<p>im currently attending the #1 public school in california and it is VERY competitive here. I current have a 3.75 unweight gpa, and since our ranking goes by unweighted gpas, my rank is a horrific about 131 out of 540ish. i've taken one of the hardest course load possible, but theres a lot of ppl in our grade who takes non honors and aps and get 4.0s therefore we have about 27 valedictorians. last year our school sent 4 to harvard and about 80 ppl were accepted to uc berkeley</p>
<p>how will my rank be seen in private schools such as cornell or upenn??</p>
<p>im very sad at my rank... it is not even the top 20% =(</p>
<p>Most CA high schools have 27 vals or more! I doubt Penn or Cornell are in the cards unless you are an athlete or URM. Realize, most of the people at ivies come from very competitive high schools. Don't flame me, people come from all over, but 35% plus are from private schools, most much more competitive than any non magnet public.</p>
<p>The school profile that your HS will send with your school report should explain the HS policies. If it does not, ask your college counselor to explain that in his/her write-up, while talking about your tough course load over your HS years.</p>
<p>Also, the better private/public schools tend to be familiar with how California schools rank/don't rank.</p>
<p>Cornell would be doable for you, as long as the recs reflect how the HS ranks do not reflect the actual academic load or your capabilities.</p>
<p>I agree with Bobby. Under top 20% with a 2100???? Sorry, but Cornell is not going to happen this year. And BTW, this is not at all an unusual situation.</p>
<p>Depending on your other qualifications Cornell may be possible; they do not just look at grades/SATs.
But if you have not been happy with your super competitive HS, why are you looking at super competitive colleges? What other schools are you interested in? Do you have matches & safeties?</p>
<p>Most counselor reports have a spot to indicate whether rank is weighted or not. I'm wondering if the above posters noticed that the OP's rank is unweighted. Weighted, I'm sure it would be much higher. I'm sure Cornell would much rather accept you than a valedictorian who has never taken an honors or AP class.</p>