Competitive grade in a competitive school

Applying to College
1

I come from a competitive school, but this year it seems like there are more overachievers than previous years. For example, my school usually averages around 18-21 national merit semifinalists. This year(class of 2022 in my school) there are 30. There are also a ton of people doing crazy ec’s and more who have qualified as semifinalists for Olympiads, and it seems like everyone competitive has done research or published a paper in my grade. It’s gotten so bad to the point where I have no clue if I even did anything worth noting in high school, hence my previous chanceme being titled “chance a slightly disappointing and stressed asian”.

Will colleges consider how strong each grade is and understand each class is different, or will I be overlooked when they compare my application to somebody
else in my grade?

2

Hello,
I am currently a college student who struggled with the same problem. My high school was notorious for housing a plethora of competition, including QuestBridge scholarship winners, National Merit Scholarship recipients, etc. However, from what I know, you do not necessarily need these qualifications to get into college. The variables you need to examine when considering colleges are:

  1. The acceptance rate of your desired institution(s). Some schools clearly have a higher SAT score average, and are holistically more challenging to get into.
  2. Your own experiences. A lot of students applying to higher ranked institutions have qualifications that are similar to each other. You need to make admissions aware of who you are as a person, and not necessarily just on your merit achievements.
  3. Extracurriculars. As previously mentioned, be who you are in college applications and express your profound exuberance for your schools and you will be more likely to get accepted.

So to answer your question:

in my opinion and experiences, colleges do not look at each individual course as every school has a different model for teaching and so we both may have taken a class, but you might know more if that makes sense. They will look at your GPA and courseload to contribute, but a plethora of other factors including the ones mentioned above are heavily weighted in your application. I hope this helped and if you have any other questions do not hesitate to reach out.

Also, do not worry about not being the top tier student because regardless of what you did in high school, if you give it your all and truly are passionate, then the rest will fall into place and you will indisputably be successful.