<p>My high school doesn't rank. Not a numbered rank, not a percentage, not anything. We don't have a valedictorian, ever. But if the policy was changed and the school did rank, I would be valedictorian. </p>
<p>Am I at a disadvantage since I can't claim to be valedictorian? Or can I explain that I am, but that my school doesn't rank? Thanks </p>
<p>(Going into senior year now)</p>
<p>Yes, you are, but your transcript will show that your school doesn’t rank and what not. But since you would be the valedictorian, your GPA and grades should reflect that you would be at the top of your class.</p>
<p>Valedictorian in and of itself has limited value - there are plenty of schools where it would mean little as the level of coursework and the other competition are so low as to render the term meaningless. It’s what you do to get to the valedictorian title, awarded or not, that is valuable, not the title itself. (That would be grades and high level courses in a weighted system.)</p>
<p>Also, you can’t claim to be valedictorian until the end of senior year, which is after admissions have been decided. Until then, you would merely be ranked #1 if you had a ranking system.</p>
<p>How do you know that you would be valedictorian if they don’t rank? Your school should send a profile and it should give the amount of kids (either number or percentage) in each range. My daughters school did not rank but they sent a graph showing that their were 9 kids in her class with a 4.4 or above and she had a 4.5 so it was obvious she was probably in the top 5. We don’t know exact number and will never know. It didn’t seem to hurt her!</p>
<p>Colleges will be able to determine where you would rank.</p>
<p>Your high school will typically provide enough information to colleges so the colleges figure out your approximate rank. Typically on the high school information sheet they provide to colleges your high school would identify the GPA range of the top 10%, top 10-20% etc. Further your high school college counselor very likely knows your rank and will in some form communicate that to the colleges you apply.</p>
<p>It is not a problem at all. Many schools don’t rank. Our HS does not rank and it has not hurt college admissions at all. There is no need to explain this to colleges as each HS sends a detailed school profile with your transcript. I would not claim to be valedictorian if your schools doesn’t rank though.</p>
<p>Many schools, including many (if not most) of the most elite private schools, do not rank. Admissions offices are used to this, and they will know whether you are qualified. Class rankings are often meaningless in college admissions, furthermore, because some high schools are so competitive that there is an infinitesimal difference statistically between #1 and #100, while others base the rankings purely on unweighted GPAS, and so students who took advanced, demanding curricula are often ranked lower than those who took standard-level classes. What will matter is whether you took your school’s most demanding available course-load and performed well. </p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>For some colleges, yes, you would be. For most, no.</p>
<p>Other than missing out on WPI’s scholarships for valedictorians, I don’t think it would disadvantage you.</p>
<p>If your school names a valedictorian, and you believe it will be you, then perhaps you could get your adviser to state that in a letter of recommendation. I presume that your recommendation will describe you as an academic stand-out. If you end up applying to a college that awards special scholarships on the basis of rank, your college counselor should be able to call the admissions office there, or include an explanation of why you qualify.</p>
<p>No. If you are recognized as valedictorian, you shouldn’t be disadvantage at all. Most schools that don’t rank (such as my own) use the percentile system and you’d obviously be in the top 1%, and I have a feeling a GC or someone could write about your accomplishments or your highest academic average in his/her letter. Ask them if you are not sure. How did you find out btw? Perhaps you can ask them about how it may work.</p>
<p>The OP stated
Note the IF. </p>
<p>OP, you will only be at a disadvantage for TX public Us (because they use class rank for admission) and scholarships tied to rank/Val/Sal standing. Most colleges will just infer a rank based on the HS profile sent by your GC.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t report or calculate rank. Whenever I ask admissions counselors how they look at this, they say that it’s unusual but obviously will not hurt - they can’t think worse of you because of a school policy that you have no control over. See what your school does instead - not sure if you have GPA, but look at that. My school provides a grade distributions for every class for our junior year. They need SOMETHING to examine how you perform in the context of your school.</p>
<p>On that note, most colleges say that they judge each applicant, again, in the context of his or her school. They’re not going to be comparing you to other students with rank, and even if they are, they probably wouldn’t factor the rank part in.</p>
<p>It can hurt. When a school does not rank, the top colleges that use some form of an Academic Index, and most of the most selective schools, will assign an class rank number. In doing so, you don’t get the little extra that the Val, sal and maybe #3 would get, and you would be then be with, say the top 5% of the class. This helps those who are say #4,#6, or up there, but not at the tippy top. The schools can’t distinguish who is who, so everyone is given that in between ranking up to a point. </p>
<p>Could it make a difference? Well, with single digit accepts, anything can be the tipping point. If I were Val and applying to HPY, etal, yes, I’d prefer to be in a school that ranked, but if I were not in the top 3, I 'd prefer the school that did not rank. Basically by not ranking, looking at the val and someone who is close but not quite there after adding up all the weighting pts and all but not something a college want to take time, the val loses that advantage and the other person gains it. A net zero loss, but not so for the two involved. I’ve seen the calculations, and yes, it can make a difference.</p>
<p>
When a high school does not rank, or does not provide ranking to colleges, Admissions Offices often put all the applications from a high school in GPA rank order and compare the course rigor. As a result, colleges know full well which students are at the top of their class – or at least which students applying to their college are at the top of their class. So, if you have the best GPA in your high school and apply to a college along with many students from your high school, that college will often know which student is the valedictorian without the high school actually naming that person. So, I don’t think you are at a disadvantage, as the vast majority of high schools no longer provide ranking, so colleges have been forced to do a little bit more detective work.</p>
<p>I think, if the valedictorian winds up with an unweighted 4.27, and the tenth-ranked student had a 4.19, but #10 was also the starting quarterback, and Eagle Scout, Class President, winner of a national award in Robotics, and is a fifth-generation legacy at a college, the specific rankings won’t count for much. Colleges will always have a soft spot for a valedictorian, but they will not pick the valedictorian with a 1750 3-score SAT over a lower-ranked, but still high-performing, student with a 2350. At competitive high schools, differences in class ranking can boil down to a single test or lab report in Biology, and the kid who got an 89 the day after a football game or play performance isn’t necessarily going to be penalized over the one who stayed home studying and received a 98. A four-year GPA of 4.0 will trump a 3.3, but not necessarily a 3.95.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who answered! You all were super helpful</p>
<p>I always thought the title valedictorian was meaningless since it doesn’t take course rigor into account.</p>