<p>Will rank make you or break you during admissions at Amherst? I have high SATs (2300+) and a lot of leadership positions for my EC (captain for 2 competitive teams, VP for a nationally recognized club, and girl scout gold award recipient), but my GPA/rank is really weak (probably 3rd decile, yieks 
) mostly due to junior grades. I planned to do ED but if I have no shot, I really don’t want to waste my early. What do you all think?</p>
<p>No one can predict the outcome of the admissions game. It is a crap shoot. But we need additional info - like what type of school? If small, difficult private, that would be different than a large average public. Ethnicity also has something to do with it. Are you planning on continuing in sports? What are they? What happened your jr. year to bring your grades down? Perhaps ED might not be the way to go, so you can get your grades up - that upward trend always looks good to schools. We need more info in order to give advice.</p>
<p>I don’t want to give any false hope but I (ORM) did get in with stats very close to yours ED this year. Barely made 3rd decile from very competitive public magnet school with average SAT of 1430 / 1600 scale.</p>
<p>I am Asian (just sent out my application for diversity weekend) and from a small competitive public school in California (100% of outgoing seniors this year are pursuing higher education of them over 90% are going to a four year college). I dont do sports but I am going to be captain of the forensics (speech/drama) and mock trial teams and VP of JSA next year at school. I really messed up junior year because I tried unsuccessfully to balance my coursework (7 periods everyday as opposed to 6) with my numerous extra curricular activities (forensics, drama, girl scouts, JSA, and mock trial). My ECs always came before my academics even though I know it shouldnt have. Id keep telling myself Ill bring up my grades later, but that never happened. In an effort to make up for it, I am taking 2 classes at my community college in the summer and have an A in both classes currently. Amherst is my clear and definite first choice and if applying early will give me even a small percentage of an advantage I am willing to do it. Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading.</p>
<p>If amherst is your “clear and definite first choice”, then give ED a shot. You have a reasonable chance. Make sure your essays are good, as they may be able to balance out your grades a little bit.</p>
<p>From those admission seminars and workshops, what I learned is that high SAT but low GPA hurts. It gives college people the impression that this smart guy doesn’t apply him/herself.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies :)</p>
<p>FYI, I’m a hardcore slacker with pathetic GPAs even by my own standards, average SAT IIs (but below average for the likes of Amherst applicants) and high SAT I. Beats me why I’m here 
but it must have been my essays that did the trick. Oh btw, I asked for a lot of finaid too. So…give it a chance, because you’re in an even better situation than I was:)</p>
<p>Thanks! I feel a little less hopeless :). I will work super hard on perfecting my essays.</p>
<p>I ranked 21 out of 387. I had very good critical reading and writing scores on the SATs but mediocre to poor math scores. I had excellent grades except for math and physics in junior year. My three SAT IIs scores didn’t fall below 760. I had excellent essays that were not only well-written, but also presented me as honest, funny, sardonic, and not too caught up in my own “life story.” I also sent them a bunch of other personal writings that I had done for my school newspaper or other colleges. I applied regular decision and got in. I also got into Williams and was wait-listed at Harvard. What I am trying to convey is that rank doesn’t always mean everything if you have some other aspect of yourself that makes up for things in which you are lacking. I am not the math-science kid, but my writing compensates. Find your niche and work it, and dont’ allow it to be cliche. Don’t count on your grades or your extra-carriculars because there are thousands of other kids out there who mirror you in that area or seem even better. Grades and activities are the bones of your application, you need to use the essays and other supplements to flesh out who you are why the college should choose you over the kid with the better grades.</p>
<p>You should explain what happened to your counselor so that he or she can explain your slump in their letter. Since Amherst doesn’t interview, you can’t explain it yourself. Therefore, this is the best opportunity.</p>