<p>I am applying to Columbia RD and I feel like the weakest part of my application (my ranking) will instantly get me rejected. I am ranked 107/875 so I decided to write a letter to the admissions committee addressing my rank. There is no valid reason for why I am ranked so low. I guess I was just a late-bloomer. I was wondering if anyone would care to help look over my letter and offer some suggestions. Preferably current Columbia students please.</p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure all schools recalculate GPA, so I dont' see why your ranking would make that much of a difference if your GPA is up there with everyone elses who is applying.</p>
<p>That said, I could be completely wrong, my school doesn't rank so I relaly don't know that much about how rankings work.</p>
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There is no valid reason for why I am ranked so low.
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<p>I'm sure there is a perfectly valid reason for why you are ranked so low, namely that 106 of your peers performed better than you.</p>
<p>Writing a letter is going to make matters worse by call attention to things that are already bad. If your letter sounds anything like this post, Columbia will see you as whiny and irrational. Your ranking speaks for itself and they can figure out what to make of it.</p>
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I'm pretty sure all schools recalculate GPA, so I dont' see why your ranking would make that much of a difference if your GPA is up there with everyone elses who is applying.
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<p>columbia doesnt recalculate gpa at all....rank tells them how you compare to your peers at your school since every school's grading system is different so it is actually quite important. Schools that don't rank tend to give colleges a means of comparing the applicant to other students in the school. My school used to give colleges a pamphlet with grade distributions in all courses and that was a way for the college to know whether your grade was good or not.</p>
<p>Same with my school, but they only reported deciles and not ranks. You could ask your guidance counselor about how class ranking at your schools is decided because it sounds like you think you ahve a really high GPA.</p>
<p>ah, excuse my mistake.</p>
<p>I dont' really know what I'm talking about, I just know that a lot of schools say they recalculate GPA to get everyone on the same scale.</p>
<p>The adcoms have a lot of experience and know the curriculum, grading scheme, etc. at your high school. They don't recalculate anything. They look at whatever info they have (grades, rank, schedule, etc.) to figure out how you performed.</p>
<p>Ok thanks everyone. I decided not to send the letter. I'm doing really well this term and am pretty sure that my mid yr grades will break me into the top 10%. Hopefully my steady improvement will be worth something.</p>