How do they look at pure academics?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>GPA: 3.81 (Unweighted)
Class rank: 78/414
ACT: 33
SAT: 2240</p>

<p>Freshman/sophomore year: all honors classes and AP World</p>

<p>Junior year:
AP French (A/A-)
AP Chemistry (B/B-)
AP Biology (A/A)
AP Calc AB (A/A-)
AP U.S. History (A/A)
AP English Lang/Comp (A/A-)</p>

<p>Alright, I'm not going to put my full profile on here; I'm just wondering about my GPA and test scores. I'm entering my senior year and wondering if I made a mistake. I could have taken easier courses and gotten a 4.0 overall no problem, even if I only took 5 AP classes this year, but I chose to go all-out. Since my school doesn't weight grades my class rank blows, even though I'm going to graduate with twelve AP classes and good grades for them. My school offers a wide array of quality AP courses, sending the majority of its students off to college and having most of them pass the tests, so these courses were difficult, thorough, and took all I had. But now I'm doomed to a top 20% class rank without consideration to toughness of courses - strictly academically speaking, would top colleges such as Columbia even consider such a rank/GPA in the application process? And would my ACT/SAT scores lend strength to this GPA?
(If you believe that their [Columbia's, for instance] interpretation of academics can be influenced by extracurriculars, assume that mine were numerous and excellent for the sake of discussion)
Thank you very much for considering this. You are a good person. Have a pleasant day</p>

2

<p>They look at your difficulty of the courses you’ve taken. Colleges such as Columbia expect you to take the most rigorous schedule available to you. They also look at SAT/ACT scores, subject test scores, and AP test scores.</p>

3

<p>You did not make a mistake: strength of schedule is weighed pretty strongly. You have done well. You will have many good options. Congratulations!</p>

4

<p>Columbia: Reach</p>

<p>Rank is not that big of an issue at Columbia; it’s not like you applied at UT-Austin or Texas A&M…</p>

5

<p>Thanks so much for the replies!
But as far as rank being not that big of an issue at Columbia, their admissions say that 97% of their undergrads are from the top 10% of their class, and I’m assuming that that remaining 3% is for athletic recruits and such. Are a lot of these ranks weighted, do these ranks just coincide with the profile of well-qualified applicants, or does rank actually influence their admissions that much?</p>

6

<p>Most schools weight their ranks. If your school doesn’t, then Columbia will recalculate rank, or at least reconsider, based on the rigor of your curriculum. You could have your gc mention this policy in her rec or something.</p>