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<li><p>How important is class rank in college admissions? I go to a top-ten school, and the top 10% of my class have perfect 4.0 GPAs and are taking an insane amount of AP Classes (like 5 sophomore year). So, do colleges understand being in the top 5 or 10% is harder at some schools than others? Or will I be denied solely because of a lack in class rank? (I'm currently 165/395, but considering last year (freshman) I was 311/412, I'm sure I can make it up to the top 100)</p></li>
<li><p>Exactly what is defined as the "most rigorous curriculum" on college aps? Does one have to take a certain number of AP classes or something?</p></li>
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<li><p>Class rank will vary from school to school in importance, but if your school ranks and it’s on your transcript, they’ll look at it. Some schools claim they >Do Not< rank how prestigious ones school is during the application process ( I don’t know how much I believe it, but its what they claim ). So it can and can’t. It depends on the school you want to go to. A State school probably won’t give you a no solely due to class rank, but a top school will probably red flag it.</p></li>
<li><p>Most rigorous is subjective. Theres no set number for anything generally, but its obvious on ones transcript if they’ve challenged themselves or not in high school. Basically - taking the most advanced classes you can without making your grades suffer. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.</p></li>
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<p>That sucks that your HS ranks and is extremely cutthroat. Mine was as well. Bottom line is, though, your school probably has extremely inflated grades as well, and if you can’t make it into the top-20% you probably won’t have a shot at ‘elite’ schools with under 15% acceptance rates. Not being within the top-10% will also make most top-20 type schools very difficult as well unless your school has a history of getting people at this ranking into those schools. Check with your counselor or look up your school on Naviance if it participates in that. You’re going to need to be taking very rigorous class schedules and showing a very good SAT score to make up for your rank. </p>
<p>Curriculum rigor is based on which box your counselor marks when filling out his part of your application as compared to what others at your school are taking. Sorry to say, but if dozens of people are taking multiple AP’s sophomore year and you aren’t, or are taking 5 when you take 3, etc. you probably won’t get the “most rigorous” mark. </p>
<p>Again, if your school has Naviance, go to that website and see if you can find the historical admissions data for people ranked ~100/400 and where they’ve been admitted. Sorry that this probably wasn’t what you were looking to hear, but it’s probably better that you know this now than when you’re a rising senior.</p>
<p>^I was surprised by that as well, but unless OP is mistaken his school may report rank. Also should specify if you go to USNWR ranked top-10 school or something. </p>
<p>As she said, you aren’t going to be given “most rigorous” if you haven’t been taking, well, the most rigorous courses. Your chances of getting in without being in the top-10% are highly unlikely because the top-20 type schools generally have 90% of their entering class being in the top-10% of their class. The rest mostly have a hook, but if there’s anyone who gets in without a hook (ethnicity/legacy/etc) and out of top-10%, it’s those who go to top HS’s that somehow ranked. So there’s something to be said for that, but it’s not a common occurence at all.</p>
<p>You can google the Common Data Set for each school you are considering (go to Section C) and the school will tell you exactly what percent of their admitted students were in the top 10%, etc… of the class.</p>