I know colleges look at APs and honors and acutal college classes you take to determine how rigorious your courseload is, but do colleges really investigate your classes? And their level of dificulty. Do really prestigous schools look into each class you take…like do the top 30 schools really investigate their incoming students? I am asking this because I take the toughest workload at my school, even compared to my peers. I believe their is only one other person who has classes as hard as mine, and this is out of 400 students in the class. However, I will have a 3.67 or 3.7 uw GPA by the end of this year (Junior). I know many students on this board go to private schools and their classes are most likely harder then the ones at the public school down the street, so will schools look at the level of each individual class. All AP’s at my school are very hard, with the exception of AP Stats. I don’t mean the curiculam I mean the teachers are very demanding and require a lot of work. In my school, though it is public, A’s in AP’s are hard to come by. Well what I am getting at is I will be in the top 10% of my class def., prob. the top 5%, but my uw GPA is low for the type of schools I am looking into. So will colleges look at my school when evaluating my app. to see just how demanding my classes are? Also will colleges look at how many people in my classes get A’s? Thanks in advance!
<p>bumpidy bump bump</p>
<p>wat ive noticed with just based on other kids at my school is that class schedule hardly matters. I have seen people who maybe took only 1 ap class manage to get into schools like UCI. It seems unfair because anyoen can go take Collegeprep classes and get a 4.0... while people like you and I who take hard classes dont get to reap the fruits of our labors.</p>
<p>"Well what I am getting at is I will be in the top 10% of my class def., prob. the top 5%, but my uw GPA is low for the type of schools I am looking into. "</p>
<p>It depends on the college. I understand that some public universities only care about gpa and class rank. Places like HPYS, though, do care deeply about rigor of the curriculum. The applicants whom they select have grades, class rank, and the toughest curriculum plus excellent ECs.</p>
<p>jordana - Guidance counselors send a secondary school report to each college when they send in your school records. I believe it lists how many AP & Honors classes they offer, how many students go to college, tells what the grading scale is (90, 80 70 or say 94, 88, 76 etc.), how they rank students, a "character" score, etc. I doubt that they would know how many students got A's in your particular class, but they may list how many students received a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 on their AP exam. So I would make sure to strive for 5's on them (or at least a 4). </p>
<p>Unfortunately at our school (public) they do not give any special treatment in ranking. So if someone took all easy classes they could be ranked higher than you because you got a B in an AP or honors class. The college knows this though and takes this into consideration.</p>
<p>Make sure that you do well on you ACT and SAT. Make sure you take at least three SATII test this spring. Personally, I would try and take the SAT/ACT twice this spring. If you do really well then you don't have to worry about repeating them next fall. </p>
<p>Remember that getting into the top schools is sometimes luck of the draw. I would make sure that you know your teachers very well so that you can get excellent recommedations. Take your time and write a fabulous essay. Make sure that you have community service hours and EC's. You do not need a laundry list of EC's just make sure that you do some and that you enjoy them. Leadership positions are also important when choosing a good school. It does not just come down to good grades and good testing scores.</p>
<p>By the way, I have seen many students (on this board) get into Ivy colleges without stellar GPA's or SAT scores. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>It's the school profile which is sent with the GC report. Does an adcom from the schools that you are considering visit your school? Does your school have a history of sending kids to the college which you are interested in? If yes they they do end up coming familiar with your school and the rigor of your curriculum.</p>
<p>Even tho your HS may not weight honors/APs, the UC's do give a bonus point for those classes. Moreover, they give extra credit for taking classes above and beyone the min a-g course load, so, even some publics look at strength of schedule.</p>
<p>jordana, </p>
<p>time and time again I've read the top thing colleges look at are your grades with regard to the level of difficulty of the courses. The goal is to do the best you taking the hioghest-level courses your school offers that you can reasonably handle.</p>
<p>Given you take such a workload, I think the rank in the top 5% or so will override the 3.7 which you think isn't as high as it could be. Along with the profile of your hs that should be sent with your transcript, it should be obvious with your high rank that your school doesn't have grade inflation like some others.</p>