Hello. I attend a fairly large school of around 1000 students in my class, and rank around top 5%. By the time I graduate I calculated I will have taken 15 AP classes, but my GPA sits around 3.6-3.65. I also plan on applying to mostly top 25 schools. Does my rigorous schedule offset my bad GPA? Opinions???
Depending on your context and place compared relatively to the other students.
If it’s top 5%, I see no reason that it will be a problem. 15 AP’s sounds very rigorous, but the 3.6~ GPA could mean that you overloaded yourself with AP’s or your school grades hard.
I suggest that perhaps you take a lighter and more manageable course load during your senior year. Your rigor will be relatively the same but you will get much better grades.
Wow, 15 APs! I don’t even think my high school offers that many. I think it’s very impressive that you are taking all these classes, but if you’re only a sophomore or junior, perhaps you might consider taking a lighter schedule the next few years. You don’t want to burn yourself out.
However, it is true that the top 25 colleges often care more about your class rank and how rigorous your schedule is than they do your GPA. This would be to your advantage. However, still consider raising your GPA by dropping down to some honors and regular classes if you can. Anything above 3.8 would be great.
Good luck! 
Have you seen your school’s profile sheet that it sends to colleges along with your transcript? Ask your GC for a copy.
Expand your range of apps to top 50. There are plenty of great schools in the 26 to 50 range, and it is unduly arbitrary for you to ignore them.
Thank you for the advice! I found it very helpful.
GPAs are relative. What matters is not your absolute GPA but your class rank. If your school subscribes to Naviance work with your college counselor on reviewing the grade and SAT/ACT history of applicants from your school to the colleges that interest you.
NO matter what, DO NOT apply “mostly to Top 25 schools”. Treat any school with an acceptance rate below 30% as a reach. Then add 3-5 that look at acceptance rates AND top 25% stats (you should be near/at this number). Find 2 safeties (where you’re sure you’ll get into and your parents, after seeing the NPC results, tell you it’s affordable) that are similar to your match/reach schools (looking at criteria like environment, crunchy/preppy, big city/college town, small&interactive classes/largelecture halls, hot/cold weather, liberal/conservative, no core/strong core curriculum, D1sports/D3 sports…)