So I am a straight A student. I am in all AP or IB classes and have many extracurricular activities. However I am not as smart as the people who will be competing for valedictorian, and I have a few grades that are in the low 90s. I am conflicted on where to look at colleges. I am well above the average grades and scores for many colleges but then I am below for the Ivy League schools. Does anyone have a similar experience and can share? Thank you!
Do you know what approximate percentile you are? Do a lot of people get all As? Does your school rank?
There are quite a few schools whose grade and score range is just below that of the Ivies. A book like Barron’s or the college match function on Collegedata.com or the SuperMatch function here on CC are useful ways of finding those schools.
Just because you’re not a valedictorian – or on top of your class – doesn’t mean you’re not Ivy material.
That said, there are dozens if not hundreds of superb schools just a notch below the Ivies – and some of them better, IMO, than a few of the Ivies.
In other words, lots to chose from for the accomplished student such as you.
Use search engines to give you some ideas, first deciding what your budget is, which part of the country you’re interested in, size, what kind of environment (urban, suburban, rural) and type of school (LAC or research university) you’d prefer.
We do not get ranked until the end of junior year. Many people think I will be in the top 10%. My school has many people with mostly A’s and many people in multiple AP classes but not a high amount that fit both of those thing as I do.
Top 10% of a competitive class is very good. Congratulations. You should have many interesting options.
Have a look at some of the colleges ranked in the ~21-40 range of the US News “national universities” or “national liberal arts colleges” lists. Examples: USC, URochester, Michigan, Boston College, Brandeis … Oberlin, Macalester, Kenyon. Also consider public universities in your home state.
Use the supermatch tool over on the left…look for colleges where you are at around the 75% of SAT scores.