I take full advantage of my opportunities but I feel like it's not enough..?

Applying to College
1

<p>I go to a school with about 400 people in my class. I'm a junior and I'm ranked #1 (unofficially, since IB students aren't ranked here). I take the most rigorous course load I can with 5 IBs, 1 AP, 1 Honors, and I even sacrifice my Tuesday and Thursday nights to take College Chem I at a community college since my school doesn't have AP or IB Chem.</p>

<p>But then I see all these other people I know who go to really great high schools and take 4 APs their freshman year, 5 APs sophomore year, then max out junior and senior year. I wish I had that opportunity. My high school is pretty limited compared to a lot of other schools. AP Calc AB is the highest math course here (which I take this year), but then I see a lot of my friends at their schools taking Calc BC, Discrete Math, Linear Algebra, Multivariate Calc. </p>

<p>I just kind of feel discouraged knowing that I do everything I possibly can to excel academically when there are other people doing the same thing as me but with much more advanced classes. </p>

<p>As for my ECs, they're pretty good. Nothing exceptional. I've moved a couple of times over the last few years, so they're not that focused since I'm never settled in one place but I have no control over that.</p>

<p>So which applicant looks better to adcoms?</p>

<p>Applicant A who has a 4.0 and takes full advantage of the opportunities available to him at a good, but not great, high school.</p>

<p>Applicant B who has a 4.0 and takes full advantage of the opportunities available to him at one of the best high schools in America.</p>

2

<p>Bottom line, if you’re one of those tl;dr people: People tell me that top schools look at you within the context of your high school, but what happens if two people take full advantage of their opportunities at different schools, where one school is far better than the other? Who is favored? (assuming all else is equal)</p>

3

<p>I have always heard that they look at you in the context of your particular school; and the admissions people often have geographic regions they cover so they really do know something about the schools. You don’t have to worry that they won’t know the difference between your school and some of those others.</p>

4

<p>Quite frankly, Applicant B looks better. But the chances of those two applicants being the same in all aspects other than school type are slim. If you don’t have a ton of APs because your school doesn’t offer them, admissions will see that, and they’ll judge you based on if you took the most challenging courses that you could. Your course load is good enough for you to be competitive- just make sure you don’t overdo it, get good grades, and that you continue to have a good load in senior year.</p>