I have a 3.91 GPA, and my class rank is 78/197. Would you say my high school is competitive for GPAs? I go to a private school where %100 of the graduating class last year went to college. What other things would you say a competitive high school has? Do colleges take this into consideration when looking at your class rank?
A competitive school will probably have high average test scores and high success rate/ participation on AP tests.
GPAs are so out of whack with schools doing out of weird numbers like 6.5 weighted, so we can’t tell off of your GPA without context.
Some colleges look into class rank. Some don’t consider it. Some take into account of school competitiveness, others don’t.
Agree with the above poster. And adding that a competitive high school will have a matriculation list with lots of very selective schools.
Is your gpa weighted or unweighted? If it is unweighted, that coupled with your rank, could signal grade inflation.
That is my weighted gpa. My school offers eight AP classes and the average ACT is roughly 25-27 if that helps.
I wouldn’t call that very competitive. 3.91 Weighted GPA and top 40% seems about above average, not necessarily super competitive. Again, what scale is it on? Some schools do (Reg-4, Pre-AP-4.5, AP-5) while others do (Reg-4, Pre-AP-5, AP-6).
The amount of AP classes offered also has nothing much to do with the competitiveness of the school. My school offers nearly 30 AP classes, and it is one of the least competitive compared to 8 or 9 other high schools in the area.
As for ACT, my school had 26 average over 5 years. Again, my school is very uncompetitive (I actually transferred to my current high school to boost my class ranking).
My school had 97% rate of college attendance following graduation, and again, it’s a very average high school. Considering my school has 2500+ students, it aint a small number either.
Colleges do take competitive high schools into their overall review, but that doesn’t really apply in your case. Your school appears to be fairly average in its statistics.
Hi, I have a similar experience with going to a competitive high school. My high school is very strong and we have had multiple people go to ivy leagues, some even going to Harvard. We have a huge class of almost 700 kids, and most of them very academically talented.
However it didn’t end up factoring into my college admissions. I got into all the colleges I applied to save for one(my reach). Class rank generally isn’t a huge factor in admissions. As long as you continue having a high GPA, take AP classes, get good test scores, and push yourself as a student, you will get into a good college.
Also, I don’t know how it is at your school, but at my school cheating is rampant and its a well known fact that all of the higher ranked students share answers, copy hw, use phones on tests, etc. So honestly I take the class ranking system with a grain of salt. The only time class rank really factors into college admissions is if you’re applying to Ivys or prestigious schools. Even then its not the end all be all.
I do have one complaint about the class rank system/college admissions. For many schools, their scholarships are based off of GPA/test scores and Class rank. For example, to get a 1K scholarship you need 3.0 and top 25%, 5K it’s 3.5 and 50- 15%, etc. This already put me at a disadvantage because I had a high GPA and test scores, but I was only in top 20%. At one very small, very rural school I applied to, my stats put me in the top percent of applicants. I was expecting to get a good scholarship since my stats were so high, but I ended up only getting awarded 500$ a semester. I contacted the financial aid office and it was because my class rank wasn’t high enough to get my a scholarship worth more, even though my GPA/Test scores put me at a position for at least 3k.(Based on their website)
I would say that this ^^^ is unfair. However, life goes on, and we can’t change the class ranking system. You do have options- you could see about moving to a less competitive school, taking hard summer courses at a CC so during the year you would just take easier courses that boost your GPA. Another way is by taking all AP courses. This year(senior year) all of my courses are AP, except for a technology course I need to graduate. Doing well in these courses boosted my GPA by .2 points. Or you could just see what the top ranking students are doing that helps them be at such a high rank.
It will not hurt you. Your HS is likely well known to college admission officers and in any event every HS sends a school profile showing things like average GPA, Average standardized tests, Average AP scores, % going to college, levels of classes offered among other things – you can ask to see it) so your transcript will be reviewed in the proper context. I would imagine that a higher than normal % of students from your HS end up at top colleges. In general top schools can offer things like strong academic rigor, interesting EC opportunities etc.
My kids went to a highly competitive school and everyone ended up at a very appropriate college. It was no issue.
It completely depends on your HS profile. Most independent prep schools do very well in placing their students in the better universities and LAC’s. Even middle of the class kids do well. You should look on Naviance to see where students in your GPA/ACT band are admitted.
As a reference point, my high school class had 50% of students score 1500+ on the SAT (in 2004, when it was out of 1600)