<p>Being in the top 5% is great, but in a situation like this I would do what QuantMech says, ask if the GC can include the information that your kid’s rank was affected by taking an extra course. </p>
<p>This sort of stuff happens all the time. My sil is still miffed that she missed being valedictorian by taking orchestra in addition to the full schedule, while the actual valedictorian had the same courses and grades minus orchestra, but because orchestra wasn’t weighted her GPA went down. If they just hadn’t counted orchestra she’d have been better off. She got into Harvard anyway. :)</p>