<p>-Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong forum, but this question involves most of the Ivy leagues and several other schools that use the Common Application.</p>
<p>-I will be an upcoming senior this year, and I am aspiring to apply to some very selective schools. At my school, I have taken a very rigorous schedule, but my class rank does not demonstrate my passion for learning. I am ranked 55 out of 450 students (which is almost top 10th percentile), but my school uses unweighted gpa's to calculate class rank. Even though my unweighted gpa is a 96, my weighted gpa is a 98. At my school, this is a huge difference because it is the norm for kids to get A's in easy classes, and I feel that there is grade inflation at our school (don't get me wrong, I worked hard for my good grades). In a sense, taking all honors and 7 AP Classes have negatively effected my class rank (because getting a 99 in an easy Algebra 3 outweighs getting a hard earned 92 in AP statistics) and made me miss out on many opportunities such as being a junior marshall. When I start applying to colleges this year, how can I explain this and better increase my chances of admission?
Thanks</p>
<p>I believe most selective schools require a recommendation from your guidance counselor. This is certainly something that you could ask them to mention in your recommendation.</p>
<p>Ok, so instead of adding this into any part of my college app, I should get my counselor to write about it in her application for me? how would be the best way of asking my counselor to help me out with this problem without necessarily trashing how the class rank system works at our school?</p>
<p>I am sort of in a similar situation–I feel that my class rank, whatever it will be by the time I apply, does not accurately reflect my place among my peers. If I am ranked 4th or 5th because I am not taking AP Calculus BC my senior and instead taking Calc III at college, that is a big indicator that GPA/class rank can only be looked at so much. I think that I will have my counselor explain my background for me, so I can add more meaningful things on the application itself.</p>
<p>@smashace: They don’t need to trash the system, they just need to mention how it is calculated, and how that can be a disadvantage to those who take more rigorous courseloads.</p>
<p>Don’t talk about this yourself in the application. Your counselor will most likely be aware of it. If you don’t think he/she is, then set up an appointment or email your counselor to discuss the problem.</p>