Low Class Rank, High SAT

<p>Hi everyone I'll keep it short. I have a 2340 SAT (800CR 740M 800W) and am in the second decile of my class rankings (3.78 UW, 4.49 W). I have very good but not stellar EC's, and very good essays and teachers recs. How will my class ranking affect my admission to Georgetown, Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, WashU, Northwestern? I already was accepted to UVA (in-state).</p>

<p>It’ll hurt them. :/</p>

<p>I mean, what else is there to know.</p>

<p>It will have an impact. It makes you look brilliant but lazy, possibly in need of an attitude adjustment. Or, you could be brilliant but endured some difficult struggles. Essays will help sort that out depending on how much of yourself you reveal. </p>

<p>A few of the schools on your list wouldnt mind as much as others.</p>

<p>What kind of high school do you attend? Is it a highly selective private or academic magnet school?</p>

<p>I attend a selective engineering program that draws from across the area within a public school rated top 3% in the nation by AP scores. Other students in my class of the engineering program have been admitted early to Princeton, Williams, Stanford, MIT, Illinois and Georgia Tech, and dozens to UVA. My class is particularly competitive with the maximum number of Bs allowed while still being in the top 10% is around 2. I realize this hurts my chances, but by how much? Is there no chance of me being admitted to these schools now?</p>

<p>You didn’t ask that. You asked what effect low class rank would have on your prospects.</p>

<p>There’s no point in having people on the Internet speculate whether you “can” or “can’t” get into those other universities. You’ve already applied. The admissions committees themselves will notify you in a month, and after you find out whether you did or didn’t get in, whether you can or can’t will be entirely moot.</p>

<p>I know the wait is agonizing, but this kind of speculation is of absolutely no value.</p>

<p>If you’re at TJ or a similar school, that class rank may not be the end of the world, but using Naviance or talking to your HS college counselor is going to give you much better information than we can. You should be able to see exactly how many kids in your GPA range got into your desired schools. Sometimes there is an effective GPA cutoff at big feeder schools like yours.</p>

<p>How many people are in your Class?</p>

<p>Here are some “real life” stats for you. My son had a similar record to yours. Last year, my son had a 2300 SAT, 3.7 unweighted gpa, and not much in the way of ECs.</p>

<p>He got waitlisted at Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and Emory.</p>

<p>He got into UCLA.</p>

<p>Got rejected at Northwestern and Duke, and University of Chicago.</p>

<p>Got rejected at Berkeley.</p>

<p>Got rejected at the Ivies.</p>

<p>Got into University of Florida and UNC.</p>

<p>He had friends who got into Wash U with stats similar to his. So I think you will get into Wash U.</p>

<p>Perhaps Georgetown as well.</p>

<p>It is VERY tough to get into a top 20 school unless your record is almost perfect.</p>

<p>Your record can be less than perfect but then you have to have interesting and outstanding talents and ECs. </p>

<p>Being a total bookworm is not enough. </p>

<p>Those are some tough stats @floridadad. It must’ve been very hard to go thru it with your kid.</p>

<p>Thank you for your responses! Just some more information about myself - I am a white male, not applying for financial aid. I spent a semester sophomore year in Jerusalem on a study abroad program. I worked ~1000 hours as an intern on the Obama campaign. I missed 3 months of school due to a concussion last year which contributed to 3/8 Bs (my school gives final grades each semester which go on our transcript. I lettered in wrestling for 2 years. I won a regional science fair last year for microbiology research I conducted with a chemical engineering prof at UVA. I have taken 9 APs to date including senior year, 2 engineering courses accredited through a local community college and am currently taking differential equations at UVA. I am in a class of ~450, ~50 of whom are in my engineering program.</p>

<p>I have seen profiles like this get into Northwestern and WashU. But again, your HS counselor/Naviance will be able to tell you how schools view GPAs from your program in particular.</p>