<p>I just got my report card. Yet again, i got straight As, and my GPA is 4.0 unweighted and 5.0124 or something weighted. MY RANK IS #4!!! I just don't get it...I should be #1, but the only reason i am not is b/c i tested out of Hnrs Algebra I and skipped to Hnrs Geometry as a freshman. And since our school has such limited numbers of hnrs/ap classes (I have taken the max amount of these classes, btw), I am screwed b/c I missed out on an honors class! i can't even get ap credit for summer courses i took at northwestern, or for an independent study of ap chem. :( And the thing that makes me so angry is that my counselor never warned me about the consequences...when i later asked him about it, he said he did not want to limit my talent or something like that! It's ridiculous. The girl that is ranked #1 lobbies for her grades...she is always on the verge of a B, then goes to the teacher and begs them for extra credit or for that stretch to an A (this has happened in AP US Hist, AP Euro, AP English - and for both semesters, too). While I get the highest grades in the class and am more hard-working than she is. It's just so unfair! I can only hope that the colleges I apply to don't really think the ranking is very important...i hope to apply to northwestern, uchicago, and maybe, just maybe, harvard (but b/c of this stupid ranking thing, probably not). school sux...</p>
<p>Calm down. #4 is NOT BAD AT ALL. If you were 50th or something, that might be something to get upset about, but #4 is only 3 away from #1.</p>
<p>don't complain about that... i have at least 20 more credits (142.5 when most of my peers have around 100... ) and that killed my rank from top 10 to maybe 20</p>
<p>so i guess i am not the only one...you guys will probably get into the best colleges, too. i'm not worrying</p>
<p>If you're going for the valedictorian title, I can see why you're mad, but if all you're focused on is getting into college, #4 is the same as #1 once the admissions officer sees that you have a 4.0 UW and the hardest cirriculum possible, they're not going to care about whether you're 1 or 4. If people do lobby for their grades, then it will show when you do better on SATs...</p>
<h1>4 is awesome!! don't sweat it. congratulations on that awesome rank, seriously!</h1>
<p>Yes, you are overreacting a bit. Look at the bright side, you are challenging yourself and when you get to college, you know you will do well. On the other hand, the #1 in your class will suffer because she depends on slipping by and finding cheap ways to make the grade. </p>
<p>First grades aren't everything, it is about learning as much as you can and using the knowledge in an effective manner to help yourself and others. </p>
<p>Being #4 isn't bad, most selective colleges will probably view people ranked in the top 5% or so nearly the same and after that it boils down to your other ec's, etc. </p>
<p>Just do your best and do what you love to do. You will get into college, but it shouldn't matter if you don't get into your top choice because you can be successful anywhere as long as you have the will to do something positive with your knowledge.</p>
<p>That does suck that some people play the system to get ahead, but I agree with what everybody said above. Getting val would be awesome, but when it's application time, you "win" over her, ranking-wise. Her GPA sounds impressive, but you've challenged yourself more, and if she really does grade-grub, and you don't, then it will show in the teacher recommendations. </p>
<p>And I think that this is a horrible reason to not apply to a school you want to apply to. Do what you want. It'll come down to recs, ECs, and essays anyway. Calm down, you're doing the right thing by challenging yourself and getting a 4.0 uw. By the way, how do you get above a 5.0 weighted? </p>
<p>If you keep on stressing yourself out this much, then you won't enjoy yourself.</p>
<p>The same type of thing is happening to me (I'm gonna talk to the counselor though). I had to skip an honors course in language. Because they switched the way the junior high school system ran (grades 7-8 instead of 7-9 and some other things), I got my language screwed up. They offered spanish, french, and german 1 in eight grade, but not Latin, which I really wanted to take. I took Spanish 1 in eighth and then Latin 1 in ninth. GPA and weighted multipliers take effect in 10th grade. I'm in Latin 2 while others are in Honors Spanish 3, so I'm getting screwed over here, and Latin 2 is harder in many ways than Spanish 3, particularly because I'm the only sophomore in the school taking the language, they threatened to cancel the language because of low participation, I have to be shuttled over to the sister school because of the low attendence, they're combining Latin 2 and 3 next year to keep the course and are making Latin 3 an independent study course because of it, and the list goes on. So yeah, I'm getting screwed too. I know it's not a very big deal, but my school is very competitive, so I worry about it. Colleges will probably take this into account though anyway. At least I'm not conforming to everyone else who takes Spanish at high school.</p>
