If you look at the 2018 enrollment report http://enrollmentservices.osu.edu/report.pdf, it seems to me OSU really cares about the top 10% in class thing (prominently featured in report). Odd, I think, when most elite schools now value that less because it is not a good comparison of students between high schools. As stated by many, more and more top high schools are no longer providing a class rank because it disadvantages their excellent students that may fall just out of the top 10. I’ve read that in those cases, colleges estimate a HS class rank. How would they do that? Think of the volume of applicants…there is no way the people they have reviewing applications could know enough about a school to do much more than guess. My daughter has a 4.25 GPA but is top 13%. If her HS did not report rank, the guess for hers could probably be top 10 % and she would likely be in. (32 ACT)
I did a very rough calculation based on numbers in this report and came up with that the incoming class last year had less than 20% of in-state that were not in their HS top 10. (I made some assumptions and could be missing something though) There obviously were some from schools that do not report rank get admitted even though they are not truly top 10, but someone guessed that they were.
This college admittance thing is not easy! ?
Regarding the “holistic” review…can OSU (and other large schools) do that type of review of 50,000+ applications. If they can, I’m impressed!
@Curious105 I’m sure that the percent of students not in top 10% of their class is far higher for out of state students. Seems that it’s far easier to get in out of state, way more competitive instate. So it makes sense they only want the top kids from instate. Indiana resident hoping to get in even though I may not be top 10% of my class.
But even to find the top in-state, it seems it would be best to use apples to apples comparisons. That is not possible with class rank and that is why many top colleges no longer put much weight into it. It appears based its prominence on the report, OSU still does.
@Curious105 admissions did tell me that (if your school does not rank) they basically generate your class rank through your school profile. So that means that they have information on each highschool and likely take that into account. Definitely doesn’t seem nessecarily fair or consistent though.
What if it’s a SUPER competitive high school? I’m BARLEY in the top 10%, and I have a 3.9 UNWEIGHTED GPA. Seems kind of unfair for people who went through a challenging school district and they expect everyone they admit to get >3.9 UW GPA.
The thing is though, just because 64% of students were in the top 10% of their class doesn’t mean that OSU actively sought that out in its applicants. Kids with high GPAs just may generally have fallen into that rank. I can say that my son with a very high GPA and scores who was admitted the first wave is nowhere near the top 10% at our high school nor were his friends who were admitted. Our school is super competitive, the students for the most part are extremely bright and the top 10% would be more likely to be attending top 20 or Ivy schools. Our school doesn’t rank but from the profile it is easy to see a general idea of where kids stack up.
@hannah1789 Yes, lots of engineering applicants still waiting. There are so many engineering students because you have to apply early to get a shot at getting into engineering. So as a percent, there are more engineering applicants. Someone called the admission office, and they said, if they reviewed your application, you will receive an answer, not hearing doesn’t mean anything other than they haven’t gotten to you yet. There seems to be no order to when then get to applications, it’s not ranked by stats, it’s not ordered by the date you applied - maybe it’s just random. But best of luck to everyone waiting. As a Mom, I think I’m obsessed about this more than my son. I’m trying to keep my obsession with finding out a secret from my son. He doesn’t need me sharing that with him. :o)
@DocJake hasn’t your status been like that for a while? You should have probably called them a while ago!! Whenever you have issues with apps, it’s best to call/get the issue fixed right away.
My status still says evaluation.
@collegemom9 Ah thanks. I was going to say, that seems a bit unfair. My HS is super competitive- I think the guy who is val right now has taken 15ish college classes in high school.
@equationlover , I am an international student, and when I tried opening the portal in the noon, it was 5 30 am in the US and my status page said that it was not the right time to visit the portal and try later. As it was unavailable, I asked what are the official hours to visit it.