<p>Ok so there is this girl at my school who has a 4.0 freshman, sophemore and so far junior year with no honors/AP classes (even though she has had the opportunity to) and i, a african american male, (not that that matters) have taken one of the most challening course loads that the school offers with 12 honors/AP classes as of junior year with a 3.7 GPA (4.214 weighted)...let me add that she became a maryland scholar with her GPA and i could i been had i taken easier classes like her. How do colleges look at course load?</p>
<p>There's no question you're going to look better and appeal more if you have a tougher courseload and do relatively well in your courses, as compared to another person who does even slightly better or as good with a less demanding courseload.</p>
<p>UVA especially is big on courseload.. they say specifically that they want students who have challenged themselves in a hard courseload.. it's going to be very obvious that if this girl is making straight a's in easy classes that she's not challenging yourself. You're fine</p>
<p>A 3.7 is a good GPA, especially for an African American. Contrary to what you said, that matters a lot and puts you near the top of African students who apply to the university.</p>
<p>Guidance Counselors write a cover letter and also in some way indicate whether or not the student took the most demanding courses available. Our experience was that class rank was not as important as proof of challenging courses and the decent grades in them, although plenty of top five percent kids do take the hard path and only a few people deliberately "game" class ranks. Try not to compare yourself too much with students in your HS although of course this sort of chatter goes on in every HS class. There are always kids with higher ranks who skip certain things. In our system, you are also Penalized for taking arts or music courses that are unweighted --so many fine students won't take them. My S took the music courses anyway, for example, and had many fine admissions offers despite his lower rank. He was not penalized is my point for taking arts courses and forfeiting ranking advantages. UVa is very experienced with viewing applications shrewdly and will respect you for taking the harder path. You should be proud of your fine academic record. Your essays and personal passions also really count, so let the colleges get to know who you are as a person. Good luck!!</p>