<p>I have a question about class rank and Penn. At our school, class rank is unweighted. So basically, you can take all CP classes, get As in them, and become valedictorian. For students like me, who have taken several AP classes but may have gotten Bs in a few, it is very difficult to compete. My class rank is superficially really bad (only top 20%) but this is because they do not weight our GPAs at all. Will Princeton take this into account? It says that the grades are unweighted on our transcripts, so the adcomms will know that this is the case, but will the rank still be looked upon unfavorably? I am just worried that I will be rejected outright because of my rank. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>uh princeton? wrong forum here, lol. I think that with applications, you always have room to let the admissions people know of extenuating circumstances, and they will take those factors into account</p>
<p>I'm supposing you copied and pasted your question?</p>
<p>Well, anyways, to tell the frank truth, the fact that your unweighted GPA is not 4.0 can hurt you, compared to the many other applicants who have all A's in their AP courses. I don't believe that you will be rejected outright, but it is a weak spot on your part. If I were you, take the liberty to secure an interview. Although interviews usually try to focus on the aspect of you beyond numbers, GPA, etc., you can always bring it up and explain. Do you have other significant extracurriculars that left you less time to concentrated on your studies? But, if you are singularly worried about your class rank, I think that the B's might be of more concern than your rank, unless the AP classes at your school are particularly competitive/difficult. In that case, make sure that your school's counselor expresses that in her letters--or get your teachers to express that in their recs, esp. a teacher's class in which you made a B but worked particularly hard and she noticed and is willing to express very good things on your part.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Ooops, sorry. You're right, I did copy and paste this question. My bad.</p>
<p>As far as the Bs go, I'm looking at about a max of two Bs, both in notoriously difficult AP classes. I'm concerned about them, but not overly concerned. My unweighted GPA is about a 3.95 and my weighted GPA is about a 4.2.</p>
<p>As far as the extracurriculars go, I don't think I've devoted a distracting amount of time on them. I work about eight hours a week with special ed students, which is my biggest time commitment. Of course, there are other things, but not as time consuming.</p>
<p>I guess I am hoping that if I apply early decision, I might have a decent shot at getting in. I've got high test scores and I am a legacy, so hopefully those factors will work in my favor. I'm just hoping that the class rank won't be tooo big of a problem.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies!</p>
<p>How does penn view getting A's in AP courses but B's in regular courses?</p>
<p>I think that would sort of be like, "WTH?"
But, I'm sure if there's some valid reason, then just make it known.</p>
<p>Thats my situation but I dont really have an explanation.... Well cept maybe the fact that being in an ap class just tends to motivate me more.</p>
<p>A B here or there won't hurt too much.</p>
<p>so they do not recalculate GPA? instead they look at rank/toughness of classes?</p>
<p>is this true?</p>
<p>I don't believe they recalculate GPA. They just assess your rank and the difficulty of your courses relative to what was available at your school.</p>
<p>My AP classes/grades this year:
AP Calc AB (A-)
AP Calc BC (A)
AP Chem (A-)
AP Eng. Lang. (A-)
AP US History (A)</p>
<p>My question:
Are the A-'s going to get me rejected from Penn? (I'm applying in the fall.) I'm also taking 5 more AP's next year...</p>
<p>Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!</p>
<p>By the way, my unweighted GPA is currently 3.94... it was a 3.96 until this semester... is that a problem?</p>
<p>^ you are going to get rejected with that</p>
<p>Instafail!</p>
<p>Wow. Thanks for the support. >/</p>
<p>how are you taking both AB and BC?</p>
<p>anyway, a GPA of 3.94 is definitely not a problem lol</p>
<p>Our school operates on block scheduling... so I was able to complete AB the first semester and BC the second.</p>
<p>But, really? You don't think the A-'s will kill my chances? What were legendofmax and excel saying, then? .... Or was that sarcasm?</p>
<p>(Sorry for the confusion... and thanks for your reply! It's very much appreciated!)</p>
<p>I dont want to offend u or anything.. but I do think it was sarcasm.. excel and other people, including myself, hate people who are crying cause they got a 2390 on the SAT, it's just like, get a life! </p>
<p>But if what you want to hear is "don't worry, you'll be fine"...then I'll tell you... don't worry A-'s will not affect you at all!</p>
<p>Alright, bernardolw.</p>
<p>I hate people like that, too... So I definately apologuze for being ridiculous if I came across that way... I'm just worried because I really want to go! (But who doesn't, right?)</p>
<p>Haha. Anyways... thank you very much for the clarification. I apologize again! :)</p>
<p>Aren't A-s the exact same thing as As? At least, on a GPA scale of 4...</p>
<p>A- = 3.7, at least here at penn</p>
<p>On the other hand, A+ = A =</p>