<p>For class rank, I am either tied for first or #2, out of 450 kids. I find it unfair to think that a kid with a class of 150 or 200 could be first in their class and get into a school for that, when someone who is tenth in my class could be first in their's. So, do colleges really account your class rank as a big factor? In my grade, the top 10 of us are all within a one or two grade difference, and all of us have never gotten lower than an A.</p>
<p>Schools with fewer students are usually more competitive in my experience. If your school has 450 students in your grade, it’s a good bet that at least half aren’t “competitive” that CC would define, while the lower enrollment school may have more scholars. What I just said is a completely unfair generalization, but so is what you said.</p>
<p>That’s a pretty baseless assumption because you don’t know how competitive that class is and if a significant portion of the students there are actually very talented and could be the top in YOUR school. In fact some schools have very large classes (similar and even greater but are located in undeveloped and poor areas, that the vast majority of the students aren’t that great academically, and someone who is tenth in that class would be much lower in a school with a much smaller class size.</p>
<p>1) Give colleges some credit
2) 100% agree w/Cortana: you can’t know so why are you hatin on kids who are first in other schools who are “taking away” spots from kids at you school?</p>
<p>Well, reading back, yes, I was generalizing… But so are some of you. The reason I am asking this is because I know that there are at least 10-15 kids in my grade who are all extremely “competitive” in going for the top of our class, and I wanted to know if some of them have a very high GPA compared to kids from smaller schools, will that be taken into account? For example, I have had all A+'s and 2 high A’s (with 1 other person)while I know of 6 other people who had all A+'s and 3 high A’s. Compared to kids from some private schools, prep schools, and smaller public schools, my grade does have some lower ranking kids equivalent to a higher-ranking one at other schools… So yea… Sorry for the rant! :)</p>
<p>Your high school transcript (courses taken, GPA, grade trends, rank, etc.) is considered in the context of your high school. Colleges review applicants from the same high schools every year and know quite a bit about how competitive the schools are. They’ll be much more interested to dip farther down in the ranks at high schools they know are competitive.</p>
<p>Having a very high GPA compared to people from a different school is completely and utterly irrelevant. GPA is meaningless outside of the context of your high school. Every high school grades and calculates GPA slightly differently.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re comparing GPAs from your less competitive high school to a GPAs at private schools and prep schools, which tend to be more competitive. That’s the problem. Those schools may well grade more harshly than yours. To compare GPAs, you’d have to reduce the ones from your school or increase the ones from the other schools to compensate for the difference in the difficulty of the grading system.</p>
<p>I’d definitely be willing to bet that the top students you’re disparaging at those schools would be at the top of your class, too.</p>
<p>Karategirl- </p>
<p>You also aren’t considering the fact that AP and honors classes are much more rigorous and more difficult to get an A or A+ than the same AP classes at another school. Just because you got an A+ in say AP us history doesn’t mean at all that you would get an A+ In that class at a different school.</p>
<p>Good points! Thanks RedSeven and cortana431… I think I understand what you are getting at now :).</p>
<p>
The best thing you can do is to focus on yourself and not on what other people are or are not getting. (I mean, if someone from another school is first out of a class of 150, should a college just say “obviously a moron” and throw it in the garbage?). Focus on you and what you can do with the circumstances you are given. You go to a large school, make the best of it. There are advantages and disadvantages (more course options, more fish in the sea to find girl/boyfriends, etc.).</p>
<p>Life is like that - every choice you make will have advantages and disadvantages to it, and oftentimes it will seem like others have better or fairer choices. You have to play the hand you are dealt.</p>