<p>Haha, agreed.</p>
<p>Well, yea the 4.0 is good and everything, but my school is kinda easy. It’s not like some schools where a 4.0 is really hard to get. </p>
<p>and ridethecliche, you still have 6 weeks of highschool left? That’s so long…I get out in 2 weeks and the seniors at my school get out tomorrow. I guess you guys must start a lot later…</p>
<p>And I probably won’t apply ED just because a lot can change over the course of the year, and I kinda want to be able to keep my options open.</p>
<p>Naa we don’t start much later. I go to a public school and due to a strike, the end of school got pushed back by like 4 days (we didn’t have ANY days off almost. Winter break was like 3 days yuck!).</p>
<p>We just end later since we have to do the state mandated 180 days of school. We can skip 20 days over the course of both halves of the year and not fail. I plan to miss 10 this half haha.</p>
<p>Haha that stinks. It was a teacher strike? Anyway, my schools out in 14 days school days (3 weeks about). :(</p>
<p>Yup, twas a teacher strike. We only had thanksgiving day off haha, it was pretty bad.
I skipped the next day anyway…</p>
<p>Okay, if you think you’re AVERAGE, then what kind of stats does an ABOVE AVERAGE candidate have?</p>
<p>Ok, so maybe I’m not “average”. But a better applicant might play a couple varsity sports or have a ton more volunteer work. Also, I see a lot of people who go to top private schools, and I go to just an average public school.</p>
<p>I go to a public school, and I got into college.
It’s not a death sentence. Honest!</p>
<p>You do have a point, though - being valedictorian at a top prep school or a well-known competitive public school looks more impressive than from your normal average public school. That said, given the school you go to, you’ve done about as well as you possibly can - and that doesn’t look bad, no matter where you’re applying to. 
However, though your chances look VERY good to me, it also isn’t a guarantee, so make sure your application looks good - try to work on an essay that really captures who you are, and be smart about asking teachers who really know you for recommendations. Good luck!</p>
<p>Yeah, admissions is pretty weird and haphazard (we’re told there’s some method to the madness).</p>
<p>I’m ranked 1/762 in my high school (we send a good chunk of our top students to Ivy’s/top schools) and I got deferred and then waitlisted at UChicago. Stranger things have happened, so just don’t get cocky and apply only to schools you like enough to go to. I was lucky enough to get into a school I love :-)</p>