<p>My school doesn’t rank and that’s good for me because I am barely in the top 10% (bad freshman year). However, I have taken very rigorous courses the last two years. The problem is some people take courses that are equally weighted but are obviously easier. (i.e. AP Calc BC vs. AP Stats or even AP Physics C vs. Marine Bio Honors). Will adcoms know/care if I have taken these extremely rigorous courses or will I be viewed the same as the students that have taken the easier weighted courses because they are considered equal on the transcript?</p>
<p>I think they’ll realize you’re taking harder classes. Especially if your counselor states that you’re taking the most rigourous course load on their secondary school report. So adcom will care to a certain extent</p>
<p>No worries.</p>
<p>EVERY school’s weighting system is so different from the others, that colleges don’t (much) care. Many will strip your grade of its weight anyway. Some will look only at academic grades. Some will eliminate your freshman year ! (good for you, eh?). And they’ll often then use their OWN formula to calculate your grades, so they’re comparing apples to apples (as much as possible anyway, since even the GRADES vary by school). </p>
<p>Your transcript will include the name/title of each class you took, they’ll know what you took. They’ll also know how you compare to your school not only by the rank but also by the prospectus the school sends. Your GC will probably be answering questions on the GC rec that tells how YOUR schedule rigor is, as compared to others in your school. They’ll also explain the grading scale, how they rank, how they add weight.</p>
<p>Only in rare cases does your school not ranking help you. Competitive colleges will figure out a rank for you. See the book A is For Admission where a former Dartmouth adcom even lists high schools they have existing formulas for to figure out rank.</p>
<p>Bottom lne: It depends where you’re applying. Very top schools like ivies and their peers want to see a very top rank in the very top classes. As schools go down in selectivity, there’s more give.</p>
<p>My counselor will check most rigorous and will even mention that my schedule is especially challenging junior/senior year due to the strong nature of the classes I took. My school doesn’t rank and because of what I previously said its debateable how much estimated rank helps in terms of admissions from our school. Last year two ORMs (asian) got into an ivy and a top LAC with low top 10% rankings (1 had a bad freshman year and 1 just got a few to many B’s). In that same year another guy I know had a much higher ranking but only got waitlisted at Cornell. Even though his ranking was high, he didn’t have much else. To make a less extreme case, another person with about a 5% ranking got into EVERY ivy league school and our theoretical valedictorian did not get into Princeton, Harvard, or Yale. Our school has some honors classes that are just ridicolously easy and I think colleges know that now (new school). I believe the important aspect is the amount of APs because they can look at AP scores as a check for rigor.</p>
<p>You think a regional rep is going to parse the difficulty of classes at a new school? There are certainly well known teachers at some schools to long term adcom and good grades in their classes/great recs impress. But to be frank, your analysis shows misunderstanding of the process.</p>