<p>I am going into the 2nd semester of my junior year and as of know i have a 3.6 unweighted and 4.4 weighted GPA. i plan to score over 30 on the ACT and i have very dedicated extracurricular activities and hold offices in a few. Should I be worried because last semester didn't go entirely the way I wanted?</p>
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<p>More important than what your gpa is at is your class rank. I got in this year ED with a 3.7 gpa, however I was also in the top 5% of my class of about 220. Along with that, trends in grades are very important!</p>
<p>Overall if your grades maintain or start trending upwards, you get good test scores, and your extracurriculars are decent, you should have a decent shot! good luck!</p>
<p>Percentile rank matters more. If the highest GPA at your school is a 4.0 UW / 4.7 W, for instance, you wouldn’t look quite as good as if the highest GPA was a 3.7 UW / 4.5 W. Also, you have to consider any (legitimate) circumstances that might have led to your GPA being what it is, as well as your subjective qualities such as essays, recommendations, and so on.</p>
<p>In short, your GPA seems a tad on the low side, but your weighted GPA is good, and there are so many other things to consider that we can’t say anything for sure.</p>
<p>As the above posters have said, your class rank is important. I was admitted with an 82% overall (no letter grades) however I was second in my class. The rigor of your schedule is also a very important factor.</p>
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<p>My school doesn’t rank because it is so competitive and i take all honors and AP classes. So how does this affect my chances. What about ethnicity?</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure but it might be the case that they’ll take a rough estimate (ex. top 5%) of your rank. However if your school is that competitive I’d be willing to bet a 3.6 UW GPA isn’t bad at all.</p>
<p>If they don’t take into account class rank at all then even more emphasis will be placed on the rigor of your course load. This is actually already one of the most important factors when considering your academic performance because Rice wants to make sure you are challenging yourself and succeeding (most importantly the former) so that they can be confident that, if they admit you, you will continue that trend at Rice.</p>
<p>Ethnicity is a small factor because Rice likes to keep a diverse campus–and they do a damn good job at it–but diversity doesn’t mean that everyone is colored. Caucasians are ethnic as well, and without them Rice would be lacking a large aspect of diversity; it’d be the same as if there were no Asian students, no African-American students, etc. Furthermore, diversity isn’t just ethnic, but also socioeconomic. Finally, there’s nothing you can do about your ethnicity anyway, so I wouldn’t worry about it at all. :)</p>
<p>OP - If your GC cannot provide a rank or a rough rank (top 5%, 10% etc.), have them describe your course rigor and the general competitiveness of the school. If you are taking the hardest schedule offered, make sure Rice knows about it</p>
<p>Schools that do not rank will often provide a rough outline of the distribution of GPAs. For example, my high school did not rank, but provided the top 10% GPA and a few other significant percentile GPAs that I can’t remember.</p>
<p>How much do they look at weighted GPA because mine is a 4.4-4.5. When i apply do i have to put both grades or can i just use my weighted and by the way i still have this semester to boost my GPA</p>
<p>I am also African american male and take all honors and heavy on AP</p>
<p>^MrAPMan: weighted doesn’t really mean much since most schools weight differently. Rice will take your unweighted grades and then look at them in context with the course you earned those respective grades in. Obviously an A in an AP will look better than an A in a regular class and Rice will keep that in mind. Im not really sure if they will come up with a weighted gpa using their system, but its totally possible.</p>
<p>Just have to say-- I’m not sure whoever said class rank is more important than GPA is right. My class rank is really low, like barely top 20%, but my GPA is high-- 3.9 UW, they don’t tell us weighted but something like 4.4 probably? Just my two cents. I like to think Rice reweights GPA according to a fair, uniform system and thus realized my school’s system of doing so to determine class rank was pretty screwed up… and thus they tossed it out the window 
Who knows?</p>