<p>I have a 3.5 gpa at my school. But My class rank is in the top ten percent and I have a good chance of making it to the top 5 percent at the end of the first semester. How do colleges view this? Does this make my gpa look better?</p>
<p>no the colleges look at your unweighted GPA. They dont care about classs rank, but If a 3.5 GPA is your unweighted then that’s pretty good</p>
<p>@Te4mVygrin Ummm no. Some colleges (those who will read apps holistically) WILL look at the context of your school’s grading policies. Some (most publics) will not.</p>
<p>@Username97 Holistic reading colleges know that some HS practice extreme grade deflation – they don’t just discount applicants because they’re always on the lookout for top applicants. They know how to read beyond just the GPA.</p>
<p>@Te4mVygrin yes, they don’t really care about class rank to an extent, but your statement is incorrect. Having a lower gpa but a high rank suggests grade deflation. Colleges will look at the context of your school. Not all GPAs are created equal.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. Texas public university admissions are strongly rank-focused, while California public university admissions are strongly GPA-focused, for example.</p>
<p>The UC system also has a “local context” admission policy, whereby students in the top 9% (I think, but I confuse with Texas’ policy) are guaranteed admission to at least one UC campus. They implemented this when affirmative action was prohibited, because many poorer districts lacked the high-level courses that would weight GPAs for admission.</p>
<p>Okay that helps a lot. So I I were to apply to some higher up liberal arts schools, would they view my gpa differently because of my class rank?</p>
<p>What is your school’s historic record? Your GC knows, ask them. The best indicator of how colleges view your GPA/test score combo is to look at how previous graduates from your HS did with the same grades/scores, assuming they took similar classes.</p>
<p>The problem with the historic gpa is that my school has added new ap and dual enrollment classes recently. They other graduating classes would be using different scales. My Sat is the 2nd highest in my grade and my ACT is the highest. </p>
<p>Your GC knows the comparable students - trust me, they know what they’re doing. Ask them.</p>