<p>My D recently registered for her senior year classes. Because of her interest in the life sciences she has registered to take anatomy/physiology, environmental science and calculus. All are college level courses, as is French 5, which she’ll also be taking. She will also take English 12/Humanities, Participatory Government and Economics. All in all a pretty heavy load.</p>
<p>My D concedes that it’s possible that her GPA may slide a bit lower and that she will probably drop a few spots in the class rankings, but she very much wants to take these courses and believes the challenge is necessary to keep her engaged and senioritis at bay. Her only real concern is that she might drop out of the Top 10% of her class. My question: will highly selective schools (not HYPS) give her more credit for taking on a challenge than they will penalize her if her class rank drops from say #10/170 to #20/170?</p>
<p>Personally, I think colleges want to see that you challenge yourself; that’s what my guidance counselor told me anyway when I was having the same worries about senior year.</p>
<p>Generally, the selective schools look deeper into the rankings thing when examining the transcript. They can take the time to look at subtleties. Encourage your D to go for the more interesting classes and not worry about the rankings chasers (and they do exist).</p>
<p>I was 12 to 15 out of a class of 210. One of only four to go to Ivies and the only to go to one of the HYP schools. Never worried about rank – just took rigorous classes and loved my HS time. </p>
<p>Good luck to her and her selction next year!</p>
<p>A review of accepted students stats at many top colleges show that an average of 40% came from schools that don’t rank. So tell her not to worry about rank and take the classes that she is interested in AND that challenge her.</p>
<p>I think I sacrificed rank for a more rigorous schedule…I think I’ll find out in December whether this was smart. However, (I’m assuming your school does rank by unweighted) I would tell her to take the courses that interest her the most, in this case the high level ones. Also, don’t sweat it too much, her senior year grades probably won’t count for too much.</p>
<p>actually, selective schools (HYPS) want to see that you took challenging classes and got A’s in them (it’s not like it’s impossible to do that). So if your D really wants to get into (HYPS), she’ll take those challenging courses and get A’s in them. I don’t know why people who apply to ivies think that a challenging course load should make up for a lower rank/gpa. One thing really shouldn’t effect another if your dedicated.</p>
<p>conclusion: she should take those classes and move UP in her rank as well. i’m sure she’s quite capable.</p>
<p>you’llsee…, if you look back, the OP specifically said she wasn’t asking about HYPS. “Selective schools” doesn’t necessarily mean Ivies. </p>
<p>Also, in many cases, a more challenging courseload will unavoidably lower an unweighted GPA. Someone who gets all A’s in level classes might not do so in AP classes, and understandably so. Selective schools know that, and take it into account.</p>
<p>the thing is…you dont wanna drop out of the top 10% or sacrifice rank completely for a hard schedule…
at the same time, you dont wanna gain ranks and have a tremendously easy schedule…
you have to somehow find a balance between the two, maybe put in more time to work for better grades or take a SLIGHTLY less challenging courseload</p>