<p>Is it bad to have a lower GPA than a lot of students in my class? I have ~3.7 UW GPA, but a lot of people at my school have 3.9+ UW. We don't have ranks so I don't know how much the .2+ GPA difference really affects me. We all take ~8-14 AP's total by the end of HS (i will have 9) and most of them have a lot of EC's while I only have MUN and football because I don't have time for any others. Are my chances of getting into top schools (MIT, Caltech, HYPSM, etc.) ruined because the same admission officer looks at all applicants from my school? By the way, I'm guessing there are about 20-40/500 of these extraordinary kids.</p>
<p>wow…you are stressed out…</p>
<p>Yes I am…</p>
<p>Expect it to matter. Colleges figure out a rank for students at schools that don’t rank using historical data from past applicants from your school, your school profile, current applicants from the school and info from counselors. Rank is the most important factor in college admission.</p>
<p>At most ivies and their peers, if you go to a school that is not highly competitive, most admits will be top 2 in the class. If the school is very competitive, most will be in the top 5%.</p>
<p>it’s not THAT big of deal…just focus on doing well in general</p>
<p>hmom5: I don’t believe that it would be top 2.</p>
<p>For schools that don’t rank, the rank calculations aren’t THAT accurate. They can mostly only ballpark (top 10%, maybe top 5%). They’re certainly not going to reject you for being in top 10% of an ESTIMATED rank.</p>
<p>I don’t agree, the top 10% things is a myth. At mid level ivies such as Dartmouth, 40% of ranked students were val or sal. When you add in the 40% of hooked, unhooked candidates are in general at the very top of their class. This was true even 30 years ago when I worked in admissions at Penn.</p>
<p>colleges may not get every rank perfect but they have enough info and access to counselors to get very close.</p>
<p>Exactly, 40% of RANKED students.</p>
<p>I’m sure students are at the top of their class, but don’t pretend they can calculate a numeric rank. For unranked students the best they can usually get is percentage (top 5%). The methods just aren’t accurate enough to get anything more.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input. I’m kind of blown right now, but I guess I’ll just have to work harder on the other parts of my app.</p>