<p>I'm a Junior from SC. Can you please tell me, with my stats, whether the colleges I plan on applying to are reaches, matches, safeties, or whatever label you want to use?</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.90
GPA - Weighted: 5.06
Class Rank: I think I'm about #3 or #4
Class Size: 44</p>
<p>SAT I Math: 580
SAT I Critical Reading: 700
SAT I Writing: 720
ACT: 31
SAT II World History: 800</p>
<p>School Musical (3 years)
Model United Nations (2 years)
Mock Trial (2 years)
Chinese Classes (2 years)
School Play (2 years)
International Thespian Society (2 years)
Environmental Club (2 years)
Volunteer/Service Work: I got a fair amount of volunteer hours doing projects with the Beta Club and Environmental Club
(no leadership experience anywhere)</p>
<p>High Honor Roll (every year)
Departmental Award in Geometry (10th grade)</p>
<p>Essays should be pretty amazing, and teacher recs should be well above-average</p>
<p>Planning on Applying To:
Duke
Rice
Emory
Georgetown
Vanderbilt
UNC-Chapel Hill
Wake Forest
Tulane
University of Miami
Clemson
NC State</p>
<p>It looks to me like they are all reaches with the exceptions of Tulane and Clemson (and possibly NC State). I’m not too familiar with Clemson, so it might qualify as a safety since you are in-state.</p>
<p>Coming from a small school is a disadvantage, even if you are in the top 10%. Your test scores are too low for most of these schools and your ECs sound quite generic. Taking the APs will help, but it also raises the question about why you aren’t ranked higher in your class with them.</p>
<p>“Taking the APs will help, but it also raises the question about why you aren’t ranked higher in your class with them.”</p>
<p>Can you elaborate? I’m not sure what you mean. It does give my GPA a boost, but not too much compared to my classmates. I’m taking 4 APs currently while all of the other “smart” students are taking 3 or less. That’s just 1 more than most of them.</p>
<p>If I can interpret what RMLDad meant, the question is since you are taking more than the most difficult classes available, your grades must not be as good as those students above you. If your ranking is based on weighted GPA then you might be ranked even lower without that bump.</p>
<p>No, I am definitely at least #4. Students at my school are weird about letting everyone know their GPA and comparing themselves to classmates. I know I have a few main competitors for top spots and, depending on how they and I do each grading period, am always at the #3 or #4 spot.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad did a fine job explaining my assertion. You need to recognize that you are at a disadvantage coming from a small high school. Additionally, you have classmates who have earned higher grades than you taking comparable classes. Even if you are valedictorian, adcoms are forced to acknowledge the small sample size of your competition and downgrade a class rank of #1.</p>
<p>The fact that you are not #1 hurts your application exponentially for each spot lower in your small class. Think of the question in these terms: is your school competitive enough that 10% of a typical class is qualified for admission to Duke? You are not being evaluated merely in light of your classmates but also in light of the record that your previous graduates have attained. It’s not fair, but because of the small classes, adcoms have limited data upon which they can evaluate your high school and your GC has no leverage to improve your standing.</p>
<p>That’s very true, rmldad. Thank you for your insights. So what I should work on is improving my GPA and test scores, right? But especially find some sort of outstanding/non-generic EC(s) so I can stand out?</p>