Hello all! I just finished with my junior year at a competitive preparatory high school. As someone who is aiming for high schools with very difficult admissions rates such as Yale and Berkley, I was wondering how important is class rank and do colleges have limits to the number of students they accept at one particular school. I finished my junior year with a 4.8 GPA (4.0 Weighted Scale) and a cumulative GPA of 4.4, but I believe that another solid 6 or 7 students (out of roughly 80ish) also have the same grades. It has nothing to do with inflation or easy classes, it’s just that this year is one of the strongest in school history. I also have a 35 on the ACT and 1460 on the SAT (800 math), which is good, but in just my friend group alone at school another 4 also have 35s on their ACT. Does the fact that my grade is so strong hurt my chances of admission, and if so to what degree? Also, my school does not do specific class ranks so I am not completely sure where I lie compared to my students but have a good idea. Finally, should I submit my ACT or SAT scores to college (both are first times)? Thanks!
I wouldn’t worry about your schoolmates that much. However your observation about your school can be extrapolated across the USA and overseas. Do that math. There are I believe around 15k ivy spots. There are 37k valedictorians and 72000 including sals. And if you are top 5 that means the pool is 185000 vying for those 15k spots. Less than ten percent. And now take half the spots away for the opposite gender. Now it’s 7500 spots. And take away another 50 percent unless you are an urm athlete legacy or international. So now you are talking about 3750 spots versus a top five pool divided for gender or 92500 top 5 candidates vying for 3750. That’s a 4% chance.
So you are hoping to be one of the four students out of every 100 who each are top 5 high school star students.
People hear reach and they don’t think it applies to them because they dominate their school. That’s why there are 100s of options.
You will have great schools to choose in the end. Don’t get caught up in the collegiate arms race. Apply to all but be realistic. That’s all.