<p>My son's public high school provides a class rank but does not weight grades so
many of the kids with high ranking have not taken difficult classes.
He is a junior and is right below the top 10 percent. He has a 3.75 grade average taking the hardest classes. I am guessing Sat will be about 2100
judging from previous test scores. Three of the schools to which he is interested in applying say that 94%, 90% and 68% of students come
from the top decile of their high school classes. Should we forget about applying to these schools or do colleges adjust for unweighted grades?</p>
<p>I am trying to avoid one of those situations in which every college application
is greeted with a rejection letter.</p>
<p>Don't forget about it. Apply and let them decide. </p>
<p>In the past, I have thought that including a "resume" was a waste of time and likely to get tossed in the wastecan. However, one thing it does do for you is allow you to note your correct grade average and to note the number of AP or honors courses taken, as well as to note that the school's ranking system does not weight the grades. This occured to me as I wrote a recommendation for a young man this year. He provided me with his "academic and extracurricular" activities summary and I realized in looking at it that it provides a more subtle way to say something about your high school without focusing directly on the point in question. You might consider it.</p>
<p>In any case, don't wimp yourself out of a chance to attend a school you're interested in. Do your best, and let the school tell you what they think. Give them a chance to say "yes".</p>
<p>The schools are rather savvy about class rank, difficulty of course load,etc. Agree with dadx - apply regardless of the posted stats and protect yourself with safeties,rolling admission choices, early action and the like.</p>
<p>I agree with the others. If your son is in the ballpark of the stats of accepted students in terms of grades, scores, and such, he should apply. Colleges look at the rigor of courses taken and if he took the hardest courses available, that says a lot about him. If the school profile states that rank is based on UNweighted grades, they understand the situation that you have at your school with kids in easier classes ranked near the top. Also, if your child just missed the top ten percent, that is just so close that I would not use that as a benchmark as to whether or not to apply to schools where he otherwise fits the ballpark of qualifications. </p>
<p>Your son's situation mirrors exactly what we have at OUR school. Last year, for instance, those ranked 2, 3, 4 did not take honors or AP classes. While my own kid who was a senior last year did take the most rigorous load available and then some, she somehow still was ranked first despite the odds in a system where there are no weighted grades. However, because the situation overall at our school where kids like her are often ranked lower than those who did not take the more challenging classes, she researched and wrote a policy for our school to change the system as to encourage taking on of such challenges and the school board has adopted her policy as official starting with the class of 2006. My other D is supposed to be in that class and would have benefitted in terms of rank by such a change in policy but she is graduating a year early and is thus ranked with the class of 2005 now which is unweighted. Her situation is similar to your son's. I am not getting concerned over it because the adcoms will see that her GC checked off the most demanding load and that our school has Unweighted grades and ranks and colleges know how such a system works. Don't fret and have your son apply to schools appropriate to his other qualifications. </p>