<p>hey there college confidental</p>
<p>Ive just discovered this website and I've read many "chance me" and I must say that you all have unbelievable stats, considering that I don't see stats like these at all in my high school</p>
<p>I am ranked in the top 5% of the school and have taken the most rigorous classes that are offered to me since freshmen year. Sad to say, but my stats are still slightly below par to schools I'm applying to: USC, NYU, UCLA, and UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>I live in a poverty area in California and my school is very bad (lots of gangs, very few ap classes, very few graduating %, and very few opportunities); it is ranked like the bottom 700 out of 840 schools in California. =[ Would colleges take into consideration that I might have done better if I had the opportunity to go to a better high school? And hopefully that may help my chances with my target schools even though I'm below par?</p>
<p>Just another story to add in, to show how my school does not compare to people here:</p>
<pre><code> Last year, (junior year) the valedictorian in our school got accepted into Stanford and UC Berkeley on full ride and he was something else. He was the best scholar I, and probably the school, have seen for years. He did amazing on his AP tests, had amazing grades, and amazing SAT scores (this will be the sad part later on). Some people in my class even idolized him. Now, at the time when I met him, I thought, "Wow, this guy is not even in the same league as the rest of us, he's probably even Ivy League material!" His SAT scores were 2040; 1980 his first time. And yes, I thought this was an amazing score. At the time, I was bounded to people in my school. Until I started to talk to some of my friends and look here at college confidential, I found out that 2040 would be pretty average for a top tier student, maybe even a low score.
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<p>Well guys, this is a story of an amazing guy who would have only been average or even below average in a competitive public school.</p>