How does CollegeVine rank course load?

Hi @catie! First, it sounds like you are taking a really challenging course load for what your school offers, and that's what colleges really care about! So keep up the good work!

I hope the rest of my answer can help you understand the course load results you're seeing:

From your question description, you've listed 16 courses you will have taken by the end of your senior year (9 AP, 5 Honors, 2 Dual Enrollment). The CollegeVine chancing tool assumes the rest of the classes you take are College Prep (CP, 1 level lower than Honors) classes because most high schools require 20+ courses to graduate.

This assumption of CP courses is likely hurting your percentile results. It seems like your high school offers fewer AP and Honors courses than many other high schools do - which is not your fault or your school's fault, just a reality. So you likely have more CP courses than other students who have applied to the schools on your list.

The chancing tool compares YOUR data to ALL of the student data we've collected over the years from students we've worked with and students we've surveyed. It does not take in to account how YOUR course load compares to what YOUR high school offers, because we don't know the courses offered at each high school. I'm sorry this is causing you confusion. We are currently working on ways to better account for course difficulty based on what's offered at each high school.

In the meantime, something you could try to do is to add any College Prep (CP) courses that you WOULD HAVE taken as Honors (if your school offered them) to your total count of Honors courses. This should help!

Thank you so much for asking your question! Let us know if you have any follow up questions to this issue or feel free to submit a new question.

It depends on what schools you’re applying to.

Use a flagship uni such as UofOregon

Also you might be in top 25% I have no clue tho

My coursework is 8 AP, 5 Honors, and one Dual Course and is in the 25-50th percentile for most of my schools. The thing is, though: most of my schools are considered targets or safeties for me. Perhaps if you have schools that are reaches and long reaches, your coursework is considered low. I'm not really certain of your circumstances, but that's definitely something to consider.