<p>I go to a small school where my graduating class will consist of about 60 people. I feel like I have a solid application except for my class ranking. How much does rank matter when getting into Penn? Unfortunately, the way rank is at my school I am ranked behind people taking easier classes than me because they have a higher GPA since we don't weight them. I currently have a 3.95 and I think I am ranked around 17.
Is there a way I can communicate in my application that the people ranked ahead of me weren't taking the honors or AP classes I took? I am very nervous that this could break my application.</p>
<p>Let your guidance counselor handle that explanation. </p>
<p>Agreed; the GC should field this one.</p>
<p>Ok thanks! So should I just have her contact admissions after I submit my application? Call or email?</p>
<p>^ It will be part of the report she submits as part of the application. There are specific questions about this (difficulty of your courses relative to those available at your school, etc.), but you should ask her to be sure to explain in her report that your grades are, e.g., among the highest for students taking such advanced/difficult courses at your school (assuming that they are).</p>
<p>This is actually something that admissions offices at selective schools like Penn have to figure out all the time, since applicants come from a wide variety of schools from around the world. Just make sure that your guidance counselor adequately explains it in her report, and you should be fine. As I indicated, the admissions process at the most selective schools is set up to discern this information in the evaluation of GPAs and class ranks reported by thousands of high schools.</p>
<p>Thank you do much! Very helpful. I will be sure to discuss it with her.</p>
<p>*so</p>
<p>I thought that AP and Honors classes would elevate class rank over kids that didn’t take them. Am I wrong or do different schools do it differently?</p>
<p>Is the 3.95 a weighted or unweighted average? I don’t know if it matters but that may factor into how your GC writes it up.</p>
<p>Also, is there a history of kids at your school making it the Ivies or Ivy level colleges? That may help you as well.</p>
<p>3.95 is unweighted. I go to a small private school and we do most things differently. Within the past 10 years I have known one girl who got into an Ivy (Columbia) where she will be attending this fall. Besides that, apparently someone was admitted to Dartmouth around 10 years ago as a legacy, but didn’t attend.</p>