<p>So, since my freshman year of high school, I've been second in my class of about 70. My GPA is 4.52 weighted. I'm not good in math, but I have a knack for writing and reading. I'm an excellent student who works so hard to maintain that ranking. I also love learning. Love, love, love it. Recently, I did calculations.. if the girl behind me who has a GPA of 4.32 gets straight A's, and I get straight A's (both are likely), she will beat me out of the spot, because she has an AP class, which I was planning on taking next year. This year, I'm taking physics as opposed to AP environmental science. I'm a junior. Junior ranks are what colleges look at.</p>
<p>My mom is disappointed in me. She said that I "effed up" because I didn't take that AP class this year.
That hurts me so much, because I work so freaking hard to get the grades I do. It doesn't come naturally. My mom is also very, very cheap. We're middle class, so I'm relying on scholarships to help pay for college. So now she thinks that since I'm not second my junior year, I won't get much money.</p>
<p>This is what it comes down to: In order to graduate as second (which she really wants to see, because I've always been the underdog), I have to take AP Environmental Science, AP Literature and AP Calculus (assuming I get A's, which I know I won't..) among a class that I actually want to take (German I, I've taken three years of Spanish already).</p>
<p>How should I talk to my mom without us fighting? We've done too much of that.</p>
<p>you could be like "i work really hard for my grades and when you say such-and-such it really hurts me, could you please try to be more sensitive"</p>
<p>Most colleges won't care much if you're some infinitesimal amount behind #1, and it's not too hard to get a full ride to the lower tier schools if you check out with everything else (NMF receive tons! If you get that then you'll have a good number of cheap places to fall back to).</p>
<p>Higher tier school either don't have merit aid or have such impossible to reach merit aid that it's not worth stressing over, and they too wouldn't care in the slightest about some minor gpa difference. Being sal won't hurt you there. Plus, most of the more expensive schools offer free everything to low income students, so if you're lower middle class you're EFC might very well be zero and your mum wouldn't have to pay anything anyway.</p>
<p>No school is going to care that you're number three instead of number two or number 1. As top colleges say over and over, most applicants have the stats to get in. It's just that some applicants stand out, so they get accepted.
Ex: Last year at my school, two girls got into Harvard. One, the valedictorian, was waitlisted before she got it. She's middle class, maybe upper middle class. Her sister, who also goes there, gets some money, but this girl got very little. The other was ranked third and she got in right away, and got a ton of (need-based) financial aid. She pays a pittance to go there. 3rd vs. 1st doesn't matter.</p>
<p>=] actually, she's not. sounds like it, but she isn't..she's made me what i am today and is the only person besides my guidance counselors that sees my potential.</p>
<p>and we do not qualify for financial-aid. in any way.
we're "too rich" according to the government..
we make 100K+ a year, but we live in NJ, the state with the highest taxes in the country.
-_-</p>
<p>and i would stay in-state, but no schools in NJ have my major that are decent in price.</p>