That is my biggest worry. Its possible but significantly more uncommon for students outside of the top 10% to get into those types of schools. Considering common data set statistics, the likelihood of not making those schools as top decile is lower, but at the same time, the amount of students who commonly report rank is quite low, so the stats only represent a portion of the population. I do come from a competitive district, and, although rare, there have been students who have made Harvard and UPenn this last cycle w/o being in the top decile. These students are of course outliers, but I don’t think all hope is lost if you’re outside of the top 10%. Because admissions are holistic, a strong application overall can possibly help make up for that flaw, especially considering the rigor of my secondary school is extremely high. For example, a student outside the top 10% of a strong school with 15+ AP’s and only 3 to 4 bad grades overall is in a more favorable position than a student within the top 10% of their school with only 4-5 AP’s and significantly less course rigor. That’s what I have heard at least, I can’t claim this is true, and comparisons regionally will put me at a disadvantage. There is a chance by RD round that I can climb my way into the top decile and send an update with my mid-year report, but that is not set in stone.
AP Scores so far are not that great, they consist of 3s and 4s with 1 5, but thats across 4 tests. I have taken 12 AP"s till now, with 5 projected senior year, consisting of every AP Science course and math up till Calculus BC, alongside core courses such as histories, language, and electives including psychology, computer science, seminar and research.
I do hear that AP Scores matter much more for credit than application, although I am unsure if this is true. Based on my feels for this year’s test I do not expect too many high scores in math & physics, being my weak points.
All my B’s were junior year, I had 4 B’s total by semesters in 3 classes, which includes 1 B in Calculus BC, 2 B’s in AP Stats, and 1 B in AP Research. I did show an upward trend in calculus and research, going from a B to a 95 and 98 respectively in the second semester, but I failed to show any progress in stats as its my worst class.
The ideal school out of my reaches is UT Austin, considering I am in-state and its relatively inexpensive compared to the rest and quite a nice school which I like a lot. However because I am not auto-admit, it becomes a lot tougher and with UT’s well-known weird admissions, there’s a high chance I do not get in. I have seen students in my own school get admission to Caltech and Johns Hopkins this last cycle, and gotten capped from UT, while at the same time there were non-auto admits who got UT w/o as impressive of a profile. As a non-auto admit I do think I have a fair chance basing myself on profiles that I have seen accepted within my own district but with acceptance rates this low its never anything more than a reach.