<p>I'm ranked 11/64 in my high school class, but my GPA is a 4.23 on a max of 4.3. Needless to say, the top ten percent is very competative. I have almost entirely A's and am taking a very challenging courseload. </p>
<p>How much is me not being in the top ten percent going to hurt my application? </p>
<p>Do you think Chicago will recognize how small the margin is for being one of the top six students at my school?</p>
<p>I'm a little distraught. =</p>
<p>Take a deep breath, you're fine.</p>
<p>First of all, your class rank is very high, and the fact that your class only has 64 kids in it means that there's little room to move into the top 10%. It's quite possible (though you know better than me) that the top 6 kids are the top 6 kids because of an extra gym class, an easy art credit, etc. Most people are surprised to the extent that elite college admissions doesn't seem to follow the class rank pecking order as closely as it should.</p>
<p>Many high schools do not rank, and out of those that do, 80% of attending (?) students at Chicago were in the top 10 or higher. The other 20%, I'm sure, had other awesome things going for them and their not being in the top 10 had no big influence. My high school did not rank, and if it did, I would have been very lucky to have been in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response. It makes me feel better. :)</p>
<p>Also remember that Chicago considers your transcript to be very important - that classes that you have taken. My son was outside of the top 10% also - but his transcript was strong.</p>
<p>True, true. My school only offers like six AP courses (I've taken the four that I could) but I've taken every honors class avaliable and gotten almost entirely A's and above.</p>
<p>How much weight do you think recommendations carry? And extra-curriculars? Because my most important extra-curriculars are Yearbook and Graphic Design, which I spend 20+ hours a week doing. </p>
<p>Lastly...I'm planning to submit a creative writing sample as a supplemental material. Technically it's "non-fiction" because it's a (somewhat lengthy) poem about the etymology of poetry-related words. Is there a point in sending in supplemental materials? Like...could they, in any way, negatively affect my application (in the way of...you're a tree killer look at these pages!! omgomg). </p>
<p>?????</p>