<p>**
SCHOOL DOES NOT RANK
GPA: 3.5 unweighted (Huge upward trend: 3.1, 3.5, 3.9, and I assume 4.0 for the 1st semester of senior year)</p>
<p>My GPA probably seems pretty bad to most of you guys. But I'm not sure if it really is. My friend has a 3.78 and was told by his counselor that his GPA was the third highest in his class. Im not sure if anyone actually has straight A's in my class. The school is pretty tough. And many of the B's I got in 10th grade were in AP Classes which I scored a 4 or 5 on. I basically got straight A's in 11th (only 1 b). </p>
<p>EC's:</p>
<p>Captain of Varsity Tennis team
Captain of Academic Decathlon team
President of Independent Political Club
Vice-President of Community Service Club
Member of Debate Team</p>
<p>Lots of volunteering and some work experience. </p>
<p>Essays should be extremely good. Writing has always been strong point for me, and I have already started on the essays, so they should be really good by Jan 1st.</p>
<p>You should be fine. Your SAT I and II scores really shine. You should definitely emphasize the upper trend of your grades and how tough your school is. ECs look really solid, make sure you sell them as well. You have a great shot!</p>
<p>Duke takes your GPA in the context of your school's rigor. For example, if your GPA places you in the bottom 1/2 of your graduating class you would be in trouble. But it seems that your GPA is pretty solid considering a 3.78 is ranked 3rd. Your counselor will mark this on the admissions form he/she has to fill out as part of the application process.</p>
<p>kidchicago- The job of emphasizing the rigor of your school and the upward trend in your grades goes to your GC, not to you. If you think it's appropriate, mention this or drop a note to him/her.</p>
<p>Your job is to let yourself shine through your essays as a unique, interesting, thoughtful individual.</p>
<p>Does your school have Weighted GPA? Helps if you are taking a tough courseload..</p>
<p>As someone who is currently on Duke's campus.. I had similar test scores and similar breadth of EC's. The deal with UW GPA/W GPA was that my UW GPA probably barely put me in the top 10% of my class (yea for my school's ranking by Weighted GPA!) but my weighted GPA put me in the top 3-4% of the class.. which definitely helped.</p>