This Just In: Your High School GPA Doesn’t Matter

May 16, 2020 :: Admissionado Team

So, here’s some fun (or maybe totally not fun?) news: According to an article in USA Today, many colleges don’t care that much about your GPA when it comes to admissions.

You might be thinking, “HUH?!”
Or more likely: “Excuse me? I’ve been missing out on quality time with Netflix and grinding for… what exactly?”

Here’s the deal, folks:

Admissions deans at places like the University of Virginia and Swarthmore have gone on record calling GPA “meaningless” and “artificial.” Why? Because context is everything. Grade inflation, wildly different school standards, a surge in AP availability, and strategic course-stacking mean that two students with identical GPAs may have completely different levels of preparedness.

So yeah—while you’re doing mental gymnastics to turn a B+ into a weighted 4.3, admissions officers are already two steps ahead, asking: “What’s this GPA really telling us?” Spoiler: Not much.

And it’s not just adcoms. Neither Princeton Review nor US News includes high school GPAs in their rankings formulas. Some Ivies don’t even release GPA data at all anymore. (This year? No published averages from Brown, Columbia, Yale, or Cornell.) Translation: The GPA arms race is collapsing under its own weight.

So what does that mean for you?

Let’s not get it twisted—this is not your hall pass to start slacking. Selective schools still want academic rigor. They still expect you to challenge yourself. You just don’t get extra credit for academic theater.

Here’s the more useful way to think about it: GPA is becoming the bare minimum. A high GPA won’t set you apart—but a low one might knock you out of the running. It’s a threshold metric, not a differentiator.

The real differentiators? Narrative. Voice. Substance.

Colleges are done chasing robots with perfect transcripts and zero personality. They’re asking: Who is this person, and will they add something to our community? And this is where the college essay—and the larger application story—steps into the spotlight. A high GPA might say “I’m disciplined.” A strong essay says “I’m interesting. I think. I care. I notice things others miss.”

Let’s be honest:

A perfect GPA without a personality is the admissions version of a resume that says “Proficient in Microsoft Word.” Cool. So is everyone else.

What’s compelling is a student who built a robot from e-waste in their garage. Or organized a community clean-up without waiting for permission. Or wrote a poem that floored their English teacher. These are the kinds of people who spark discussion in a seminar, who raise their hand with a perspective no one else saw coming. That’s who schools want.

The takeaway?

Keep grinding. But stop obsessing over the decimal point. If you’re aiming for a top school, your academic chops need to be solid. But that’s just the start. Now’s the time to double down on your *you-ness*—the stuff no AI could fabricate. The quirks. The passions. The unlikely intersections that make your story yours.

Admissions offices aren’t looking for perfection. They’re looking for potential—and maybe even a little edge. So, go ahead. Keep studying. But also start living a life worth writing about.