<p>whats wrong with taking spanish? its the most spoken romance language and the second most spoken language in the world!!! (behind manderin)</p>
<p>FindFishFast: "whats wrong with taking spanish? its the most spoken romance language and the second most spoken language in the world!!! (behind manderin)"</p>
<p>No, it's not. </p>
<p>Chinese--1.2 billion
Arabic--422 million
Hindi--366 million
English--341 million
Spanish--322 million</p>
<p>I don't know where you are getting your "facts" from, but here is my source:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_speakers%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_speakers</a></p>
<p>Faithfully Submitted,
Cesare de Borgia</p>
<p>Actually, it all depends on who you ask. While practically everyone puts Mandarin Chinese on top, Infoplease (<a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html</a>) has English as 2 followed by Hindustani and Spanish; The Top Ten Book of Everything 2004 has Hindustani as 2 followed by Spanish and English. According to a Fortune magazine article on the English language, English is the most widely spoken language if you count native and non-native (ESL) speakers. The numbers are all approximations of course, so one source is not necessarily more definitive than another although I'd trust the infoplease list more than wikipedia's.</p>
<p>What? People don't want to learn to gain knowledge? It's all about ranking?</p>
<p>"What? People don't want to learn to gain knowledge? It's all about ranking?"</p>
<p>Of course...it's the American way...lol</p>
<p>If all of your other achievements are solid, a ranking of #4 won't really affect your chances. Colleges take into account the rigor of your schedule, and if your class size is large or if your school is competitive... And perhaps your academic superiority to your #1 girl will show up in teacher recs.</p>
<p>Are you seriously complaining about your rank though? The girl who is #1 may have other things that take up a lot of time in her life. I worked on weekdays during the school year of my junior year, so I didn't focus on school as much as I should. But I did build up great interpersonal skills, and my grades were still fine, although not as high as they could have been.</p>
<p>I like how you started off with "Yet again, I got straight As" xP</p>
<p>This shouldn't affect your college acceptance. However, if you want to become valedictorian to get some valed. scholarships, it may be a problem. Other than that, high school ranks (a difference of 3 or so) will matter very little in the future.</p>
<p>it was sarcastic tanonev</p>
<p>Some of you people need to learn how to enjoy life.</p>
<p>DVader327: "Actually, it all depends on who you ask. While practically everyone puts Mandarin Chinese on top, Infoplease (<a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html</a>) has English as 2 followed by Hindustani and Spanish;"
So...Spanish is not second.</p>
<p>"The Top Ten Book of Everything 2004 has Hindustani as 2 followed by Spanish and English. According to a Fortune magazine article on the English language, English is the most widely spoken language if you count native and non-native (ESL) speakers."</p>
<p>All rankings that attempt to count non-native speakers are ********, and usually include factors such as "socio-literary prestige."</p>
<p>"The numbers are all approximations of course, so one source is not necessarily more definitive than another although I'd trust the infoplease list more than wikipedia's."</p>
<p>Actually Wikipedia's source is the "Summer Institute of Linguistics via Encarta Encyclopedia Online, June 3, 2005." Encarta trumps Infoplease any day of the week, twice on Sundays.</p>
<p>The point I am making is that Spanish is not the second most spoken language in the world. </p>
<p>Faithfully Submitted,
Cesare de Borgia</p>
<p>I got screwed over in my rank much worse than you. Around here classes taken at the CC all get extra weight like AP classes, in addition all math and science classes get double weight and credit. At the 7th semester I was fourth, behind a kid who attended a different school his junior year that had all his classes transfered as APs despite them not being APs. I was legitimately beat by one person who ended up in 2. Our valedictorian had a 3.5 UW gpa but took so many double credit classes that he was ahead of us, in addition he took remedial classes at the CC and got the same weight as my AP Physics class. Come the 8th semester I'm 2, since the valedictorian failed a class required for graduation the school dropped his F and let him make up the class the last week of school, putting him ahead of me for the final rank. Dealing with public schools all my life I've comed to learn that getting screwed over is a part of life.</p>
<p>I wasn't bashing Spanish, but almost everyone at my school takes Spanish. I decided to actually do something unique and take Latin, which almost no one takes, instead of doing what everyone else is doing.</p>