<p>Are there any Spanish classes at your school that are considered honors or AP? If not, isn't everyone else in your Spanish class in the same boat as you are? I assume that what you are saying is that there are many students NOT in that class who are ranking higher, having substituted another honors or AP class for that one. Maybe your school will consider weighting this class differently in the future. </p>
<p>As for the music classes, our school district (known nationally for its music program) does not factor any honors or AP music or art classes, and only a very few academic electives, such as economics or psychology, into the GPA, although they are on the transcript of course. I've heard that many colleges recalculate GPAs in a very similar way to our HS, in any case. Still, if I understand you correctly, you are saying that others in your school are getting an advantage from other weighted electives comparable to your jazz band. Your school should consider this year to be a trial run of their weighting system and make some changes in the future, if that's the case.</p>
<p>Because your school is one that ranks I think your letter was necessary and yours made a good case. IMO, your letter was well-written, to the point and not whiny. I don't believe it will matter in the least that you drafted the letter, as long as it had the signatures of the crucial administrators. Stanford will likely assume that they asked you to do that. Good luck!</p>