Hi all
At my school, there are no rankings I go to the Early College at Guilford and i was wondering if i will be compared with other students at my school when applying.
Yes; most selective colleges compare students from the same school. Less directly, but you’ll also be compared with the other applicants from your region, who have similar interests, etc.
Absolutely, @asweezy00
If class rank is considered, that is specifically a comparison between you and others at your high school, though that comparison is “outsourced” to your high school (by trusting your high school’s notion of class rank). In such cases, if the high school does not give class rank, the college may derive an approximation of or substitute for class rank for its purposes.
Remember, though, that your GPA is only one aspect of your application. Very selective colleges consider many more things than GPA. You may not have the top GPA from your school and you will be compared with students from your school with higher GPAs, but that doesn’t mean that you have no chance. GPA isn’t everything. The selective, holistic colleges are looking at the entire app of which GPA is only one piece.
I received like 4 bs in the freshman year and all A’s in ap courses 10th-grade year and according to what I am seeing many people are doing better than me does that mean I have no chance against them and all of them do significant service and other work
Re-read post #4.
It’s the whole app together. Not just GPA. So although you definitely should think strategically in where you apply, GPA is just one piece of the puzzle. If your GPA isn’t perfect, there are other ways to be competitive.
You should look at colleges you are interested…with a range of safeties (that are affordable), matches and a couple reaches. You should not worry about others who may or may not be applying to the same school.
To a certain extent they do, but, as noted above, that is only a part of the admissions process.
OP is asking about The Early College at Guilford. This is an early college HIGH SCHOOL much like (probably) the Bard early colleges in NYC, Newark, and elsewhere. From my limited experience with the NYC early colleges, they are very different from regular colleges. Sure you can graduate with an AA degree, but when you apply for regular 4-year colleges you’re still considered a freshman applicant OR a transfer applicant, depending on the school. Bard early colleges – you can transfer into Bard 4-year program and finish there. You can transfer into some colleges – they recognize the AA degree. But most colleges (especially high-level ones such as on the t-shirts in the photo of The Early College at Guilford web site) still consider the applicants as freshman admits, not transfer students.
This is good in many ways and of course bad in many ways. The bad part is that not all 4-year colleges accept the transfer credits. The good part is that you have the nice luxury of being all things: a transfer applicant for some schools and a freshman admit for others. the other good thing is that your scores in HS do not necessarily count toward your final college GPA. This can be crucial if you hope to attend med school. Let’s say you did badly in college-level bio in high school. No issues because that grade won’t follow you into college and won’t follow you when you apply for med school. You can retake bio in your four-year college and get a better score.
Other differences of early colleges from regular college often is the ratio of classroom time to study time. Early colleges still have the HS ratio of lots of classroom time and less on-your-own study time. regular four-year colleges are the reverse. Little classroom time and much self-structured time outside of the classroom. Guildford’s program looks like the students enroll directly at the college, which is pretty cool. So maybe there will be the regular four-year-college experience in this way.
Agre with earlier posters in that early college high schools probably also look at an applicant in comparison to his or her peers. The ones in NYC also require an entrance exam and an in-person interview. If The Early College at Guilford has a similar policy, I should think that the interview would be a big help in the process and could offset some of the ECs and GPA of OP’s peers.
OP – earnest enthusiasm can help to gain entry into college, a good interview can help, and you never know what intangibles are in your peers’ records – intangibles that may eliminate them from being admitted. Maybe they just don’t care as deeply as you and it comes out in the interview.
Good luck to you.
@Dustyfeathers - OP is not asking about admission to Early College at Guilford. OP states s/he already attends ECG.
Ha! Thanks @milee30 my mistake.