Low Rank+Counselor Explanation=Harvard EA?

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1

<p>Asian Male, West Virginia </p>

<p>GPA: UW: 3.86, School does not weight grades or rankings. The only Bs I have gotten are in 8th and 9th grade except for a B in German in 2nd semester 11th grade. (And all of my Bs have been in German)</p>

<p>Rank: Okay this is the killer....our school does NOT WEIGHT RANK OR GRADES...so taking AP Physics is equivalent to taking Cooking 101. Thus this results in my rank being 51/400, because many of the people ranked ahead of me by no means take on the schedule that I do. Now my counselor has realized this and added on the transcript that she sent in "This student's rank is much lower than what it should be because our school does not weight grades or rankings, had our school weighted ranks this year his rank would be significantly higher." I have taken one of the hardest schedules offered at our school and beyond (2 courses at local university and 1 course at Georgetown Univ. over the summer). </p>

<p>SAT: 770 reading 780 Math 770 Writing; 2320 Composite</p>

<p>SAT II: 780 U.S History, 780 Biology M, 780 Math IIC</p>

<p>AP: Stat 5, US History 5, Psych 5, Eng Comp. 4</p>

<p>National Merit Semifinalist</p>

<p>ECs (My ECs may seem not different from the average person on CC, but bear in mind I am from WV; love the state but I just have to admit we just don't have the oppertunities that the kids in New York or Mass. does)
-Varsity Tennis Letterman Fresman, Sophomore, and Junior years
-Show Choir (This year our show choir is being featured exclusively in an 8-14 episode show on MTV)
-Chamber Choir (Our chamber Choir performed at Carnegie Hall this past year)
-2nd Place Junior Division (Under18) 2006 West Virginia State Chess Championship
-AP Scholar with destinction, one of the handfull in WV
-Selected for the 2006 JSA Georgetown Summer Program where I took US Govt.
-Newspaper and Yearbook Sports Editor.
-1st place Winner of the 2004 West Virginia Junior Math League
-Competed in American Regional Math League
-Currently Founding a Junior Statesmen Of America Chapter at school
-Qualified and competed in the AIME
-National Honors Society
-Math Honors
-Science Honors
-National German Honors Society
-2005 5th place finisher in the Scholatic West Virigina Chess Tournament
-1st place winner of the Schoolwide Film Festival
-Winner of a 2004 West Virginia Music Teachers Award for Piano (an instrument I played for 8 years)</p>

<p>Community Service:
-Over 300 hours of Community Service
-Volunteered at the library for 50+ hours in 2004
-Volunteered at the National Youth Sports Program for 100+ hours in 2005 where I taught tennis to children. I am volunteering there this summer too for 50+ hours
-Math Tutor for school 50+ hours</p>

<p>Would my counselor's statement coupled with my test scores and EC's help this grusome ranking?</p>

2

<p>What sucks is that colleges calculate gpas if they are weighted- so they wanted to know the 3.86 gpa anyway. the rank and gpa isn't terrible, and you have decent honors, and strong community service, and great scores. You have a great shot imo.</p>

3

<p>because your counselor explains the issue, it shouldn't matter. it seems like you have a great shot though. and it probably helps that you are from WV.</p>

4

<p>I agree you definitely have a very good shot (and you're selling your ECs short, they're impressive.) Still, I'm always a little irritated by people that come onto the boards just looking for confirmation- "Will Harvard be OK with this?" or whatever- instead of asking a specific question or to get help with an application. You'll find out in 22 days whether you got in EA, and in the meantime you're just speculating. I know it's nervewracking to wait, and it feels good to get validation from others that your stats are impressive, but it's not like you're really helping yourself.</p>

5

<p>crap. 22 days that's uncomfortably soon.</p>

6

<p>Admiral: You are absolutely right, no matter what people on CC say about how good or bad my chances are it will have no effect at all on the adcoms in Cambridge, but I just wanted to get some opinions on whether the rank thing would have any deterring effects on my overall application. A problem that has been bothering me quite a bit these few weeks after I sent in my application (almost as much as mother's spirited mantras about how "it's all in God's hands now").</p>