<p>Hi everyone, so right now I am in the beginning of my junior year of highschool.
And I have two questions that it would be very much appreciated if you guys could help me out on. First of all as the title mentions so far through school my gpa is abysmal, at least compared to Brown’s standards, because I’ve never taken school seriously up until this year. So my question is that if I could get a very good gpa these next two years, and have a good SAT score; what would be my chances of getting into Brown?</p>
<p>My next question probably seems stupid to most of you, I don’t really know much about the whole process of applying to college. So my question is what exactly do colleges think of private schools and schools that don’t rank their classes. Because you know obviously colleges would rather take a student who has a 3.7 gpa at a top ten state school to a student with a 3.8 or something in a top 50 school. But I go to a private school and basically what I’ve found out is that the number three school in my state is easy compared to my school(I don’t know about number one or two in my state), but I found this out because several of my friends transferred to that school last year then came back to my school again this year. And I’d consider myself a lot smarter than these friends of mine (who had never taken an AP in my school and still aren’t this year), but when they went to this other school they were signed up for many AP courses and they said they were barely harder than some of the regular courses in my school. So I’m just wondering how exactly do colleges decide how good a private school is? and also my school doesn’t rank its classes so does that have any kind of effect? </p>
<p>Thank you if you read all of this, and any help would really be appreciated.</p>
<p>I don’t know about all private schools, but my friends at a private school tell me that the colleges set quotas for the school (Harvard accepts 1 student from their school every year). I don’t really know how they set the quota, maybe they’ll look at SAT scores on average or look at course offerings or AP results.</p>
<p>From what I gather, many schools don’t rank so it isn’t that big of a deal. What I’ve also gathered is that if your school does National Merit Scholarship (aka PSAT), then your school does rank and whether or not they make it official is another story.</p>
<p>More than half the students accepted at Brown went to schools that didn’t rank. </p>
<p>It is the job of admissions officers to know about all types of high schools, and it is the job of the high schools to make sure colleges know about their schools. There is something called a high school profile sent with your application. Go ask your guidance counselor about it. </p>
<p>If you were an admissions officer, and you were comparing two students, one with a high GPA for all four years, and the other with a high GPA for only two years – what would YOU think? If the low GPA student had something the college REALLY wanted – diversity, uber-wealthy parents, winning quarterback skills – than that GPA may not matter. If the only reason for your low gpa is that you didn’t take school seriously, then Brown may wonder if you’ll have the same attitude when you get to college. </p>
<p>Colleges do NOT set quotas for high schools.</p>
<p>Alright well thank you very much for the information, and I will ask my guidance counselor about it at some point. </p>
<p>I know, I definitely realized that they’d rather take someone who’s had a high GPA for four years rather than me. My only question was whether or not it is possible for me to get in; as I’m sure there will be a lot of people applying who’ve had high GPA’s for four years.</p>
<p>I know this isn’t really helping you, but I am in that exact situation. My sophomore year was the worst (I’m not even too sure why haha). And my whole GPA was dragged down because of all the stupid mistakes/decisions I made. I’m regretting it a whole lot now, but still applying. :)</p>
<p>Try to keep your head up in the positive cloud. College isn’t all about GPA, though it is pretty important. Don’t count yourself out before you start! :)</p>