<p>Okay...so my academic record is wacky. I have NO idea what Harvard (or any school really...) will think about it.
here it is!
Grades:
9th grade: I got As/A-s in all my classes except for B+'s Freshman Bio, Music Theory, and Art
10th grade: I got straight As.
11th grade: straight As with an A- in art
12th grade: currently straight As</p>
<p>That means my GPA is:
3.5ish for Freshman year
then a 4.0
4.0
4.0
3.83 gpa
Decent right? Well, think again...unfortunately I go to a super competitive private school that ranks for no reason whatsoever so I'm ranked 10/50. That's a problem. </p>
<p>My SAT reading is low, but ACT reading is high and my SAT math is high but my ACT math is lower. </p>
<p>How are colleges (including Harvard) going to look at all of this stuff? I'm obviously concerned with my rank, but really, do I look competent enough?</p>
<p>In terms of your rank, relax. What matters isn’t the rank, its the GPA. If, for example, you were 30/50, but your GPA was only .01 away from number 1, they see a very high GPA in a super competitive school. If you are worried about your SAT CR there is plenty of time to bring that up (even though your total is very good - better than my total and I’m a Harvard freshman).</p>
<p>I really don’t want to take the SAT again, plus I don’t think I can do well on CR. I think I’m just going to retake the ACT in february and see what happens. </p>
<p>I have lots of EC’s and leadership positions, and a couple state champions in speech and debate and such. </p>
<p>I’m really not worrying about those because I’m just happy with them. I’m just worrying about academics and such. For the ECs I do, I’ve pretty much garnered the most leadership positions/awards I can. I mean, I don’t do science stuff so I won’t have things like intel/siemens and such but I"m pretty well off in terms of what I actually do. </p>
<p>Any more thoughts? See, I just don’t think there going to be easy on me with my rank…ugh. Plus, aren’t 95% of their students in the top 10% of their class?</p>
<p>Yes, 95% are in the top 10%, but that still means about 85 kids are here who weren’t in the top 10%. What matters is rigor of courses and GPA. Let’s put it this way: your GPA/rank is not going to disqualify you. But bear in mind - admission to a place like Harvard is a crapshoot. I know kids with worse grades than you, and they got in, and I’m sure there are many with perfect grades who didn’t.</p>
<p>What matters at this point is keeping your grades strong senior year, continuing with your extra currics, and writing a really good essay.</p>