At my high school, my grade (Class of 2017) is abnormally intelligient for our school. Our grade is known as the “math geniuses” among the teachers. As rising juniors, my grade has played a major role at winning academic competitions and is one of the most involved in student govt and various clubs. There isn’t an evident “best” of our class (we don’t have class rank). There is a range of 30 students with amazing grades, rigorous classes, and outstanding extra curriculars.
I’m scared this is going to hurt my chances of getting accepted to top schools because my GPA matches up with these other students. We only differ in ECs, but mine aren’t as amazing as they should be. I don’t stand out from them and I know (all together) the top schools won’t take more than a few of us. I’m even more scared my fellow students will leave me in the dust when it comes to college admissions. Also, most of these students are Asian while I am white. I’m not sure if this is an advantage or not.
To paint a picture: by the end of high school I will have taken 10 AP/IB tests (IB spans over 2 years in most cases, so it takes up a lot of room in my schedule) while some of my classmates will have around 14. I wasn’t able to take those extra classes (Art History, Comp Sci, etc) because I do choir. Also I lot of those classmates tested into AP Chinese their freshmen year while I have to take all of my foreign language classes.
Does being from a school with a very high population of Intelligient and overall incredible students hurt my chances into top colleges??
To paint another picture - IMO, the difference between 10 AP’s and 14 AP’s is statistically insignificant. Once you get past 6-8, the laws of diminishing returns kicks in; each incremental AP will not move the needle too much more. If your classmates placed into AP Chinese as freshman because they or their parents immigrated from China - not impressive.
Top colleges will look at the application as a whole - your schedule, grades, test scores, EC’s, recommendations, and essays. How well you compare to your classmates is unknown to anybody - even to you - since nobody has yet completed an application packet.
Do not focus solely on a classmate’s grades; I have known some brilliant kids with top grades, but zero interpersonal skills who struggled to get into a college on their list. At this point, just keep doing the best you can.
@skieurope Don’t top colleges compare your weighted GPA to your classmates though? If they see that there were students with higher than they would know I didn’t take as many AP/IBs and maybe wonder why. How could I get into a top college if rarely they take from the same school?
That’s an urban legend. Colleges routinely take multiple applicants from the same school.
Do colleges compare your GPA against those of other applicants from the same school? Of course they do. However, let’s say 10 applicants from the same high school apply to a college. Let’s assume that the colleges accepted 5 students from the 10. Those 5 students may not have had the top 5 GPA’s from amongst the 10 applicants, but they may have had stronger essays, recommendations, or something.
All 10 of those applicants potentially could have performed well at this college. However, often the college is looking for a well-rounded class, not necessarily a well-rounded student. Therefore, sometimes a highly ranked student will get rejected. Harvard, Stanford, and the like routinely reject 4.0/2400 applicants while accepting students with lower stats.
It sounds like you are a part of a great class of students! Realistically, you probably are not all applying to the same schools. And the top colleges do tend to only take a few from each high school.
Perhaps look at where the top students from last year’s class attended. How many were accepted at the top schools, or schools where you are interested in attending?
Students applying to the top schools from my son’s high school did not really talk about where they were applying in the fall (only with very close friends). And, we were surprised when we heard admissions results in the spring! Students who were not necessarily at the very top of the class sometimes got in to higher ranked schools than the very best students (several were actually shut out of the top schools).
Obviously, the whole application is what matters! Look at top schools beyond where everyone else applies. Son was the only student from his school who applied to Pomona, and he got in!
Focus your time this summer on essays! Write and re-write, have people review them that you trust, and are knowledgeable. Carefully consider which teachers will give you great rec’s, and ask them now.
@rav525 I still have a year until I need to start writing my essays and getting teacher recs and such haha.
This year the only top schools the graduates are going to are UCLA, USC, Georgetown, Middlebury, and UC-Berkley. None of these are schools I have a real desire for, but maybe I’ll change my mind. My grade is projected to get into even better schools.
Some of my classmates have been presidents of clubs since their sophomore year and have a lot more service hours and awards. I don’t think I have much of a chance.
So sorry, I skimmed through the part where you mentioned you were a rising junior! You are ahead of the game, which is always good! Keep working hard, talk with your guidance counselor and develop a realistic list of schools, from reaches to true safeties where you be happy to attend (and afford).
You can’t worry too much about what everyone else is doing. When you do start writing essays next year, they need to showcase who you are, and what makes you unique.
