<p>I really like Cornell, and see it as a fit for me. I don't have a lot of ECs, so the best thing going for me is probably my #1 rank.</p>
<p>Fast forward to a couple days ago. I get my report card back, and I have a B in Spanish. I'm taking Oklahoma School of Science and Math classes at a local technology center (AP Physics, AP Calculus), the hardest history class my school offers, and basically the hardest classes that are offered. I received As in all these classes, but let Spanish slip by. As it turns out, I had a high B first nine weeks, which she raised to an A without telling me. I thought I was safe. Apparently not. Ok, she is a grandmother type, and would probably raise my grade to an A if I can prove to her that it really hurts my chances. She sees a 4 rank as just as good as a 1 rank. </p>
<p>MY QUESTION IS THIS lol, does anyone know of any easily printed/understood articles or anything that I can show to her, proving how much I'm *****ed if I lose my #1 rank and Valedictorian status? Thnx.</p>
<p>"Ok, she is a grandmother type, and would probably raise my grade to an A if I can prove to her that it really hurts my chances."</p>
<p>No offense, but isn't that just a little.. unfair? I really think that as long as you're in the top 3% of your class you're in great standing for Cornell. I was 9/365 and I got in ED.</p>
<p>If you would read the link I provided before responding, you would see that I don't have much going for me in the EC department. I'm pretty much a straight grades guy. I need this A. No help?</p>
<p>Doesn't then this rank bump-up hurt his chances to the point of defferal? Also, what if we weren't talking about Cornell, but the HYP? Assuming he got some EC's by senior, it seems to me not being #1 would kill him. Am I right or wrong on this logic?</p>
<p>"it seems to me not being #1 would kill him"</p>
<p>The old rumor has it that valedictorian status leads to rejection at ivies. HYP are famous for rejecting valedictorians just for fun. Of course no one ever really can prove it but it does seem to be true a lot. So being #1 can be a bad thing a lot of the time.</p>
<p>Of course not having EC's doesnt help at all. </p>
<p>Perro you can't be serious, can you? Perhaps it's because the #1's are just school nerds with not much EC potential (stuff like sports usually hurts ur GPA)? That would definatly describe me.</p>
<p>Yeah, that's part of it really. A lot of valedictorians do nothing but sit in their rooms and bury themselves in books, so their EC's blow. But the point that I was trying to illustrate, and the one that is applicable to this specific situation, is that just being a valedictorian will not save your ass if you don't have the EC's, essays, recs, etc. to back it up.</p>
<p>Your ECs look just as good, if not better, than mine, and I got in ED with rank 4/530...so really, you should be fine as long as everything else holds up.</p>
<p>El1jah, I did read your stats on the link before I responded. I realize you don't have a lot of extracurriculars, but I truly don't believe that falling 3 spots will make or break you. And I'm merely saying that I don't condone going in to change a grade that you didn't earn.</p>
<p>And perro, I definitely have heard the valedictorian rumor. I'm not sure how much truth there is to it, but it's out there.</p>
<p>You know, 50% is still significantly higher than Harvards overall acceptance rate (somewhere in the teens usually). This rumor is the same thing as the 1600 one--that schools reject perfect SATs so they can boast about it, when in reality, they accept these applicants at a higher rate than they do overall.</p>
<p>Right, but the thing is that their median SAT score is never 1600 (duh), and the median class rank is never 1. So consequently they are rejecting a large percentage of people who are more qualified than would seem necessary.</p>
<p>She's gonna make your rank drop from 1 to 4? Just have her killed...</p>
<p>I mean...talk to her about it, and tell her how much it means to you...or you could just do better in the class and get an A+, or do more extraciricular activities.</p>
<p>I know how you feel though, I got an A- in health b/c of a C on an arbitrary CPR skills test and it dropped my rank from 2 to 3...</p>
<p>Still though, you get what you deserve i guess, and in the end it doesn't make that much difference. Maybe you should have balanced your time and done less schoolwork an dmore EC's from the start...</p>
<p>Or you could settle down and not worry about it? the difficulty of your schedule will weigh more than your class rank. I'm around 22/270 in my school, but we do not have weighted grades, and i've had to take classes were an A+ isn't possible, so it hurts my GPA. Being in the top 10% or not being in the top 10% is the real killer, just keep consistant with your EC's and grades and you should be fine.</p>
<p>What i meant was I've taken classes outside of the high school, where the highest grade is just an "A". But in my school, an "A+" is given more points than an "A". So if someone takes cooking 101, and i take AP USH, an "A+" in cooking is the same as an "A+" in AP USH.</p>