<ul>
<li>SAT: 800 CR 800 M 780 W--2380</li>
<li>SAT IIs: BIO-M: 770, Math II 800</li>
<li>GPA: 3.77/4.59 - upward trend (straight A's all Junior Year and the first semester of senior year)</li>
<li><p>Rank: school doesn't rank (but im definitely not top 10% probably not even top 20- very competitive school)</p></li>
<li><p>Other stats: AP SCORES
Biology - 5
Calculus BC - 5
Statistics - 5
World History - 5
English Language - 5
Psychology - 5
Computer Science AB - 5
NSL -4</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Senior Year Schedule - I go to a magnet school
AP English Literature
AP Comparative Government
AP Chemistry (double period)
Magnet Multi-variable calculus with differential equations
Magnet Thermodynamics
Student Government
Art</p>
<p>debate
founding member of local environmental organization and webmaster
student government
varsity volleyball
math team
internship at the Univ. of MD.
french honor society - elected position - organized charity for impoverished school in french-speaking african country</p>
<p>Well thankfully youre not in the northeast. Depends where youre applying. HYPS? Then yeah, your ranks probably gonna hurt you a bit cause they care about more than standardized scores. With no hooks or anything, you need everything perfect.</p>
<p>You have a good shot at many schools though as youre application is great except gpa</p>
<p>I think you have an excellent shot at D, and a realistic shot anywhere. Your upward trend in grades makes up for your good but not superb GPA. Your scores are obviously excellent–including all those APs–and your ECs sound good. I have the feeling that top schools understand what it means to be at a magnet school, in terms of class rank. That’s why they take so many kids from those schools, where they might take only one from other high schools. A lot may depend on how your school presents you.</p>
<p>Two questions: what about foreign language, and what do you have for safeties and low matches?</p>
<p>Have to disagree with Consolation here. MD is a highly competitive state and any good school there is sending Dartmouth plenty of applicants. The GPA and no stand out EC will not, IMO, be made up for by test scores.</p>
<p>Your school doesn’t rank for a reason. They do not believe that the rankings give an accurate picture of applicants academic strengths. Dartmouth will want to know that you are a high ranking student and depending on how your school profile is written, that could present a problem. However, your other stats are amazing. I honestly think your biggest problems is not rank but ECs. Grades/Stats only get students so far. Write a great essay and I think you have a pretty decent chance.</p>
<p>Current student here whose high school didn’t have class rankings. You have appreciably better stats than I did. Someone in your position has no reason to fret. You’ll get into a bunch of good places, and probably Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I’m from MD too, and I have a similar problem. They do seem like they are lenient with grades, especially with people in schools like ours. It’s basically impossible to get into the top 10% at my school without tailoring your entire high school schedule around it. Our #1 skipped out of PE and music classes and took them this year, so his weighted GPA wouldn’t go down.</p>
<p>What about people who take music classes-they aren’t cop outs! I’m graduating with 10 AP credits, but since I have arts classes, I’m automatically not in the top 10%. Then, I got B’s early on, so I barely scraped top 20%.</p>
<p>@Hmom …Well, it may depend on what the environmental org/webmaster EC really means, and what he did with internships at UMD. Both of those things sounded interesting to me, but I know that the actual content/involvement can vary widely.</p>
<p>In the end, unless the EC is clearly exceptional, it’s unlikely to help you become one of the less than 5% who are not in the top 10% of their high school class. Too many athletes and wealthy legacies vying for that honor!</p>
<p>Considering your school doesn’t rank, your class rank is really irrelevant. Though if it does console you, I was practically ranked in the bottom half of my class (well, around the 50% percentile mark, and even though I’m not sure, I suspect I was on the bad side of that mark), and I got into Dartmouth, and no, I’m not an URM or legacy.</p>
<p>Even schools that don’t officially weight or rank often give decile information. They also often declare a val and a sal and a top 10, and will give that information out. (Ours does.) And the school profile will normally show a distribution of GPAs for the prior year, enabling colleges to get a rough idea of where you would have ranked if you were in last year’s class. So rank can still be an issue, if the college makes it one.</p>
<p>I’m a white male and I got in ED for 2014 with about a 3.63 and, if it were ranked, I’d only have been in like the top 30%. In my opinion, the fact that you got all A’s for the past three semesters with such an incredible AP load means you shouldn’t be worried in the slightest about your grades.</p>