<p>Hello.</p>
<p>I am ranked 100ish/420 at my high school. I have a 3.71 GPA, (which will be 3.75 for the mid year reports).</p>
<p>I have taken only 1 semester of classes at my high school. For 3 semesters I attended online school, while traveling extensively for skiing competitions (winning them, representing 4 sponsors and running a blog). Then I transferred back to my current high school. The past year I have been dual-enrolled at a local CC, so I could ski midweek, and was at one point awarded the highest academic honor by the CC. Anyways, I have a 2320 SAT and great (in my opinion) EC’s from skiing. Will class rank be a factor in my case?</p>
<p>Also, if I can get my GC to write something about the class rank not being applicable will that change anything?</p>
<p>Any chance you will be a recruited athlete as a skier for college? If so, I doubt that your class rank will matter.</p>
<p>I think you have some extenuating circumstances that make your class rank invalid. Hopefully your guidance counselor can address this in her letter…although your high school resume may make it obvious!</p>
<p>No, the sport I compete in is relatively new. A similar sport was only added to the 2014 games last year.</p>
<p>I will cross my fingers until my meeting with her around the 20th of August. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>It depends on the school that you apply to. Class rank is almost everything at Texas public universities, but is nothing at California public universities. Many other schools are in between as far as how they regard class rank. The admissions tab for the school at <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.collegedata.com</a> may help you here.</p>
<p>I agree that it is a “depends”, but at many schools it won’t matter. That said, I encourage you to ask your guidance counselor to explain that your rank has been adversely affected by the fact that you have taken most of your classes outside the school. You may want to get one of your CC professors to write a letter of recommendation and if you know anyone in the CC administration, they might write a supplement to the CC letter.</p>
<p>I really think it is unlikely to matter in your case at any school that does “holistic” admissions. You have a great SAT score and a good GPA. Nevertheless, I agree with the steps Mathmom suggests in #5.</p>
<p>What kind of colleges are you interested in? You might want to consider Dartmouth. The D Plan would enable you to take off Winter Term, and they tend to like smart, accomplished athletes and winter sports.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help everyone, it’s very appreciated.</p>
<p>@Consolation Although I still love skiing my passion for mathematics/physics is dominating my life at the moment. That said, I will look more into Dartmouth as I know it’s a great school. My choice of college will be primarily based on affordability of the fin. aid package and the rigor of the curriculum offered.</p>
<p>Thus, I am tentatively looking at colleges like UChicago or Berkeley. But the thing is I still can’t seem to get much of a handle on where I stand as an applicant. My SAT scores seem to qualify me for top schools, but I am confused about where the rest of my resume puts me in terms of selectivity. So far my plan has been to apply to the University of Washington (great public/relatively affordable) and then, in order of selectivity, apply to Berkeley - Chicago - and an ivy or two. (Maybe I should consider other schools?)</p>
<p>You need some schools with higher admission rates.
I would not actually think of UW as a safety unless you have another hook like low income minority.</p>
<p>@emeraldkity4 I don’t necessarily think of UW as a safety, but I won’t be happy at any other U in Washington for 4 years. My true “safety,” is this: I will finish my AA and apply for transfer admission to UW.</p>
<p>Cast a wide net. Your awesome SAT will open the doors for merit scholarships at many colleges. </p>
<p>The very top schools prefer applicants with rigorous AP or IB coursework. If you have experiences that match that rigor in a less traditional way, try to showcase that in your essays.</p>
<p>You AA → UW plan could work well too. Good luck!</p>
<p>@colorado_mom Thanks. The only highlight I have in regards to rigor is my math classes. I am taking Accelerated Honors Calc. at the U of Washington this fall through next spring. It’s proof-based and very challenging. Similar in material (but a step down in mathematical rigor) to MIT’s Calculus W/ Theory, or Caltech’s Calculus class. Also it covers Single Variable, Multi Variable, Linear Algebra, and Diff Eq’s. Hence the “accelerated.”</p>
<p>NW - Yes, that Calc class could work well. Talk to your GC about the best ways to highlight it on your transcript (if possible) or other ways.</p>