<p>I know someone with a 4.0 GPA, 32 or 33 (something like that) on the ACT, a bunch of English awards, and like 5 AP tests already, and she’s black (which, of course, helps for admission). Of course, she got into her first-choice school (an Ivy League member) ED. Maybe my school does have a CC wing.</p>
<p>I don’t now anyone like that. The best acceptances my school has ever had in its like 8 years were Brown and UChicago (though I like to discredit UChicago for being in the first year, acceptance rate was like 40%). Don’t know the person.</p>
<p>I know a few people like that at my school. They hang out in one group, and glamorize one person. This junior has</p>
<p>4.33 WGPA
Johns Hopkins Talented Youth
Black belt judo
Distinguished athlete, wrestling
Plays music at local college
AP Calculus AB sophomore year
AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Eng, AP USH
Music prodigy
Set valeditorian so far
Class president</p>
<p>…and he was caught cheating on an essay for APUSH</p>
<p>Don’t know much about CC because I am an international student, but we have a similar forum called CUUS in my country. People are too sensitive about their scores and ECs and I don’t think it’s a good thing.</p>
<p>At my school, GPAs don’t really correlate with SATs due to so much grade inflation. Based on unweighted GPA, I’m tied for 1st, but 2nd if we weight (band. grrr.). Either way though, it gets kinda annoying when people try to tell you that you’re going to get into any school you apply to. I mean, my ECs are decent (music^10), and I have a 2280 and a 35, 14 APs by graduation (mostly self-study because we offer so few), but it’s not like that’s competitive for top schools; that just means they actually look closer at your application before they burn it.</p>
<p>It sucks more coming from a really uncompetitive school in a super competitive area. A few pages back someone said that the Bay Area is filled with CCers. Unfortuately, that’s only the rich part. The average SAT at my school is barely a 1700, and we’re in the Bay Area, but in the not-so-rich part. So I’m scared to apply to colleges this year, since in theory, my school should be great, but it sucks in reality.</p>
<p>No one at my school is a CCer. A few of my friends are applying to top schools, but mainly everyone else goes to local schools. People don’t participate in ECs or study for the SATs. It’s almost annoying how apathetic people are towards school and college in general.</p>
<p>I knew one kid from my old high school who got accepted to Harvard ED, but that’s all.
I have a 4.0 GPA and I only made a 2060 on my SAT, and whenever I express concern over not getting accepted to Emory (which is the highest I’m shooting), my friends all say I’m genius and that I could go to Harvard if I wanted.
It gets on your nerves after a while, because you know it’s not true and people keep saying it is…jfkdlj;ldjlk;aj</p>
<p>@musicislife73: Wow, that sucks; at least you have your rank and standardized test scores going for you. I’m kind of in the opposite situation; my school is near the inner city, but it’s around the 15th-20th best in the state. The average GPA here is about a 2.9-3.0, but the average ACT is, like, a 25. What I’m most worried about regarding the school is that we offer, like, 20 APs, but due to all of the prerequisites and demand it’s pretty much imposssible to fit more than 8 or 9 into your whole four years, so I’m afraid that colleges will think that I’m not trying as hard as I can.</p>
<p>Yes. My friend at TJ (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) got into Harvard. Makes me really depressed.</p>
<p>I’m kind of glad my school only has 4 APs - I’m doing seven and they all act like I’m a big deal and I don’t even have to work as hard as most CC people.</p>
<p>I know one, but not in the high school I am going to.</p>
<p>Yeah, my hs offered around 20 APs. I took so few so I’m worried I’ll look like a slacker. T__T</p>
<p>“my hs offered around 20 APs”</p>
<p>My God. I once went to a school with fewer students than that.</p>
<p>Well, it’s impossible to be a CCer from my school…we only had 3 APs for the longest time. When I was there, there were 4 offered…all to be taken during senior year (however two of them met at the exact same time, and one of those had to be taken AFTER you took the regular class)…the 5th AP was offered for juniors when I was a senior. APs are a joke there. For competitions and such, don’t make me laugh. What competitions? Where? Heck, the nearest Wal-Mart is 30 mins away ANY DIRECTION. I guess you could volunteer, but for what, I am unsure.
Most of the schools my classmates went to were community colleges, small state schools, or nowhere at all. Our valedictorian got into Emory with her 1900-something (STAR student and “unbelievably high” score).
It’s ridiculous the pressure placed on students to compete against other students when there is not an equal playing field. I mean, if colleges/universities take into consideration that not every person lives in a ritzy community with privileged education handed to them on a silver platter since birth, then maybe we would have a shot. However, CC sees 2 APs and immediately thinks “lazy.” It’s not fair because I did not choose to go here…geographical location, poverty, and the school that you have to go to are not things that a student decides, yet it is what they get, and it hinders them forevermore.
But whatever, that’s my tangent about all of this CC stuff.</p>
<p>Yes…my friend with a 4.05 UW GPA at a top 15 Boarding School in the nation 2330 SAT 9-10 AP’s by the time he graduates. He’s actually a local student so he commutes to school. And he is #2 in my class due to this other student who takes easier classes and my school does not weigh courses.</p>
<p>“4.05 UW GPA”</p>
<p>How does that work? Is it a 5.0 scale?</p>
<p>We only have 5 AP classes at my school (and I’m only taking 4 because calculus…), and someone in my classes actually told some of our eighth grade marching band members to take honors and AP in high school because those are the classes without black people. Literally. Welcome to south Georgia. 0.o</p>
<p>This has been a very refreshing thread for me to read. I have been looking on these boards because my oldest daughter is class of 2014 and interested in some competitive schools. I am a Princeton Alum and currently do admissions interviews through its Alumni Schools Committee ( I do not see transcripts or test scores, I just repot on the candidates as students). I think the thing to remember is that the really elite schools look at everything including what is available to you at your school. Also, they can tell from recomendations who has leadership skills or other talents equal to the great academics most CCers have.</p>
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<p>Well, still better than my school. My school’s average SAT score is about 1500, and my school’s is the highest average in my city (which has about 7 or 8 other high schools). I have the second highest SAT at my school with a 2190 (the highest is a 2230), so yeah, coming on CC where everybody seems to have a 2300+ is kind of depressing. </p>
<p>In terms of AP classes, my school offers about 9, but many of them either conflict with each other or with other co-curricular classes. I guess I simply refuse to give up activities like orchestra or ASB that I love just so I can say that I took more APs. I frankly find a broad range of activities just as time consuming and more rewarding than simply lining my schedule with AP classes to try to impress admissions officers, and by the time I graduate I’ll still have taken 6 of the 9 my school offers. That’s basically been my philosophy throughout high school; I’ve chased my passions instead of having my life dictated by what I think admissions officers want to see, and, ultimately, I think I am a stronger applicant as a result. I can only hope, at least. xD</p>
<p>Actually my school offeres 23 APs. No one has EVER taken all 23. O__o 15? Yeah. No more than that usually for even the tippy-top kids. :/</p>