<p>My school doesn’t publicly rank (though according to my GC, I barely make the top half). But when I look even the most average of colleges, I’m totally astounded. Where only 8% of undergrads were in the top 10% of their high school, only 1% of students received higher than a 29 on their ACTs.</p>
<p>How could someone be in the top 10% of any school, yet not even make a 30+ on their ACT? Am I just living in some kind of respectable-public-school bubble?</p>
<p>Well the school could be very low achieving or have a large class size.</p>
<p>There are places where the schools have education that is far below mediocre. In my state, all schools in rural areas are very poor (both in terms of the quality of the education/teachers and the school’s budget), and the students don’t learn much. At our state universities (all except the main, largest one) there are several remedial courses where COLLEGE students review simple things like “what is a sentence?” and “how do you use a comma?” As hilarious as this sounds, this is a reality. In fact, I have classmates who still don’t know the difference between an independent clause and a sentence fragment. Schools in smaller areas than ours are worse. Some haven’t ever been taught anything past simple geometry.</p>
<p>There are high schools here with very high drop-out rates, and ranking first in the class is very easy because of the lack of competition. However, the SATs and ACTs are standardized. While someone may be ranked top in their class, if they attend a high school such as the ones in my area, even getting a 25 might be a struggle. </p>
<p>The reason behind this isn’t because people are stupid, but because people just aren’t exposed to the opportunities that many places like urban California, New York, and Massachusetts offer (not to mention the fact that the teachers here and at many other places can be abominable). I think it’s completely realistic to see that type of situation, where there are more students ranking at the top of their class than there are students getting 29+ on the ACT. Everything is relative. Being valedictorian or ranking in the top 10% may be extremely difficult at a prestigious school that has a legacy of sending 10+ students off to HYPSM every year; being valedictorian at a humble rural high school in the middle of nowhere is anything but remarkable.</p>
<p>In my current school? It’s extremely easy. I’m the top in my grade, and possibly my entire school, which is sad, considering I’m a sophomore. In my state, most of the schools are underfunded and in rural areas. The student body is composed mostly of idiots.</p>
<p>Lets see… at my school there are around 180 people in my grade (senior) but, there are only three people with a 30+ on the ACT in my graduating class so far. Even though I have a 30 I’m actually not in the top 10% of my graduating class because, my old school offered 0 AP classes.</p>
<p>Like everyone pretty much said, its easier in school. A lot of students also get very nervous so they can be a straight A student but fail the test. In my school, about 100 people per grade get averages above 90 but half of them end up going to community colleges.</p>
<p>I’m not #1 in my grade, but I’m most definitely in the top 10% (maybe 5%). I go to a small, college prep school. The quality of academics is very good, but there surprisingly isn’t much competition, at least in my grade. My grade has 66/67 people, but I would say only about 13-20 take Honors/AP classes; Even fewer have all Honors + AP schedules. Our progression is: CP (college prep) —> Accelerated ----> Honors ----> AP. The majority of my grade are in CP and Accelerated classes.</p>
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<p>Pretty much. I don’t think you understand how much a lot of schools suck.
Also, I got the highest ACT score in the history of my school and I’m not the valedictorian.</p>
<p>At my school, it’s extremely difficult. It’s an international school, so we have a metric ton of stereotypical Asian kids- about 20% of the grade is vying for the top 10%, and the rest are pretty chill and ok with being in the top half.</p>
<p>It’s actually pretty tough at my school because its private and there are only 81 kids. So if you screw up freshmen year you won’t make it back into the top 10%</p>
<p>I just realized that everyone in the top 5% of my graduating class + 2 or 3 other people (plus an unranked girl who would certainly be val and is Harvard '17) are going to the Ivy League.</p>
<p>And people wondered why I was in the bottom half of my class…</p>
<p>Just over 200 students btw. School doesn’t recognize val so we don’t actually know who it would have been.</p>
<p>A junior ('14) got a 2400 on her first SAT I sitting and it was met with mild praise so this should give you an idea of what our school is like.</p>
<p>In my school, it was hard. there was 537 kids and about 60 kids were in the top 1% of students in whole country.</p>
<p>a 29 on the ACT is pretty high for many places with so-so education system and lackluster students.</p>
<p>The high school we’re zoned for has a 70% graduation rate. Only 60% of students are performing at grade level, less than that in math. They don’t report ACT scores, but 58% of seniors took the SAT, and their average score (without writing) was 872, which correlates to an 18 on the ACT. Of course, we also have ridiculously low property taxes - you get what you pay for. This is why my kids have always gone to Catholic school.</p>
<p>Fairly hard. A 3.5 barely puts you in the top half, as for top 10 you are look at usually a minimum of 3.85-3.9</p>
<p>Pretty easy tbh. My high school has a GREAT API score (like 9.2 or something), yet I feel like my class in my school, the class of 2015, is pretty dumb compared to some of the geniuses in other classes. Other classes have ~6-7 people who are just absolutely incredibly intelligent with perfect GPAs who I envy. My class has maybe 2-3. </p>
<p>I mean, don’t get me wrong. there are quite a few people who I know are extremely talented and brilliant like the ones in other classes, however, they care less of their grades and don’t find any harm in skipping assignments. My best friend has an intellect that I find is ~ the same as mine, yet he always manages to get one B for silly reasons as well (i.e. didn’t do an essay because he didn’t feel like it in English H). I have a 4.0 UW and a 4.33 W (as a sophomore) which already puts me, in the top 1%. However I largely feel I don’t deserve it haha.</p>
<p>Also, just a note, I go to a pretty rich school with 95% rich white people. But as for competition, meh.</p>
<p>Our school’s ranking system is based on UW GPA.
To be in the top 10%, you need around a 3.85+ GPA.</p>
<p>You need perfect grades at my school :/</p>
<p>Top 10% at my school is about 30 kids, and it doesn’t appear to be all that competitive, because if you can hold an A average in all regular level classes, you’re in that range. With the exception of the top 10 students (who, amongst themselves, are competitive), it’s cake.</p>
<p>Depends on the grade. My grade happens to be quite competitive, but our school utilizes only weighted GPA’s, so kids who take all easy classes just to have a high GPA are usually weeded out (to make room for the kids who have a hefty load of AP’s and honors and do well). There are 21 kids in the first decile and the GPA’s range from a 99.1% (our valedictorian) and a 94.5%.</p>