<p>Hey all, I'm wondering how my class rank will affect my admissions</p>
<p>I want to go to Columbia among other schools, but Columbia is my #1 dream school. I'm rank 14/152 in my class right now (will go up when my grades are finalized again due to problems, probably). This is mostly because I transferred this year (10th grade) and my school has a different weighting system. I'm wondering if this will decrease my chances of getting in? I will definitely be in the top 10 next year with more APs, but it is cumulative and the top 15 or so students are competitive. However, kids at my school generally do very poorly on the SAT and other standardized tests, even NYS Regents exams, which I believe I did pretty well on compared to other kids, considering a lot of people fail (I got from 98 to a couple 100s this year). Could the SAT really be my chance to shine?</p>
<p>My practice SAT scores (Official Collegeboard Tests) so far are 1970, 2070, and 2150. I want to get it up to at least 2250. My dad said that I should get at least a 2300 though, however, I generally do poorly on Critical Reading. I have pretty consistent ECs, tutoring underprivileged kids almost every day, varsity track, lots of volunteer and teaching work. I want to go for science or engineering. So far I have taken one SAT II: Chemistry. I got a 780 :(. I will try to get an 800 on Physics and Math 2 next year, which should be easier because I like math a lot.</p>
<p>My sister went to Columbia for graduate school and I'm an African-American (Caribbean) first generation immigrant, as far as hooks go.</p>
<p>I'm just wondering if having taken classes a grade above my grade level compared to other kids and also having a strong SAT score could potentially save me. What do you guys think?</p>