<p>I am currently a junior and rank 5/495 in my high school. I can tell that with enough effort on my part, I have the potential to go up, perhaps even rank 1 by the end of this school year (8 weeks left).
This would mean working my ass off and scrounging for extra credit and higher grades in every class. I'm just wondering if colleges would give importance to small rank differences (1-5). Otherwise, I'd rather focus on sports and extracurriculars, and study for my AP tests.</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter terribly much as long as you are a competitive candidate (i.e: not 250/307 students or something); plenty of valedictorians get turned down. Make your GPA as high as you can, obviously, but it’s not like JUST being rank 1 or rank 3 instead of #5 would get you in anywhere.</p>
<p>I think you should direct your efforts elsewhere. You’re already just outside the top 1% of your class, which is excellent. Doing well on your AP tests and pursuing your extracurricular interests is more important than improving your rank at this point, I feel.</p>
<p>Rank is indeed very important, though the difference between 1 and 5 may not be particularly significant, still being top 1%. I was accepted as rank 6 (7 at time of app, 6 at midyear) out of a similarly-sized class, but an online class dropped my UW GPA and bumped me from sal. My point is that it’s certainly possible.</p>
<p>My worry, however, is you can raise your rank by “scrounging for extra credit.” This leads me to believe that you have a few B’s or A-'s floating around. Do your best to get those up. Will it make the difference between an acceptance or a rejection? Not necessarily. (And my high school philosophy was a lot like yours–do your best where you can, don’t grovel where you can’t.) But common sense says that the highest rank and the highest GPA gives you the best chance of being accepted. If a higher rank is within reach, why not take it and maximize your chances?</p>
<p>^because it’d mean taking time away from ECs and AP study time.</p>
<p>don’t stress over bringing your already awesome rank up. Keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy the fun stuff like sports and your ECs!!!</p>
<p>I would agree that going from 5 to 1 probably wouldn’t have a significant impact on your admissions. Focus on other things that will make your app interesting, like some unique EC.</p>