What Are the Easiest Ivy League Schools to Get Into? (2023)

FAQs

What Are the Easiest Ivy League Schools to Get Into? ›

Cornell is considered the "easiest" Ivy League to get into because it has the highest Ivy League acceptance rate.

Any lower than 3.5, however, you'll have to either have an impressive, relevant achievement or pray for a miracle to get an offer. Therefore, it is best to aspire for the maximum 4.0 to play it safe. But as long as you have at least a 3.7 GPA, you can still get a serious chance at consideration for an offer.

Just one bad grade in an advanced level course is not going to ruin your chances at an Ivy League. However, consistently underperforming in advanced classes in your area-of-interest classes will penalize you in the applications process.

Yes, you can get into an Ivy League with a 3.7 GPA. Though, the lower your grade, the less your chances of getting into an Ivy League, but with a strong personal statement and a properly packaged application, you can get in with a grade even less than 3.7 GPA.

Average GPA: 4.18

(Most schools use a weighted GPA out of 4.0, though some report an unweighted GPA. With a GPA of 4.18, Harvard requires you to be at the top of your class. You'll need nearly straight A's in all your classes to compete with other applicants.

An Ivy League school might accept a student who had all As and one or two Bs in the highest-level classes, but it probably wouldn't accept a student who had flawless grades in all mid- or low-level classes. These schools are looking for students who are up for an intellectual challenge and genuinely enjoy learning.

Your first year and sophomore year affect your cumulative GPA, which is important to most colleges. However, a solid academic record in your junior year is likely to carry more importance with an admissions committee.

Going into high school, many students hear that freshman year is the “easiest” year. Some think that colleges don't consider it as much as they do one's sophomore, junior, and senior years. While this is typically true, it doesn't mean that students should entirely dismiss the importance of their freshman year.

Can I get into Harvard with 2 B's? ›

Does Harvard Accept B Students? Yes, just like I mentioned above, it's completely possible to get admitted into Harvard University with B grades.

The average high school GPA for admitted students at Harvard University is 4.18 on a 4.0 scale. (You can calculate your high school a GPA here.) This is a very competitive GPA, and Harvard University is clearly accepting students at the top of their high school class.

You should also have a 4.18 GPA or higher. If your GPA is lower than this, you need to compensate with a higher SAT/ACT score. For a school as selective as Harvard, you'll also need to impress them with the rest of your application. We'll cover those details next.

Nationwide, these are the three top schools with the most graduates who registered at Harvard, Princeton or MIT from 2015-18: Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia: 96; Stuyvesant High School in New York City: 94; and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire: 87.

Harvard University

The most challenging Ivy League school to get into is Harvard, established in 1636 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to Harvard Admissions, only 2,008 out of 43,330 candidates were accepted to the college.

If you're a high-school valedictorian applying to Harvard, you have only a 25 percent chance of being admitted. Admission is denied to 75 percent of the high-school valedictorians who apply to Harvard every year.

Brown is ranked by the Princeton Review as the 10th happiest campus in the country and the happiest school in the Ivy League, and has a general reputation for being the “Happy Ivy.” But why does Brown have this reputation?

The Hidden Ivies are colleges and universities considered to rival the eight Ivy League schools without being part of that prestigious group. These schools offer similar academic opportunities to students but might get overlooked because of their lack of popularity when compared to the famous Ivies.

The correct answer is almost certainly Cornell. It's a much bigger school in terms of number of students, and includes a number of schools -- not just the core arts & science school.

GPA Requirements

Yale University does not have a strict minimum GPA requirement for undergraduate admissions. However, admitted students typically have very high GPAs, ranging from 3.8 to 4.0, with an average GPA of 3.9.

Should I submit a 33 to Harvard? ›

ACT Requirements for Harvard

ACT scores range from 33 to 35, with 35 representing the 75th percentile. Even though Harvard probably states that there is no minimum ACT requirement, if you apply with a 33 or lower, you will likely struggle to get in unless you have other extremely strong application materials.

Harvard University's SAT scores for admitted students range from 1480 - 1580, with an average score of 1530. Although SAT scores are optional, we recommend that students aim for a good SAT score of at least 1530 to be competitive in the admissions process at Harvard University.

Ivy League

To be a competitive candidate for admission, you will need to take at least 8 AP® classes, more if you can. It is a good idea to take 1 AP® course in each of the following core disciplines: English, Foreign Language, History, Math, and Science to impress the admissions officers.

For example, at Yale a whopping 96% of students graduated in the top 10% of their high school class. If you have a few B's and are still at the top of your class, you remain in a strong position!

As a rule of thumb, one bad grade won't tank your chances in most places, though a D might substantially lower your GPA because it's adding such a low number to the average.

While each year of high school will have its own stressors, many will say junior year is the most challenging. Junior year can be the hardest for several reasons, but with the right prep and expectations, high school students can make the hardest year just a little easier.

Although junior year often holds the most challenging classes, it is not always the most difficult. Students are able to take what they have learned from their previous two years of schooling to better prepare themselves for the more strenuous classes.

Junior Year is the Most Important

While all the years of high school are important, junior year is definitely one that stands out for many reasons, and for college-bound teens, it may be the most important year of their high school career.

