My question is for anyone that has encountered a similar dilemma/problem. I am currently taking competitive AP and honors level classes in an ultra-competitive public school. In these classes, I’m not getting the worst grades but my GPA is not where I feel it should be for the more selective schools I want to apply to. I have attempted to distinguish myself with a plethora of extracurriculars showing leadership and time balance as well as good test scores but is that enough to impress colleges that use a holistic review system. I guess my question boils down to is; do colleges take into account the competitiveness of certain schools when looking at GPA and at class difficulty. I can only assume they would because an AP in one school can have a different rigor than an AP in another school. This is my first time using this site for any kind of information so any responses are greatly appreciated.
I also realized this is probably in the wrong category, just wanted to apologize if that caused confusion to anyone im still trying to navigate the site.
College admission officers know the schools they are dealing with and the rigor of the courses. In addition, each HS sends a school profile with each transcript with information like average GPA, average SAT/ACT, level of courses etc. so your transcript can be reviewed in the proper context. Our local HS is uber-competitive and I felt that admission officers took that into account and that the students did very well in terms of college admissions.
There are some colleges that take a similar number of kids from a school each year and compare the kids applying from that school to each other.