<p>I attend a very competitive public high school where taking taking 3 AP's a year and getting a 2000 sat is considered "average." I found out what my class rank is today and I just about had a heart attack. As of right now I'm around the 20-25th percentile with a 3.81 GPA (unweighted), having taken 6 AP (4s and 5s) classes and I don't even know how many honors. I got a 2120 on my first SAT but I studied this summer and I'm scoring around 2300 on BB practice tests. With that said, how will colleges view my ranking? It's not official yet and my counselor said that it's probably going to change a lot by the time the official ranking is calculated but I'd still be at the ~15th percentile at best. I'd also be applying as an international but most schools I'm applying to either look at applicants based on where they go to high school rather than citizenship or treat Canadian applicants as they do US citizens' (I live in the US and am Canadian). My only hook is that I'm black but given that I'm Canadian I don't think that'll make any difference. I've overcome hardships but I don't know how to include that in my application with sounding like I'm complaining or trying to draw pity. So how much will my ranking hurt me? Will colleges take into account the fact that electives brought my rank down just because they're weighted really low at my school? These are the schools I'm applying to:
Amherst
U Chicago
Northwestern
Duke
Georgetown
University of Washington (safest safety)
Johns Hopkins
Hamilton
Vassar
Middleburry</p>
<p>I'm also applying to all the Ivy Leagues just to avoid having regrets and who knows I may get lucky. Also, I don't know if that's important but my school sends around 20-25 students to Ivies every year and ~40 to top 20 schools. I look forward to reading your answers. Thanks!</p>
<p>By 25th percentile, you mean you’re in the top quarter of your class? (That’s usually called the 75th percentile.)</p>
<p>Anyway, that’s a perfectly fine class rank from the kind of school that sends 20 students to Ivies. It will hurt your chances at the absolute top schools, because they like talking about how many of their admits are in the top 5-10%, but it really shouldn’t be a huge deal if your stats are otherwise up to par.</p>
<p>For all the usual reasons, you needs some safeties that are strong in your major. Since all those schools will use holistic, you need to build the best CA you can- I think you know thats more than the same old hs clubs and some self serving essay.<br>
You snuck in that electives brought down your rank- are all your solids top performance? Adcoms look at transcripts. At a top hs, they know competition for rank is fierce. But, how many of your peers with better overall will apply to the same schools? Something that makes you shine?</p>
<p>there are quite a few students ranked above me who will apply but I’d say about a third of them have absolutely no activities outside of school other than your typical Honor society, tutoring, and key club (which are all great but probably not when they stand alone). As far as what differentiates me from the rest, I have two types of extracurricular activities that I do almost exclusively but that I have a deep passion for, which I hope will show in the types of classes I took and my leadership positions. I guess I wasn’t really looking to know if my stats put me in the running for top schools, but rather whether or not my low-ish ranking would have an impact on the rest of my application. Thanks for your reply!</p>
<p>i go to a school exactly like yours, maybe even worse. about half/third of my school gets into an ivy. (around 150 students) u seem fine. dont worry.</p>
<p>Do you have any less selective schools on your list as targets and safeties? You certainly have a shot at the others, but a shot at a school with a 10% acceptance rate isn’t saying much.</p>
<p>I’m going to agree with Emc, that seems like a lot. Have you actually looked at how you’d fit? Size, general student personalities, weather, athletics (if you care) etc. are all really important factors. Vassar’s a tiny LAC, whereas NU is a medium sized research university with a great athletics program. I can’t see a person applying to all of these schools…</p>
<p>Back to the original question. I don’t think that this will cause a problem with most of the schools you listed, except maybe the Ivy League, but if your school is that good, then they know that even super qualified students will not all be top 10%. Good luck!</p>
<p>How big is your class size – you say that about 40 from your school go to top 20 schools. Off hand, if your class size is 200 or fewer and you’re in the top 20%, I’d say you have a pretty good chance. If it’s 400 or more, then I’d be less optimistic.</p>
<p>However, you’ve asked a good question that is often missed here. All HS are not viewed equally. Some schools, such as yours regularly send many students to top top schools, others perhaps one or two a year. School reputation does appear to be a factor.</p>
<p>So … how does someone with your rank, scores and EC’s fit in – If your school uses Naviance, you can easily check how people with stats similar to yours fare. Otherwise, I think you’re approaching this correctly by talking to your GC – he or she should be able to steer you to target schools. Then if you want to add a couple of ‘reaches’ go ahead. As you say, at least you’ll know and not regret.</p>
<p>If being in the top fifth to quarter of your class makes you have a heart attack, then you really need to relax.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine. Class rank is a metric by which to compare you to your classmates, primarily for GPA - it helps college admissions to determine whether your straight As in honors English are meaningless because honors English is really easy, or such things. But if you are taking AP classes and score well on your SATs, and you have a high GPA and demonstrate that you are great in other ways, you should be fine. Class rank is just one small part of admissions.</p>
<p>Just a heads up on what college admission officer considers important…</p>
<p>As I have quoted before:</p>
<p>"There are 5 general measures that colleges with a holistic review process use to gauge a student’s competitiveness. In order of importance, they are:</p>