<p>Question.</p>
<p>Son is on an upward trend, but right now is in the top 28% at his school--mainly becuase he is taking a really challenging course load compared to many of his peers. But, many selective schools take few if any students in the top half but not the top 25%. </p>
<p>Hopefully he will climb up into the top 25% but if he doesn't, will this have a huge negative impact? He is shooting for many top 50 schools but not any top 10 schools.</p>
<p>Upward trend is good. Colleges tend to say they are looking for top x%, but I don’t think it’s much of a benchmark rather than an approximation. I don’t think they would necessarily toss an applicant for being 26% rather than 25%.</p>
<p>GASP! top 25%! REJECT!
JK lol. but most people on CC will find that as very unimpressive. personally, I believe that is quite good, but this isn’t necessarily the best place to ask. about 99.9% of CC has cured cancer and are in the top 10%. :)</p>