[81alum]

but how many admits who are NOT football recruits have been admitted with a "paltry" 3.65 gpa like Christian McCaffrey?

Not that I remember but my HS GPA was probably right around there. Do admits really have a >4 GPA on a 4.0 scale, meaning they average between an A and A+? That seems absurd.

Many high schools calculate weighted GPAs--AP classes, honors classes, and IB classes count as "5" rather than as "4" if an A.  So a student who takes a great many AP classes and gets "A"s in all of them can get a GPA considerably above 4.0.

Stanford admissions does not use weighted GPAs but recalculates GPA in its own way.  It only used the final 3 years and it only uses academic courses, and it uses the 4.0 scale.  However, a student who earns a 4.0 taking a lot of AP classes is a stronger candidate than a student who earns a 4.0 taking just normal classes.  This is one reason why Shaw tells recruits they have to take AP courses.  So Stanford does "weight" the GPA in a subjective sense, even though they don't in a mathematical sense.

Basically, getting a 3.65 gpa--whether weighted or not--is a disaster for a typical Stanford applicant.  Stanford stopped posting the average GPAs of its admits in 2017 since it was so demoralizing, but the last year they did so (2016) 58% of admits had 4.0 gpas, and only 14% lower than 3.7.  Those 14% probably all were absolutely outstanding in some extracurricular.  Since 2016 things have gotten much worse.  That year the admit rate was 4.8% and it has steadily declined to the point that they are refusing to provide it any more.

[81alum]

but how many admits who are NOT football recruits have been admitted with a "paltry" 3.65 gpa like Christian McCaffrey?

Not that I remember but my HS GPA was probably right around there. Do admits really have a >4 GPA on a 4.0 scale, meaning they average between an A and A+? That seems absurd.

Many high schools calculate weighted GPAs--AP classes, honors classes, and IB classes count as "5" rather than as "4" if an A.  So a student who takes a great many AP classes and gets "A"s in all of them can get a GPA considerably above 4.0.

Stanford admissions does not use weighted GPAs but recalculates GPA in its own way.  It only used the final 3 years and it only uses academic courses, and it uses the 4.0 scale.  However, a student who earns a 4.0 taking a lot of AP classes is a stronger candidate than a student who earns a 4.0 taking just normal classes.  This is one reason why Shaw tells recruits they have to take AP courses.  So Stanford does "weight" the GPA in a subjective sense, even though they don't in a mathematical sense.

Basically, getting a 3.65 gpa--whether weighted or not--is a disaster for a typical Stanford applicant.  Stanford stopped posting the average GPAs of its admits in 2017 since it was so demoralizing, but the last year they did so (2016) 58% of admits had 4.0 gpas, and only 14% lower than 3.7.  Those 14% probably all were absolutely outstanding in some extracurricular.  Since 2016 things have gotten much worse.  That year the admit rate was 4.8% and it has steadily declined to the point that they are refusing to provide it any more.