My stats were: 2180 SAT w/ good subject scores, 4.3 GPA, and average ECs. Normally, this would be enough to get into my goal school, UVA, instate. But I just happened to get stuck in the most competitive class in my school’s history, and was 20/79. If I had graduated one year earlier I would have been 5th in the class. I got waitlisted at UVA, UCLA, and W&M, despite the fact that I know students with stats less than mine from previous years get in. I was totally screwed.
I know some of these students at my same level will be taking less classes than me in the next school year (our school allows us to have unscheduled periods and go home early). Hopefully, because I’m taking even more with an extra period, I will have one of the higher weighted GPAs. As long as I am in the top 1% (that would be the top 5 of 500) or even the top 5%, I think it won’t matter.
There’s nothing you can do about it anyway, so I would just focus on trying your best.
I don’t think it will hurt you as much as you think it will. My high school had something similar happen, where our Class of 2015 was exceptionally strong (acknowledged by other students and teachers alike). Lots of involvement in school ECs and quite a few people with international-level awards. The highest average in the other grades (we go by unweighted) would not even break top 5% in the Class of 2015.
We thought we were screwed, because my school normally sends ~3 to HYPSM and ~6 to the rest of the Ivies. But this year, we managed to send 7 to HYPSM (3 to Stanford alone!), and ~15 to the rest of the Ivies.
I hate to be the spelling police, as I have made plenty of typos myself, but I must admit I find the thread title amusing, as I consider the possibility that perhaps the OP’s classmates are really not so super gifted, but that OP finds many of them “intelligient”
I mean no disrespect here - most smart folks have a sense of humor as well, and clearly @toolegittoquit being in the top 1 - 5 % is pretty significant, I am wagering that he/she will get a chuckle from this.
To answer the question, I think the fact that OP goes to a solid school with several other exceptional people, perhaps more than usual, will help far more than it hurts. The friendly competition is good, and most kids learn from their peers as well as from their instructors.
Longer, slightly snarky response: If you think the that presence or absence of a few competitive students in your own school has any real bearing on your chances at competitive/selective colleges, you are underestimating the level of competition you will face by several orders of magnitude.
This is the real issue for top students at every school. They all look the same. Great grades and test scores. Same editor of the school paper/president of the math team/captain of the tennis team. Same 200+ volunteer hours. Same 6 or more AP classes. Same glowing letters of rec from the teachers. Now multiply the problem across 1,000 ‘top’ high schools churning out similar students. How can admissions possibly differentiate between these applicants? They all sound the same. (And then the students complain that it wasn’t fair and kids with lower stats did get in…)
So, think about what you can do to differentiate yourself. The ‘trick’ if there is one, is to be yourself - your own unique snowflake, as it were. If your application is interchangeable with other top students’, then no, you aren’t going to get into the highly selective schools you covet.
What do you have to offer that no one else does? It’s not about how many APs you take. It’s about what you are, or do, or have experienced that gives you something unique to offer. What do you love? What do you care about? What gives you joy? Find that thing and do it well and not only will you enjoy high school more (because you aren’t always looking over your shoulder at what everyone else is doing), but it might even set you apart in the admissions process. In fact, you might discover something that carries you through college and into the world.
thanks for all the responses! if I job shadowed for an extended period of time (I have a few contacts in mind). Could I put that on my application? Would that help at all?
It cant hurt, especially if you get a glowing LOR from the person you are shadowing
[ as long as he is not a relative lol!]
I’d do this outside shadowing for a couple of years, if possible.
Summer time is a great time to do an EC that differentiates you from other strong applicants, as long as it is of interest to you.
@menloparkmom I realize summer is a good time for ECs but I have trouble thinking of unique ones that would differentiate me. I would like to do something focused on math/science, but besides summer camps I have no idea.
Well rounded students are what makes a well rounded class. So go get well rounded. That’s not a laundry list, not just hs titles, founding some club, or doing the min comm service. And not just your own “passions.”
And no, shadowing isn’t the same as getting out there and doing something, taking on legit responsibilities, having some impact.
You need to learn what holistic is. They don’t go hierarchical and take the 4.6 over the 4.1. Both are A’s. Then the rest of it makes or breaks. Read what the colleges tell that they look for.
Yes, there can be a limit to how many from one high school. Think about it. There can be great kids from another hs down the road or further in your area and adcoms want to include them, too. It depends. But you aren’t just competing within your one hs.
Short answer yes, they can only take a few. In some years there are no excellent candidates and top colleges take none but I don’t think it will increase in a good year.