Hi, I am going to be a senior in high school. I’ve been slightly concerned about my class rank in terms of college admissions, as most of the schools in which I am interested admit many valedictorians and salutatorians. I attend a very competitive high school in Virginia (the most competitive in the region), with many people taking over a dozen AP classes throughout the four years.My class rank is 22 out of 340 (I think?), so I am in the top 10%. I have a 4.0 UW GPA and a 4.18 W GPA. My school calculates GPA’s by giving a 4.0 to A’s in non-AP’s and a 5.0 to A’s in AP’s (I have taken 5 AP courses so far and am taking 6 more). I’m looking at colleges like William and Mary, UVa, Princeton, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Fordham, Georgetown, Williams, etc. I have great extracurriculars and leadership roles and received a 33 on the ACT (I am retaking it in September).
Therefore, in light of everything, do you think my class rank will put me at a disadvantage in the process? I’m not sure if colleges would view this in a negative light, even though I have received stellar grades in all of my classes.
Also, on the Common App, is there a way to show both weighted and unweighted GPA? I feel like my unweighted GPA is more impressive than my weighted GPA.
From your breakdown, class rank may not be an issue, other than at the Ivies. As long as you are in the Top 10%, there should not be anything counted against you, especially given all of your other strengths and credentials.
Yes… you can reflect both your unweighted and weighted GPAs. If your school ranks, they will want to know if that is based on weighting or not.
That CA page does not let you say both… but I do not believe it is important to list your weighted GPA specifically, especially since some school districts (like ours) have weighted GPAs as high as 10.0+