<p>Our school only use unweighted GPA. So there are a lot of kids who only take easy classes and have 4.0s. This make my rank become very low even though I have a 3.90+ GPA (all the Bs i got are from sophmore year) So how bad will the class rank hurt me? Is caltech going to recalculate my GPA for admission?</p>
<p>You'll be fine. My school was the same way (unweighted gpa), and so I was in similar circumstances. My class rank was still fairly high because my class had a lot of people, (~3.95 gpa, ~20 of 900), and I was admitted, so I don't think it will hurt you much.</p>
<p>another question. How long does the essay on supplement form suppose to be? Is it a short or long essay?</p>
<p>yea, my school is pretty easy. there are like 9 valedictorians -_-</p>
<p>If you are really worried you could ask your guidance counselor if they put any sentences in their recommendations that gives some indication what your rank would be if they weighted courses.</p>
<p>hm..last year my school had 30 valedictorians...
Does that make it easy? :-P</p>
<p>umm, are you one of them? lol</p>
<p>nope..:-(
I'm 07. The class I'm talking about was LAST year. 06
but here's the inconsistency among our valedictorians...
Most of them go easy on AP and honor classes throughout their highschool careers because it's unweighted. But still that's around the top 10% of the class and supposedly, we're ranked top 15 in the state.</p>
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But still that's around the top 10% of the class and supposedly, we're ranked top 15 in the state.
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<p>You can have a silly system for determining valedictorians and still be a top school offering a rigorous curriculum. Our school uses a 100 point scale and weights AP and honors courses. There's never been a tie, but how significant is a .1 difference between the top two students? That's one teacher who arbitrarily gave someone a 98 instead of a 97.</p>
<p>I thought you already got accepted to Caltech. Then that will make me feel easy. But you are in the same boat as I am. maybe we both will get rejected.</p>
<p>I definetely agree with mathmom. A lot of our students, esp those bitter acquiring that single B+ in PE or even the most notoriously difficult class at our school will agree with you as well. (but that doesn't make me mutually inclusive in that group, firsty =P).
But, my response was to show that the number of valedictorians does not necessarily indicate the "easiness" of a school.
The more I look at how teachers give grades...the more I wonder about how grades vary school to school and how reliable they are in choosing which students have the most potential to succeed.</p>
<p>firsty: uh...I will be one of the few (or many!)that have a guaranteed rejection letter put aside for me. But that's for other reasons. I think Caltech wants more "passion" for science and math rather than just grades. Basically, try as hard as you can, pursue what you love and if you fit the school. That's great. If you don't, life goes on and you'll be at a school with a better fit.
But as neapol1s once warned, take advice you read from this forum with caution. I'm just another applicant and I'm just saying what I'm hearing.</p>
<p>But if it makes you feel better, we tend to have around 5 people each year that are accepted at caltech.=) Don't stress too much about where you'll get in. How does knowing whether you're going to get in or not, literally, help you get in? (I think that question is grammatically erroneous but I think you'll get the point)</p>