<p>I am a current mother of a daughter who attends a large public school (around 600 students per class). Her rank is not very outstanding for top-tier schools, as she is ranked 54~55 and is very barely in the top 10%. </p>
<p>In the last part, it asks you to choose an option: Exact Ranking, Decile, Quarter, or GPA only. I calculated this for my daughter and she came out around a 210/240 and 4/9. However, if I switch to GPA only, her index shot way up and came out as a 8/9.</p>
<p>I am wondering if class ranking will negatively impact her chances at HYPMS. She has solid ECs and a 2340 on the SAT. I know that many schools these days do not rank their students. Therefore, will a college pre-screen its applicants using the Academic Index and basically toss her out because her AI is only a 4, as compared to some students who have a 8 or 9 simply because their school does not rank? Admissions officers are aware of these discrepancies, are they not? I feel that class rank always hurts you unless you're in the top 5%, and even then it is not as advantageous as schools who do not rank.</p>
<p>It most certainly will hurt her. At a school that ranks, GPA is somewhat meaningless; it’s really just some arbitrary number that colleges can’t base much off of. Rank puts GPA into perspective. At a school that inflates GPA, having a high GPA may not be impressive at all. Similarly, at a school the deflates GPA, a seemingly low GPA may not be bad at all.</p>
<p>And honestly why do you care? You’re not the one going to college, stop being such a helicopter-parent, if she gets in she gets in, if not well tough.</p>
<p>Not being ranked isn’t necessarily an advantage. Colleges won’t give high GPA a ton of weight if there is no reported rank, despite what your calculator says. From my understanding, they have formulas/methods to assign students some arbitrary rank. </p>
<p>"Rank is the number one factor for admission at highly selective schools. If your school doesn’t rak colleges figure out a rank for you.</p>
<p>There is a huge advantage in being val or sal at top colleges. Colleges often report the number in every class. At Dartmouth last year, a mid tier ivy, 40% were either val or sal of their class."</p>
<p>To determine that rank:
“The school, through it’s profile and through questions asked in the school report, gives a lot of data. They couple that with historical data on applicants from your school. If they’re still not sure they call the counselor with more questions. For schools they get a lot of applicants from they have existing formulas.”</p>
<p>(From hmom5, with 9800 posts on CC, going to assume that’s reliable, but feel free to do your own research rather than just using some unreliable calculator and making assumptions about admissions)</p>
<p>The counselor report will put her GPA and everything else into perspective. Rank is useful, but not without the counselors important input of how difficult was the students schedule. That would also go for GPA, etc.</p>
<p>Powerpuff…I think the AI is only used by the Ivies for athletic recruiting and not for general applicants. Also, as others have stated the gpa (and rank if a school ranks) will be looked at in both the context of the rigor of the curriculum and the school.</p>
<p>1) colleges figure out rank when schools don’t rank (read A Is For Admission)</p>
<p>2) no college considers GPA out of context</p>
<p>3) the unhooked kids getting into HYPS are very top of class, even at strong high schools</p>
<p>So unfortunately even if your daughter went to a top public that didn’t rank, they’d figure out her rank and she’d likely not have been a viable ivy candidate regardless. These colleges have incredible depth of knowledge about where kids fit into a class at all of the high schools that send them lots of applicants. And if
the school doesn’t send them many, being 50 something won’t be close at a top college without a hook.</p>
<p>I spent this weekend conducting alumni interviewing for an ivy. What’s become more and more shocking to me over the years is the obvious lack of counseling at so many schools resulting in many, many applications from kids with no chance at all. No wonder HYPS are inching towards a 5% acceptance rate! It used to be pretty much understood where you needed to rank, now kids think it’s top 10%.</p>
<p>ask your GC for a copy of your HS school report that s/he sends out to colleges with the transcript. It should place the gpa’s into context. And yes, absent a hook, or attending a national public like TJ, bottom of the top decile generally won’t be competitive for HYPSM. Those test scores might get a bite other lower down the food chain, however.</p>