St. Albans Unhooked?

[Anonymous]

The answer is he needs perfect grades.

[Anonymous]

Perfect GPA is the starting point. It's not that difficult to get 4.0 at STA, at least 15% of students have straight As at STA. On top of that, you should take the most difficult math courses. Linear algebra. Then there is leadership. Class president, varsity captain of two teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perfect GPA is the starting point. It's not that difficult to get 4.0 at STA, at least 15% of students have straight As at STA. On top of that, you should take the most difficult math courses. Linear algebra. Then there is leadership. Class president, varsity captain of two teams.

Those are hooks.

OP said unhooked, so not a varsity athlete, and not class president.

The real answer is that it is rare for anyone - from any school in the US - to get in to HYPS purely on academics. There almost always some kind of hook, but that hook is not necessarily legacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perfect GPA is the starting point. It's not that difficult to get 4.0 at STA, at least 15% of students have straight As at STA. On top of that, you should take the most difficult math courses. Linear algebra. Then there is leadership. Class president, varsity captain of two teams.

Those are hooks.

OP said unhooked, so not a varsity athlete, and not class president.

The real answer is that it is rare for anyone - from any school in the US - to get in to HYPS purely on academics. There almost always some kind of hook, but that hook is not necessarily legacy.

ECs are not hooks. Athletics can be if the kid is at the level to be a recruited athlete, but not otherwise. Hooks are things like legacy, donor status, wealth/fame/celebrity, possibly race/URM (that’s fuzzier now), first gen (not typically relevant for students at DC area privates) - things about the kid or the family but that are out of the student’s control.

GPA, test scores, rigor/difficulty of classes (within the context of what the school offers), leadership positions, volunteering, and whatever other ECs, jobs, etc - those are not hooks. Those are what students can control and need to make impressive for T10 admissions. And even maxing out all of that, it’s still a crapshoot, because all of the people applying to Harvard, etc, are tops in all of those things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually have one son that went to STA and another that is in his senior year at St. John's.

The STA kid worked his tail off, but was outmatched by some of his peers and ended up in the top 40% of his class. He ended up at Tulane.

My St. John's kid doesn't work as hard but has a 3.95 UW GPA with all honors/APs. Naviance says he's competitive for all the T20s out of SJC. The SJC kid is also happier and not nearly as stressed or burnt out as the STA kid.

This. Two boys, three years apart. Different schools but same story.

If your goal is just college admissions, then keep in mind that class rank matters a lot if you're unhooked. Going to the school where your kid can get to the top of the class matters more than school's brand prestige.

[Anonymous]

Even if he gets a 4.0, it's not a guarantee. There will be dozens of boys in his class applying to the same schools, and they will be URM or be legacies.