<p>I’m a sophomore in high school and I have been taking the hardest classes available at my school and I plan to continue doing so. However, last summer, four people in my grade took a Spanish 3 course over the summer so they could skip ahead a to Spanish 4 Honors this school year and boost their GPAs. (They were pretty sneaky about it and I never realized this was something I should do to help my chances with admissions.) So at best I will be ranked fifth out of about 400 kids in my school, which is just an average public school. Will this significantly decrease my chances of getting accepted to competitive schools, or will they see that I took the hardest classes possible? Thanks!</p>