Putting freshman grades in context. For colleges, the freshman year is typically the least important year on the high school transcript (they figure you're just trying to find the school every day).

What year is your most important year in high school? ›

After being admitted with a 3.0 or higher grade-point average (GPA), you must maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.0 to be considered in good academic standing. If your GPA falls below 2.0, you are in poor academic standing.

You need a minimum 4.0 GPA to get into Harvard. This means getting “Straight A's” or “A+'s” depending on how your school grades. It would be very difficult to get into Harvard with a lower GPA than 4.0. Many students have even higher GPAs than 4.0.

One B will not hurt your chances, especially because it was in a rigorous AP class. Your B will hardly make a dent in your GPA, and assuming that will be your only B by graduation, your GPA will be in the high 90th percentile even at the most competitive schools.

A 1600 is only achieved by around 300 test takers per year and makes you eligible and highly competitive for admission at every college.

Not All GPAs are Created Equal

There is wide variability in the scale used to calculate GPA. GPAs can be based on a 4.0, 5.0 or 6.0 scale. Also, there are different weights applied to grades used in calculating a GPA. Some schools give plus/minus grades and some do not.

Normally, you would expect the highest score to be the 'perfect' 4.0 score, however, there are several things that a student can do to receive an even higher score. For example, one student actually managed to get a 10.03 GPA score. He did this by taking 17 advanced classes at his school, which awarded him many points.

In truth, you need close to a 4.0 unweighted GPA to get into Yale. That means nearly straight As in every class.

Harvard, Stanford and Princeton, unsurprisingly, are America's toughest colleges to get into in 2023, according to Niche's most recent rankings.

What is the lowest GPA ever recorded? 0.0 on a 4.0 scale is the lowest GPA record.

What is the hardest high school in America? ›

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

CS50 is Harvard's most popular class, and you can take it for free online. This introductory computer science course covers algorithms, data structures, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development.

Two Ivy League colleges made the list of the most stressed college towns and they both happen to be in the top 10 – Harvard University (#2) and Cornell University (#10).

Penn snags No. 1 spot for "hot" on campus. Not only do Penn students have a better chance of becoming billionaires, but they're they best-looking college-goers among the Ivy Leagues as well. That's according to a new survey by Tinder of eight Ivy League colleges around the country.

Cornell is considered the "easiest" Ivy League to get into because it has the highest Ivy League acceptance rate. While it's easier, statistically speaking, to get into Cornell, it's still challenging. It's also important to remember that students apply directly to one of Cornell's eight undergraduate colleges.

The title of valedictorian is used to distinguish indivduals who have achieved the highest level of academic excellence. Students who earn an unweighted 4.0 GPA, through the seventh semester of high school, will receive valedictorian designation.

We will allow students to apply for admission without requiring ACT or SAT test results. Consistent with Harvard's whole-person admissions process, standardized tests are only one factor among many.

You should also have a 4.18 GPA or higher. If your GPA is lower than this, you need to compensate with a higher SAT/ACT score. For a school as selective as Harvard, you'll also need to impress them with the rest of your application. We'll cover those details next.

Can I get into Harvard with a 2.5 GPA? ›

No, you cannot get into Harvard University with a 2.5 GPA. The minimum GPA for admission into Harvard is 4.18 on a 4.0 scale on your official high school transcript. This means that you have to be an advanced placement student to stand a chance of getting admitted to Harvard University.

It may be difficult to get into an Ivy League school with a 3.5 GPA. Most Ivy League schools require that applicants have an average GPA of 4.0.

It's worth noting that a 3.0 GPA does not automatically disqualify you from consideration for admission to Harvard, and there have been students with lower GPAs who have been admitted in the past.

What is the minimum GPA required for admission? We do not set a minimum GPA, nor do we attempt to re-weight GPA's to any standard other than what a school provides. An applicant's complete secondary school transcript (not just the GPA or class rank, if they are provided) is evaluated during the admissions process.

To elaborate, the national average for GPA is around a 3.0, so a 3.9 puts you above average nationally.

Unofficially, 2.0 is the lowest GPA accepted into a standard college, so while there's a chance that college admission is possible, it's not likely at more than a few institutions.

You should also have a 4.17 GPA or higher. If your GPA is lower than this, you need to compensate with a higher SAT/ACT score. For a school as selective as MIT, you'll also need to impress them with the rest of your application. We'll cover those details next.

Will an F ruin my GPA? The short answer is (surprisingly): No. If you have one “F” and all other grades in a 40-course program are “A” grades, your GPA will drop from a 4.0 to a 3.9. So, your existing GPA will be impacted, but will not be “ruined.”

There is no minimum GPA or test score, nor is there any specific number of AP or honors courses you must have on your transcript in order to have your application reviewed or be admitted to Stanford.

Undergraduate qualifications

If your graduate course at Oxford requires a 'first-class undergraduate degree with honours' in the UK system, you will usually need one of the above qualifications with an overall grade of 'A' or 83%, a GPA of 3.6 out of 4.0 or a GPA of 8 out of 9.

Can I get into Harvard with a 1400 SAT? ›

While a 1400 makes you eligible to apply to places such as Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, it won't make you a competitive candidate.