<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I've checked several colleges' websites, and they all say that they place much more emphasis on class rank than cumulative GPA, and some schools won't even consider GPA at all. Is that true?
Because here is my problem. I go to a relatively small school with 52 students in my graduating class and we use unweighted GPA. Many kids here take the easiest/easier classes and are able to graduate with a 4.0 easily. While I took several AP's, I got like 2 B's and 1 A- during my sophomore year (all A's in junior and senior). So my GPA is 3.955 out of 4.0, which I think is not too bad. Yet my class rank is 14/52, which, if you put it in percentages, is like a 27%, which would look really bad considering the schools I'm applying to (Top LAC's and non-Ivy top Universities).
Do you think this will hurt my chances? (I don't have any EC's too unique/amazing or any legacies to boost my app in any way.) If so, should I "lower" my school choices?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, it does mean that you will be at a disadvantage at rank-centric schools (e.g. Texas publics) but not at GPA-centric schools (e.g. California publics). Make your reach/match/safety assessment with this in mind.</p>
<p>Of course, you need to choose with affordability in mind as well (Texas and California publics may be too expensive as an out-of-state student – check their net price calculators).</p>
<p>Start making your application list with your safeties that you will certainly be admitted to, certainly can afford, and which you like.</p>
<p>Look at the Common Data Set, section C7, for the schools in which you’re interested. That will tell you what is considered for admission. For instance, here is UMich. [Office</a> of Budget & Planning: Common Data Set](<a href=“Office of Budget and Planning”>Office of Budget and Planning) Rigor and GPA are both Very Important.</p>
<p>There’s comes a point when statistics just look silly, and this is one of those cases. Top schools tend to use “holistic” admission standards, so they’re going to look beyond a stat like class rank, or take a look at your GPA and course rigor and see that it makes no sense.</p>
<p>I would truly not worry about this.</p>
<p>Guys, also recently has the same problem. I can say, really GPA is an important thing for admission. Therefore, just want to advice really helpful link [College</a> GPA calculator & High School GPA calculator | GPA calculators, Bachelor, Master & Doctorare programs, MBA, Education Tips, Online Education](<a href=“http://calculatorsgpa.com/]College”>http://calculatorsgpa.com/) with high school and college gpa calculators and some clear instructions. Also here I found a list of almost all official US university gpa calculators. I think, you can find directly gpa rules and calculators of different US universities through this site.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for the advice!
I’m not really considering UC schools and Texas schools, so that won’t be a problem. :)</p>