My daughter is a senior at a competitive school in NOVA. She has a 4.29 GPA and is ranked at 58/482, or in the top 12% of her class. She applied RD to JMU, UVA (top choice), VT (also another top choice), and W&M. Some context:
In freshman year, she took the hardest classes available and did well.
In sophomore year, she took one AP (like her peers), but took academic for two classes (Chemistry and Precalc instead of Honors Chem and Math Analysis, respectively), with the rest as honors classes and electives.
Junior year, she is taking 3 core APs, but took conceptual physics instead of honors physics, with the rest as honors classes.
This year, she is taking 4 APs in core classes and the rest honors.
She is taking a similar number of APs as her peers and doing well, but I'm worried that her option to take a few academic classes instead of honors (especially physics in junior year) will make her schedule seem less rigorous and will hurt her in admissions. Any insight?
Also, we have been told from others that not being in the top 10% of the class is a drawback for competitive schools like UVA and W&M. My daughter has great ECs (started a business, won awards, developed an app) and has written great essays. My daughter has strong grades on her transcript and is very close to the top 10%, but will her rank keep her from being accepted or get her deferred? And how significant is it in college admissions for the schools she applied to?
I don’t think 12% vs 10% will be the deciding factor for all of of these schools. UVA… maybe? Idk. But if she has a competitive ACT/SAT (?) along with the other things you mention, I wouldn’t dwell on class rank. Also i don’t think taking physics instead of honors physics is going to keep her from getting in anywhere. If she took several challenging courses that were offered by her HS, which it sounds like she did, then she shouldn’t be worried. She doesn’t have to take every AP and honors class.
The guidance counselor should be able to tell you if she met the school’s definition of taking the most rigorous courses offered. If that box wasn’t checked, it could hurt her at the more competitive school.
That said, it’s too late now to do anything about it so just take a deep breath, and wait for the notifications.
I imagine being from NOVA your school would have lots of analytics on VA public schools. Do you have Naviance? I am sure her GC could tell you likely outcomes.
I feel your pain. You agonize for your daughter, who has done so much and is entirely qualified for a place at any of those colleges. And yet, you know that she might not get what she wants, despite having done everything ‘right’. Angsting over coulda/shoulda/woulda won’t change anything, won’t help you and won’t help her. You and she made the best decisions that you could then. She will get in to some place, which will become her place, and it will actually be ok.
One of my lot is busy applying to jobs. So far she has gotten to the last 2 people several times- but not made it over the line. She knows that that she has a good CV, but is applying for very competitive places, and that at some point one of them will come through.
That does not make the pain of not having a good offer or of being told ‘no’ any less. It is crushing each and every time- for her and for me watching her.
But: you can’t do anything about it- probably the worst part of having young adult children. All you can do- and it is hard, mostly b/c it seems like so little, is to be there, rock solid in your confidence in her that it will work out - even if how it works out looks really different than expected/hoped for. You probably already know that their response to that confidence is not always warm and fuzzy! but they count on you for it. Think of them as getting ready to dive into their new life- bouncing up and down on the diving board to get the oomph they need to take the plunge. Pretty much, we are the diving board. It’s not glamorous, but it is really important
I was speaking with the chancellor of our in-state flagship the other day asking this same question about my own child. His answer was that they know which high schools are rigorous and competitive and that her class rank wouldn’t hurt her (she’s in the top 15%). That being said, we aren’t in Virginia. I think it might be worth a phone call to the colleges she’s interested in and pose that question.
That might be appropriate for the student to do before applying- although in most cases the school GC will be the better source of info. In this case the HS absolutely has good info on what their admissions profile is with all the VA schools, and the family will have had access to that info before applying. That is true of every single “competitive” NoVa school.
More importantly, in this case the applications are in. The results will be out in +/- 4 weeks. There is nothing that can be done at this point to influence the decision. And, there are multiple variables at play: the OP’s daughter could be at the middle of her class and still get in, or be in the top 10% and still not get in. And calling the adcoms- especially a parent calling!- to ask about those nuances at this point (when they are deep into their absolute busiest time) is not only unhelpful it is arguably counterproductive.
She sounds very comparable to where my daughter was in terms of class rank and course rigor, though you don’t list SAT/ACT. Mine had a 31 ACT and got into VT. She didn’t apply to UVA - I suspect it would be a bit tougher.
But it’s now March 1 and all applications are in - I’m not sure how any answer to this question is going to affect anything.
My son also attends a very competitive high school with a high average GPA. For this reason the school doesn’t submit class rank when they send a student’s transcript (other than for students in the top 10). I know it won’t help your daughter now but you might want to suggest that to her high school to help those behind her.
@kcr1010 - You don’t mention her SAT/ACT scores. I’ve seen multiple posts about NOVA grade inflation so the SAT/ACT scores are very important for her top choices.
For VA Tech and JMU, if her test scores are good, she’ll likely be fine. I think top 10% is more important to UVA than William & Mary. The other schools it’s not nearly as important. What may affect William & Mary is the percentage of female applicants in each class.
I don’t think the academic classes will hurt. My daughter took no honors math in grades 9-11 (Alg 2 & Trig, Advanced Alg, Pre-Calc) and regular chemistry in 10th grade. She took 8 honors and 7 AP’s (Calc AB, Chem, Physics, Bio, Lit, Comp, Psych).
She was accepted to VA Tech, JMU Honors, University of Richmond, University of Southern California (attending). She was waitlisted at W&M and rejected from UVA. Interestingly, those were her bottom two choices, so it didn’t bother her at all. I had to put a little pressure on her to apply to the last two. You have to apply to UVA and W&M if you’re in-state; I think her essays reflected her apathy about the schools. She drew the line at W&L; too Greek-centric.
OP - she took the slightly easier set of classes for a reason - she either couldn’t handle or didn’t want to handle the work. If she could have gotten As in the harder ones, she would have taken them, right?
Yes, she is a less desirable candidate than she would have been had she taken harder classes. VT, W&M, and UVA know all there is to know about reading NOVA transcripts. She sounds like a solid kid for JMU. Pretty darn good, but not the top.
