<p>Right now I am a sophomore, and ranked #6/240 in my grade as of the end of freshman year. The first semester of this year I have kept my average above a 100, so it is helping my average. I am confident that I will improve this rank by the end of this year, and if all continues to go well I'll be #1, 2, or 3 by the start of next year. My question is this: For top schools (Princeton, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Brown, Swarthmore) will it destroy my chances if I end up being between #3, 4, or 5? Normally, I know these ranks are great. But as a middle class white from NJ with no real hooks (not saying I have bad ec's...), and coming from an average highschool, will it kill me? Am I just bugging out or what? thanks!</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think being 3 vs 1 is going to be the difference between getting in and not. It goes back to that whole “holistic” review that most colleges use, where they consider that applicant as a whole rather than each aspect separately. And I don’t know how your GPA works since it doesn’t sound like it’s on a 4.00 scale but if there’s also an unweighted version of your GPA, then that would be considered as well.</p>