How A High School Student With A 2.4 GPA Got Accepted To Brown University
According to one student, getting into Ivy Leagues doesn't just depend on high grades anymore.
TikTok As colleges across the U.S. are making their final decisions for admitting students, many of them are curious to know their odds of getting into certain schools.
To many students, getting accepted into one of the eight Ivy League schools seems impossible with the standards for GPAs being so high. However, it may not be as difficult as some perceive if they are interested in applying and the only thing holding them back is their GPA.
One man has revealed how a teenage girl got accepted into Brown University, an Ivy League school in Rhode Island, with only a 2.4 GPA.
Despite her GPA, the student was accepted into Brown due to her impressive extracurricular activities and work experience.
According to PrepScholar, those applying to Brown University are most likely accepted if they have a GPA of 4.08 or higher. If it is anything lower, the student must compensate with a high SAT or ACT score and be involved in numerous extracurricular activities.
Even with an outstanding application, Brown is one of the most selective universities in the country, with only a 5.5% acceptance rate.
Still, it is possible to be accepted with a GPA that is below 3.0, as one girl proved. The student sent in her GPA, extracurriculars, work experience, and a list of the colleges she was applying to to TikTok user @limmytalks. Limmy is popular on the app for his videos predicting which colleges students will most likely get accepted to based on all of the above qualities.
The student reveals that she applied to Brown University, UC Berkeley, UCSB (University of California in Santa Barbara), USC (University of Southern California), University of Arizona, ASU (Arizona State University), University of Chicago, CalTeach and USD (University of San Diego).
With a 2.4 out of 4.0 unweighted GPA, Limmy was surprised to hear that she had already been accepted into more than half of the schools!
The student plans on double majoring in Astrophysics and Computer Science. In high school, she completed two AP-level courses for college credit. She scored 1270 out of 1600 on her SAT and 32 out of 36 on her ACT. However, it was the student’s extracurricular activities and work experience that stuck out the most.
She was on the Varsity Chess Team all four years of high school, was the team President, and team Captain, and won several awards during her time as a team member. She also participated in Tech Club her senior year.
Although she claims that she is not a member of the National Honor Society, she earned a good word from the sponsor and volunteered for the organization throughout high school. The student was also a member of DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) her senior year and the Senior Representative of the AP Social Studies Club. Additionally, she tutored other students in math throughout high school and history during her senior year.
Outside of school, the student proved that she could take on multiple jobs and responsibilities. She worked as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), participating in direct marketing for Jackson Hewitt Tax Company for two years, a computer tech expert and IT manager for the same company her senior year. During the summer leading up to her junior year, the student was a Chess teacher.
All of the student’s hard work paid off. Despite her low GPA, she was accepted into Brown University, the University of Arizona, ASU, the University of Chicago, and USD.
Some TikTok users assumed that the student may have come from a successful family and bought her way into an Ivy League school. However, she claimed that this was not the case and that she grew up in a white, low-middle-class income family. She adds that the reason why she applied to Brown in the first place was that all of her friends were applying to Ivy Leagues.
The girl credits the strong college essay that she spent weeks working on as the main factor that carried her through admissions. As Linny points out, if you do not have a perfect GPA, don’t let it stop you from applying to your dream schools, even if they are Ivy Leagues! Extracurricular activities, work experience, club involvement, and a moving essay can go a long way.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.