<p>@fledgling - That’s a very good GPA, especially at a rigorous high school. With strong test scores, ECs, essays, and recs, you will definitely be a competitive applicant wherever you apply!
@crunchyfrog - No worries about the rank. My school doesn’t rank either and there are many schools in the States that don’t. Colleges request a “school profile” from your guidance counselor that helps evaluate you in the context of your high school. If you succeed in the hardest courses that your school offers and attain high standardized test scores, then you will be considered competitive on the academic front.</p>
<p>Aww, thanks massgirl! Though I actually got flat-out rejected from Stanford REA not too long ago, so I’m naturally a bit antsy about the rest of my college decisions haha. Wondering if it was my slightly lower GPA that was the killer there…</p>
<p>Don’t get down on yourself! Stanford is seriously as hard as it gets when it comes to college admissions. Two strong applicants from my school were deferred. One of them is the captain of the Chinese Olympic Team for Astronomy. He won a silver medal in the Astronomy Olympics. It was just incredible to see someone who is the best in the WORLD at what he does not getting accepted. Admissions is a crapshoot at HYPSM. I’ve seen so many CCers who get flat-out rejected from Stanford but then get into Harvard or some other ridiculously good school.
I totally hear you on feeling antsy about the rest of your college decisions! I got deferred from both Duke and UMich, and it’s only natural to get anxious about the rest of your schools when you start getting decisions other than “yes”. My advice to you is to cast a WIDE net. Apply to a LOT of schools. I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to apply to Notre Dame or not…but I am sooo glad I did since that’s the only school I’ve gotten into so far. I’ve already applied to Duke, UMich, Notre Dame, and UNC (haven’t heard from them yet), and I will apply RD to Vanderbilt, Wash U, Tufts, Emory, Northwestern, Brown, and UPenn. Top students these days are applying to 10+ schools due to the unpredictable nature of admissions. If you don’t mind cranking out those essays, I think it’s a good strategy.</p>
<p>fledgling, i don’t think it was all because of your gpa. i know a girl with a 2370 sat (she missed one question and it was on the math section. i guarantee it was a careless mistake. she should’ve gotten a 2400), 36 act (first try with like no prep. same with sat i guess but that took 2 tries), 790 chem sat 2, 800 math 2, 800 bio, 4.0 unweighted gpa (like 4.7 weighted; one of if not the highest in our class), solid ECs (on the debate team this year, academic team, lots of tutoring hours, but nothing really special i guess), great teacher recs i bet (one of the teachers she received her rec from i had), pretty much the smartest person of our class, also flat out rejected. also asian from CA lol =) </p>
<p>and remember that stanford has the second lowest acceptance rate, only behind harvard.</p>
<p>also note that no one from my class got into stanford SCEA. but we sent someone to harvard last year (not on athletics) and other stuff so my school isn’t that bad or anything. </p>
<p>she’s going to get into caltech though, so i don’t feel that bad for her xD i’m sure you’re gonna get into a good school too</p>
<p>@massgirl: i feel the same way about gpa. like, i have a 4.0 unweighted gpa, but my sat was only a 2260, which translates to about a 33/34. and there are probably others at my school with 4.0s with sats probably in the 1800s (i bet i’m right). </p>
<p>@tuftsadmissions: i think you should get the grade point average (like 89% or whatever) of every specific class (ap bio is diff from bio, etc) by teacher (this is very important) for a particular school. i think that would work best. at my school, there are teachers that are known to be a thousand times easier than another, despite the fact they teach the same “class.” also by doing it this way, if there’s grade inflation you’ll be able to tell. say the grade point average of a class is a 92%. if a person has an A on their transcript for that class you know that they’re nothing impressive, only average.</p>
<p>I have often wondered how it works for schools that don’t rank. I have seen our school’s gpa graph, but that isn’t really helpful as it doesn’t differentiate who is taking what classes (honors, AP’s, etc.).</p>
<p>Thanks for all the encouraging words everyone! 
I’ve been trying to tell myself that all along, but it’s just sort of discouraging when you get your very first college decision back and it turns out to be a rejection haha.</p>
<p>That kid from the inner city school probably took the best/hardest courses available to him or her. And while there was no opportunity to load up on APs, there certainly were life lessons unavailable to the kids at Private Top Prep. GPA matters because that inner city kid could keep that 3.6 in the face of adversity that would crush many of us (and likely crushed many or his or her classmates).</p>