Bad Class Rank

Applying to College
1

<p>So I want to apply to HYPS next year. However, the majority of my grades are A-'s with a few A's/A+'s and 2 B+'s that I received in the hardest AP at my school sophomore. My class rank is not in the top 5%, but I'm comfortably in the 10%. My school is the most competitive public school in my region and is ranked nationally by Newsweek. We have about 600 people in our class of 2011. My EC's show pretty good quality and depth, and I am doing what I can outside of school. Hopefully, my January SAT score will be above 2300, but I am confident that my superscore will eventually end up to be over this score.</p>

<p>Thanks </p>

<p>PS, I posted this in the Princeton forum but would also like a general answer too.</p>

2

<p>Class rank is really important. (I can post sources later)
But your application as a whole matters.
Because you’re in top 10% I think that your ECs, essays, and recomendations will have a good amount of weight.
Besides HYPS are a crapshoot for everyone.
You just have to be what they’re looking for, and who can tell you what that is, maybe an admission’s officer. Good luck with finding one of those. In short no need in stressing.
But good luck :)</p>

3

<p>If you’re from Iowa or Alaska, or another state/region with few applicants to these schools you’re in the running. In NY, MA, CA and other well represented places, not so much…</p>

4

<p>I"m top 20% of 50 kids and I just got into the University of Chicago</p>

<p>I don’t know if it helps, but that’s just to show that class rank isn’t always important. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>However, if you’re applying to HYPSM from Iowa or Alaska, you should probably be the val or sal from your school because it’s probably much less competitive than a school in the tri-state, MA, PA, or CA.</p>

6

<p>Not really, I was number 13 out of about 500 in my class at a random Texas public high school and I got in.</p>

7

<p>If you have, let’s say a 3.7 UW GPA, but you’re ranked 3/400 is that viewed favorably, or unfavorably?</p>