<p>I have been stressing about it all this week. I am a sophomore and I currently have a 3.47 un weighted, and assuming I can get all A's the rest of HS I will only have a 3.78 or 3.79 un weighted. I don't ever plan on going to an Ivy or anything of the sort, just a good school with a solid reputation and solid academics. Does the GPA really matter outside of Ivy league? or is it more about test scores.</p>
<p>I don’t think your GPA matters so much as your actual grades on your transcript matter - what I mean by this is that GPAs aren’t standard amongst schools - for instance, an A- (92%) at one school might be a 4.0 UW while it might be a 3.65 at another - so there are variations from student to student.</p>
<p>But your grades matter quite a bit - they’re (at least as far as I know) the most important part of your application. SAT/ACT are a close second at a lot of institutions, but remember, colleges are academic institutions, so they’re going to focus on the academic part of your profile more than anything else.</p>
<p>Your GPA should also be viewed in the context of your school. In a competitive high school with severe grade deflation - a 3.6 might make you Valedictorian, and in that case, a 3.4 would be a good GPA. However, in a school where you need a 4.0 to be Val - then a 3.4 (which could put you in the top 30% or so) wouldn’t look as hot.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how competitive my school is, all I can say is it never does very good in standardized tests and there are only a handful of students from each grade level that are very smart (I would consider myself one, for im in all honors except for Mathematics) so I would say it probably is not very competitive.</p>
<p>Also what range in the class rank is considered good, is it like 1-20?</p>
<p>Top 10% rank is usually considered excellent - so if your class size is 400 kids, then rank 1-40 would be good, etc. How big is your graduating class?</p>
<p>Your GPA matters more than your class rank. Colleges only spend a few minutes looking at your app. You need to stand out in everything.</p>
<p>Sorry #5, even in a highly competitive high school you need to be above the 3 to 5 % rank to be considered excellent.</p>
<p>@MaterS - You can’t possibly think that someone in the top 10% - not 3 to 5, of a school like Phillips Academy in Andover is not excellent, if not outstanding. I know students who have picked up acceptances at multiple Ivy League universities who were in the top 20% at Phillips – admissions isn’t as cut and dry as you might think.</p>
<p>Phillips Academy and Harvard-Westlake sent 1/4 of their graduating class to the Ivy League - so clearly, more than the top 3% of each respective institution were considered excellent enough to nab spots at some of the world’s most competitive institutions.</p>
<p>@A611376180 - I’m in the top 3% of my large public high school (12/500) - not 10%. I don’t think every school is like Andover. I do not know how competitive OP’s school is - if he happened to be attending a school like Andover, then the criteria for a “good” class rank would be different than if he was attending MY high school, for instance. I apologize if it seemed like I was attacking other posters, I really wasn’t - I was just conveying the fact that college admissions is not cut and dry and is rather subjective/holistic. </p>
<p>I don’t want to get into a fight with you. As I said before, I’m not in the top 10% - I’m in the top 3%, bordering 2% - so it isn’t as though I am blinded by my own bias - I am able to see that the standards of one’s rank varies from school to school. </p>
<p>Also, I never said I was “excellent” - I said someone who was in the top 10% at a school like Phillips Academy Andover would be regarded as excellent. Sadly, I am not in the top 10% at Phillips. lol.</p>
<p>OP said he doesn’t think his school is very competitive - though he doesn’t seem too sure. If he happened to be attending a school ranked in the top 50 of the US or within the top 5 of his state (and didn’t know it - though unlikely), his rank’s decency would be subjective. </p>
<p>Also - grade deflation is yet another factor. I remember coming across a thread where a boy was applying to Yale with a 2.7 or a 2.9 GPA, and he was Valedictorian. It was the result of some weird grade policy where it was nearly impossible to get higher than a 75 in a class or something, but regardless - if OP’s school was fond of grade deflation, his lower-end GPA might constitute a higher rank.</p>
<p>Also, #8, MaterS said that regardless of how competitive a high school is, 10% isn’t “excellent” - I was simply using an example to show that it isn’t always the case. I was in no way attacking that user - so perhaps if we could move on from this and you could perhaps refrain from insulting me, that would be greatly appreciated. My posts were not meant to be malicious.</p>
<h1>MasterHypocrite Above</h1>
<p>LOL. You said that I was barely in the top 10% as a means of insinuating that my judgement on rank was blurred on my own preoccupation and so-called “pride” in an imaginary rank that you put me in - I just corrected you, you then pull this whole;
“Stop bragging about your rank. btw, I’m in the top 1.5%” </p>
<p>The other poster made a false claim that you were so quick to defend. The other poster said - and you can go ahead and reread if you like - that the top 10% at any school, regardless of the school’s reputation, is not “excellent.” </p>
<p>“Sorry #5, even in a highly competitive high school you need to be above the 3 to 5 % rank to be considered excellent” </p>
<p>Well, Phillips Academy and Harvard-Westlake both sent their top 25% to the Ivy League - so obviously it is considered “excellent.” Because, as you may or may not know, Andover and Harvard-Westlake are both high schools - and 25 is a bigger number than 10… So turns out that both of you are wrong. ;)</p>
<p>I’m with sluchy. Master hypocrite is hypocritical. LOLOL. Jackass.</p>
<p>LOL, whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetheart. 
(The smiley faces make it super genuine and sincere and totally not belligerent!)</p>
<p>…uhm.</p>
<p>I still think its funny.</p>
<p>But ok.</p>
<p>lol.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention to OP - if you could, hypothetically, bring your GPA up to a 3.8 unweighted, which you said you could - that would actually be quite a strong UW GPA. A 3.8 suggests a vast majority of A’s with very few, if any, B’s or C’s. So for right now, just try to do as well as possible. </p>
<p>Your current GPA is decent - but if you can bring it up to a 3.6 or 7 unweighted, then that’d be ideal for most schools bar the top 25, I suppose</p>
<p>so, assuming I do end up with a 3.78 GPA (which after I calculated was about the highest I could get) does anyone think that I could be considered for any of these schools:
-UCLA (I know this one is hard for OOS)
-USC
-University of Washington
-University of British Columbia (in Vancouver, B.C.)
-University of Sydney (in Sydney, Australia)
-University of Colorado, Boulder</p>
<p>I don’t know about the University of Sydney or University of British Columbia as I’m unfamiliar with them - but I do think you have a shot at all of those other schools with a 3.78 UW assuming that you also have a strong SAT score (2100+, ideally) and solid, focused extracurriculars.</p>
<p>I think that GPA and standardized test scores are both very, very important. That’s how we’re measured unfortunately. Along with those, a good balance of activities is important. Ultimately, wherever you decide to go, the standards of admission will be different. Since you don’t want any ivies (good choice lol) your grades are still important, but if you are like a 3-3.5 it won’t be that bad at all. It’s good! But just try to keep it up, or increase it and show progress over time. Some schools where everyone has great scores don’t care so much and want to see what else you do.</p>
<p>I visited Notre Dame and a professor told me schools are shifting back to where scores and grades are most important, and everything else follows after. So…</p>
<p>Does each grade per semester factor into your GPA? So if I have 6 classes, does that mean I will have 12 grades for this school year?</p>
<p>So, assuming I get an A in AP gov next semester, is my GPA 11 x 4.0 + 3.3 = 3.94 on a 93+ scale or 11 x 4.0 + 3.0 = 3.91 on a 90+ scale?</p>