<p>I go to a very challenging public high school (I'm not just saying that, it is), and I have a B average in all honors and AP classes. I am ranked 30th in my class of a little more than 100. Also actively involved in and out of school (Class Treas., guitar teacher, tutor, etc). Scores: SAT 2000 (1390) Chem: 700. I have noticed that there are many people from different high schools who have a much higher class rank but a far lower SAT score than me. Does anyone know if colleges recognize the difficulty of some high schools compared to others, or is there a good chance that I might be viewed as lazy for getting a decent SAT score but poor grades, thus reducing my chances? </p>
<p>Also, could someone give their opinion of my chances at the following:
Boston College
Boston University
Villanova
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Virginia
Notre Dame
Wake Forest</p>
<p>I am assuming that you are out of state for UVA and UNC</p>
<p>Boston College----no
Boston University-------yes
Villanova-----------yes
UNC Chapel Hill-------no
University of Virginia-------no
Notre Dame--------no
Wake Forest------no</p>
<p>rrr123, My son was in your postition this year. He comes from a very competitive public high school. Our experience is that the smaller colleges/universities (5,000 and less) do look at the differences between high schools, but the larger universities do not. This might not be everyone's experience, but it was our experience. Also, for merit scholarhips some colleges look at the differences in high schools, and others do not. So lets say your gpa is a 3.6 and someone else has a 3.8 from an easier high school, they may get a merit award and you might not get any, or get less (assuming sats scores are equal). At other schools they do look at differences in high schools. If I had to go through the process again, I would call the admissions offices and ask exactly how they determine merit aid, if it were important to me.</p>
<p>Based on your SATs and considering you have all honors or AP classes:</p>
<p>Boston College - Low match
Boston University - Low match
Villanova - Safety
UNC Chapel Hill - High Match/Reach
University of Virginia - Reach
Notre Dame - High Match
Wake Forest - Low Match</p>
<p>From what I understand, the adcoms at many colleges are aware of the differences in difficulty between high schools. After all, it's part of their job to know. Also, a 3.5 GPA in all honors and AP classes is not bad. In fact, it's competitive at most of the schools I marked as a match, low match, or safety above. Even so, you probably want to add a couple more safety schools to your list. You might want to take a look at these schools:</p>
<p>Dickinson College
Gettysburg College
Lafeyette
Franklin and Marshall
College of NJ
Sarah Lawrence
Union
Skidmore</p>
<p>One of my friends has a higher GPA than me, because they take college prep level for the harder classes, so that they can get the A. On the other hand, I get straight B's taking all honors and AP. I also have a higher SAT score than my friend. Did I make the right decision taking the hardest classes and getting B's, or do colleges care more about the A, GPA, and class rank over course load and rigor? Thanks</p>
<p>E ach person is d ifferent, so here is what I p redict for you:</p>
<p>Boston College - safety/match
Boston University - safety
Villanova - Safety
UNC Chapel Hill - match
University of Virginia - match
Notre Dame - safety/match
Wake Forest - safety</p>
<p>You s hould look at some ivy l eague schools.</p>
<p>Y our second q uestion, I just r ealized I f orgot to reply to it. Well, I might as well m ake one more post, r ight? S orry if I am annoying you but I am just trying to c ompletely answer e verything you have asked for. Yes, you made the right d ecision.</p>
<p>Staight B's in all honors and AP's are good....how many classes are you taking?</p>
<p>whats your UW GPA? whats your W? whats your UVA GPA? What do you want to major in? what schools within the Univesity are you looking at? </p>
<p>colleges definetly diffrenciate between high schools/disctricts, but I believe that THEY do that...you don't need to state you go to a hard high school.</p>
<p>alll B's=3.0 UW, 4.0W</p>
<p>so I don't see how you get 3.5</p>
<p>3.0, 4.0 GPAs are pretty good, I suggest taking the AP tests in order to get college credit for them.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell:</p>
<p>BC, BU: BU is a bit easier, I say in [depends what major]</p>
<p>UNC and UVA are extremley competitive: reaches</p>
<p>others I don't know so much about.</p>
<p>look for some safeties, and find some more reaches. [carnegie, penn state, Northwestern, Georgetown, etc]</p>
<p>I have a 3.5 or 3.6 weighted gpa, based on my school's system. My school uses a WGPA on a 5.3 scale (5.3 being an A+ in an AP class) but since it is impossible to get higher than about a 4.8, they say that it is a 4.0 scale (i think this is so when it is reported a student with a 4.5 (our current 1st) looks that much better, also the system is staggered so that students in easier classes can acheive a higher gpa than students like myself getting ok grades in honors/AP, which accounts for my low class rank but pretty good SAT). </p>
<p>I really like Boston and BC would be great for me, any advice on what else I should do to improve my chances there, or make unc/uva etc. more likely (I was vague on my ECs in my first post so i will elaborate below)?</p>
<p>Class Treasurer 9th-11th
Guitar Club 9-10, Yearbook Club 11, Jazz Band 9-10
Soccer Referee 7-11, Guitar Teacher 11, Tutor 11 (these three $)
over 70 hours of community service, more to come (still a junior)
Active musician with 2 bands
Hobbies: Guitar (obviously) and web design
again gpa: 3.0 uw, 3.5 w, SAT: 1390/1600, 2000/2400, 700 Chem (am taking SATI again, did better on psats, as well as 2 more SATIIs)</p>
<p>I'm still a junior and havent really focused that much attention on college yet (grades are important right now), so I really havent looked that deeply at schools inside the universities. I am probably going to major in business or computers, so it would be the business school at each college, or the arts/wherever computer is taught, sorry i dont know much beyond that, thanks for your help tho</p>
<p>also how are my ecs lookin? keep it up or boost it up?</p>