<p>I go to a private school where everyone is competitive and cares about college. About half of my grade, 80 kids, are taking AP US history, 30 are taking AP Physics and 10 are taking AP Stat - this is along with our 10 other honors classes that we have to deal with. A 96 is a minimum to get into the top 15 percent.</p>
<p>No competition. Last year we had 10 valedictorians, and this year it looks like we'll have 10 again. All of the "smart kids" end up in the same honors or AP classes, year after year, so a sort of camaderie has built up among us. I recall last year, we had a friendly competition: the person with the lowest SAT score had to bake everyone else brownies.</p>
<p>hmm i'm in canada so no one to my knowledge is REALLY competeing with me, but thats as far as my knowledge goes. like the next guy claiming MIT is his first school has no chance in **** of getting in. and the next highest ivy is some guy applying for columbia, who also have no chance in *<em>(</em> of getting in. </p>
<p>Theres quite a few ppl in my school with super grades, but good thing i'm among one of them... and none of these people are applying down south, so most of their ec's are pretty bad too. although there are 4-5 AMAZING people @ my school. one person is a internationally ranked badminton player whose dad is a billionaire, some other person has top grades in full ib and is a debate champ, and some other dude is in ib and has AMAZING ec's. Haha, none of them are applying down south =)</p>