<p>My school has an advanced program and a regular program. Students from both programs are ranked on the same scale, and the advanced program is A LOT harder. It's very common for kids to have 97,98 averages in the regular, but in advanced even a 94 is unheard of after first semester. Since they rank on the same scale, the advanced kids are a lot lower on the list. I'm concerned because I'm part of this program and I've heard that if you apply to US schools (esp. Ivies... and I'm from Canada, if that makes a difference), class rank is important. Also, the course code for the advanced and the regular is the same on the transcript, so how would schools know the difference? How would they know if a student was part of regular or advanced program? If they really can't tell, should I just switch to the regular so my marks will be higher?</p>
<p>Your school counselor ranks a student’s course rigor. I forget the different categories, but if from the sounds of it, if you aren’t in the honors program, you won’t get the “most rigorous” option.</p>