<p>So here's the thing, up until now (Junior year) I've had straight As (minus 1 B in P.E).</p>
<p>I really want to go to UC Berkeley or Cornell...My top two choices.</p>
<p>However, I don't know if my courseload is good enough:
Freshman year - 2 honors classes (could have taken 3)
Sophomore year - 3 honors classes (could have taken 5)
Junior year - 2 AP classes, 5 honors classes</p>
<p>As you can see, I stepped it up junior year but I'm still worried, because a lot of fellow classmates DID opt to take all the honors classes they could. This in turn brings down my class rank.</p>
<p>Do I still have a shot at Berkeley/Cornell if I keep up straight As, despite the not-so-spectacular freshman and sophomore years?</p>
<p>According to the Yale representative at the info session the applications are read school wise. So this indicates that you are compared to your peer at the same school first; prior to being compared to students from other school.
Even though the representative denied any limit on the number of the students from the same school being short listed. I won't be surprised for them to short list a small % from each school instead of bringing everyone from one school to the next step if they are going school wise as that will futile the purpose of going schoolwise.</p>
<p>For Cal, Frosh grades don't count in the gpa calculation, but they will see them on the app. If you are in-state with solid test scores you should be competitive in the app pool, but understand that many (most?) kids accepted have taken full honors/AP.</p>
<p>I don't understand the problem...
with what you showed you certainly have a chance.
ADCOMS will see your transcript and the B in PE and disregard it.</p>
<p>Yes, to give her an answer, we need to know an estimated class rank...
top 5%? top 10%? top 25%?</p>
<p>I personally can't believe that the majority of kids in your class took more honors/AP than you and received all A's. If that is so, then it will reflect very negatively because they will consider your school to have rampant grade inflation. To give you a accurate answer....what is your class rank?</p>
<p>At my school, only 2 of 175 kids have all A's and we don't have nearly as many honors/AP classes as you do, but our school has 10% of our class score 31+ on the ACT. Considering this, everything truly is relative on the school's grading policies as exhibited by the class rank.</p>
<p>Rigor of courseload is extremely important...nearly all top schools list that as "very important". Luckily for you though, most (not as many) top schools list GPA and class rank as very important as well. If you maintain straight A's though in your junior year and you get high test scores and stuff you're in good shape.</p>