<p>i kinda have to agree to what shark bite says bcos i have seen that happen all soo often-the adcoms wanna see how u excelled within the purview of ur academic environment primarily.but candlize,im not sure abt ur case-how come theres no rank? and how do u get to measure ur performance with ur classmates?</p>
<p>i hate class rank</p>
<p>Geogrpahic diversity. Harvard will pass on top students if too many are from one area.</p>
<p>But the bar is high for Harvard admission from any area. In my state, and in most states, there are many more applicants to Harvard than there are admittees, and I think the thrust of the OP's question is what distinguishes the several dozen applicants from his state from one another. </p>
<p>Class rank, of course, has to be adjusted by what is known about different schools. A person just below the top decile at an elite prep school might be expected to fare better in Harvard admission than a number-one student from an average small-town high school in a midwestern state. What class rank always illustrates is that there is someone else in the same learning environment who has fared differently, and those head-to-head comparisons within each school can make a huge difference in one's chances of admission.</p>
<p>But, tokenadult, what if the small town kid has a 1600 and the prep school kid has a 1510? (Asking because I am a smalltowner in a similiar situation)</p>
<p>My school doesn't rank, and I'm simply top 10% with a 3.9 uw gpa. I would hate rank if it existed...</p>
<p>btw, i think that Sharkbite is right. go look at Zuma's stat roster, esp. the non URM, non legacy, non athlete kids</p>
<p>i have a 3.9 UW GPA and my school reports rank, makes me look terrible at 38/449</p>
<p>
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But, tokenadult, what if the small town kid has a 1600 and the prep school kid has a 1510?
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</p>
<p>I don't credit myself with any ability to predict individual cases, but I'll bring up a couple of points here: </p>
<p>1) The difference between 1510 and 1600 is hardly wider than the sum of the error bands (30 scaled score points) around each section score on the SAT I. </p>
<p>2) It would indeed look worse to be a high school valedictorian from a school where no one scores high on the SAT I than to be a high school valedictorian who additionally has a 1600. The high test score is somewhat persuasive evidence that the high school grades were obtained in a rigorous high school program. (There was a valedictorian, one of FIVE valedictorians in my graduating class, who didn't know what the word "apathy" meant as a senior. Yeesh.) </p>
<p>3) These two hypothetical applicants will probably be distinguished by their level of performance in ECs rather than by some equating process between their grades and test scores. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Are there a lot applying from Northern VA? And, I go to school in MD but live in VA- what state what i be considered a part of?</p>
<p>no, i have to disagree with you. i think that the val from the small school would be better of because he/she succeeded without as many resources. well this stinks, cause all of you are agreeing with me. i knew in my heart i was right, but i was kinda hoping that my low rank (34/360) wouldnt come back and haunt me. i have a huge rising grade trend-frosh/soph year mostly b's, second semester of soph year 5.0w. if you could somehow cut out the years that i stunk in, i would be val. oh well. hopefully they will see how i improved. im pretty sure that if i get rejected, it would be because of this.</p>
<p>Shark -</p>
<p>Here is why I think you're wrong (and hopefully it will make you feel better....) </p>
<p>At my D's school, the rankings are flipped. There are 5 levels of difficulty: Below Level, On Level, Above Level, Gifted and AP (which includes AP-dual credit & Gifted-AP-dual credit). The last three levels: Above Level, Gifted and all the variations of AP get the exact same GPA points. And of course, the kids at the top of the class have gone nowhere near an AP class, much less a Gifted AP class and why should they? It is much easier to get an A in the plain old Above Level class and therefore protect rank. But we all know that most highly selectives want to see students pushing themselves and would prefer a B in an AP than an A in a much easier class. Actually they would prefer an A in an AP...but that is not my point. This whole bizarre system at D's school came about before her time...when a group of athletes' parents petitioned for more grade points for their kids in the lower level classes. </p>
<p>Now if highly selective colleges were not willing to look past rank, to the quality of course choices, that would mean they were willing to take kids who chose the easy way out, which speaks poorly of work ethic as well as ability. Unlikely.</p>
<p>Also, I have heard adcoms recognize rising grade trends & will unweight your gpa and recompute without the freshman year if they feel it gives a more accurate picture. So keep your hopes up...good schools know a kid is more than a number.</p>
<p>icy-
my school is so competitive that if we ranked, a lot of students who would easily be valedictorians at other schools would only fall in the middle of the class. The school avoids this potential disadvantage in college applications by not ranking us at all.
A lot of schools are similar.</p>
<p>ldmom-
I have also heard that adcoms recalculate GPAs to get a clearer picture of performance since many schools weight differently.</p>
<p>okay my sats GPA: 3.67 (AHHHH I know!) but I'm 17/422 which does happen to be top 4%.
SATs 690/740/800
SAT II's (this is really bad) 670/640/740
If I get in, you will know that GPA's and SAT IIs mean NOTHING. Yay for randomly picking names from a hat!</p>
<p>if you get in, lol still, top 4% isnt too bad (actually its pretty good)</p>
<p>"i challenge everyone here to find one person who has gotten into an ivy without a high rank."</p>
<p>Done, it has. MANY times. I know somebody who got in at an Ivy (I won't say which, but I will say its VERY hard to be admitted there) with an 1100 SAT and 3.0 GPA. He wasn't even close to the top of his class. This is just one case... </p>
<p>I could honestly name a dozen or more of these cases if I wanted to, but you get the point.</p>
<p>so why did he get in? what was so special about him that he or she got in over a 1600 sat/ 4.0? No offense or anything, but your story is way to generic be regarded as credible. Im betting if you gave some more info about them, we can see why. I dont mean anything personal, but your story doesnt seem very realistic. It sounds like you made it up right now. Im not saying you did make it up, but the way you wrote it, it sounds like you did. Could you please give some more details? thanks! (seriously, i dont mean anything by it, i bet if you gave us some more info, we could see it as a true story that we could learn from.)</p>