<p>So I attend a large public high school that sends about 20 people to top state universities (UNC, UVA, UC Berkeley) and about 3-5 people to Ivy universities. However, as a rising senior, I have noticed that my year is incredibly smart, meaning that more than 15 people have the credentials to go to an Ivy. In this case, do universities (namely HYPS) look into rank? For example, I have taken 12 AP's, gotten mostly 5's, and maintained a 4.0 gpa UW but still I am only in the top 15. If I was in a different year, I would be in the top 5 perhaps. My EC's and SAT are decent, but I am afraid that my intensely competitive pool will keep me from going into my first choice school.</p>
<p>Rank is always key at top schools. At even the mid tier ivies, most of the unhooked are val or sal.</p>
<p>Your first line of competition is always your own classmates. But if kids applying to the same schools took less rigorous classes, colleges will note that.</p>
<p>The ivies are fine with taking a few from large high schools if they are all compelling candidates. I do think you’re correct to be concerned at #15 if the others took rigorous classes too, and your list should reflect that.</p>
<p>My school was like this last year, where all our seniors were extremely competitive (moreso than previous years.)</p>
<p>It turns out, they just got into better colleges.isn’t it better to be 15th with the 16th person with a relatively high gpa than a low one? to me this would say that you managed to get 15th in class rank despite how competitive it was. if it were low, i’d think huh, this kid just went to a school where there’s only 15 smart people. lol</p>
<p>First and foremost, thank you very much for your replies. Yoursky, you mentioned that the seniors got into better colleges. Do you mean they all got into ivies or great public universities such as UNC and UC Berkeley?</p>
<p>ivies, most of them i believe (except princeton/yale and i’m not sure about upenn. but the others i’m sure of) our school doesn’t tend to go to public unis, but we did get acceptances from them. </p>
<p>lol lateee response sorry XD</p>
<p>Yoursky sounds like he’s talking about an elite prep school, the dynamic can be very different.</p>