<p>Curious if anyone has any words of wisdom of being in the situation of having your child have the highest gpa (unweighted) and most aggressive courseload in a school that does not rank. Her gc says he will make it clear to colleges that she is in the top "handful" of seniors. Trying not to be paranoid but the reality is that this "handful" of students is applying to many of the same schools she is and I know her classmates aren't her competition but still . . . Some schools seem very interested in rank. Is it okay for her to put down "1st" on the supplements when asked? D says she can't because she has not official rank. Just curious if others have experienced this and if they have any advice.</p>
<p>How do you know she's first? It sounds like your school does everything but rank if they compute both weighted and unweighted GPAs. I have to say that I am thankful that my high school that did not rank never bothered to calculate GPAs for us either. This was back in the days when there were only a few APs and no honors designated courses at all in our school. We fussed about our AP scores, but I have no idea - none - really! Who had the top grades in our class. I'm pretty sure I was near the top, but I don't think anyone got straight As. We all had a few Bs in something. At least I think we did!</p>
<p>But to your daughter. I think she's being honest, though I can understand that you wish there was some way for her (or someone) to indicate that she's number one. But the whole point of ranking is that you aren't supposed to stress about it. That difference between 4.44 and 4.45 might be due to a mean teacher more than any actual difference in the schoolwork.</p>
<p>"That difference between a 4.44 and 4.45 might be due to a mean teacher more than any actual difference in the schoolwork"</p>
<p>mammall: Consider yourself (and your d) extremely lucky that you don't rank..I understand your frustration, but just imagine a situation (like in our school) where students are ranked, three different teachers for the same course and only one of those teachers curves the exact same midterm and final that everyone else gets????? Please don't complain...others definitely have it worse.....(although I do not think that unusual....)</p>
<p>The GC should be able to say that she took the hardest schedule possible at the HS. And in the school description, there should be a GPA curve that would show your D at the top. These two things will tell the colleges that she is at the top of her class w/o specific ranks.</p>
<p>I want to know how the mom knows everyone elses grades, what classes they took, all through their 4 years of school....</p>
<p>I think ranking is stupid frankly, so many variables to take into account</p>
<p>See - this was just what I needed to be told. We know she's first because school doesn't weight and she has a 4.0. She also has tied two students for most APs - they're friends and have told her their gpa's. It's a very open school. Not insanely competitive and small. Her gc and others have been very frank with her and us that she has the only 4.0/4.0. I was just having a flash of parental paranoia. Promise to count my blessings and behave myself now.</p>
<p>D had same problem. High school doesn't rank and doesn't name val or sal. But, all the various outside honors that go to #1 went to D.</p>
<p>The schools she applied to figured it out in any event.</p>
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D says she can't because she has not official rank.
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<p>My advice? Be proud of your daughter.</p>
<p>Our high school doesn't rank.</p>
<p>Oddly enough the top 3 matriculated at Yale and Stanford.</p>
<p>Oddly enough the top 10 matriculated at Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth etc...</p>
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Curious if anyone has any words of wisdom of being in the situation of having your child have the highest gpa (unweighted) and most aggressive courseload in a school that does not rank.
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<p>Well if the colleges notice the straight A's and the GC's comment about the most agressive course load, I think they'll figure out that she is #1 (not that being #1 is important) even though her school doesn't reveal rank.</p>
<p>So who gets to speak at graduation, if there is no #1?</p>
<p>"Is it okay for her to put down "1st" on the supplements when asked? D says she can't because she has not official rank."</p>
<p>Concur with previous posters that she should not do that, and that the absence of a ranking will not matter so long as schools know the rigor of your daughter's curriculum choices and your school profile lets them know where she fits among her peers. But if it makes you feel any better, there are some colleges that ask the guidance counselor to identify the highest numerical GPA in the class and to state how many students share that GPA. At schools like that, it will be clear that your daughter is No. 1 in her class.</p>
<p>If the school doesn't weight grades and she has a 4.0, and the admissions people can see for themselves the rigor of the curriculum she chose, and the gc comments on the the fact that she took a "most challenging" courseload, she is golden and nothing else needs to be said.</p>
<p>I know of some schools where the admissions office totally recalculates gpa according to their own scales; for example, one school (at least is used to) calculated gpa on core academic classes only, on a 4.0 scale, and then
assigned a value to the rigor of the curriculum taken.</p>
<p>Your daughter will shine no matter how an admissions office looks at her transcript.</p>
<p>My high school also did not rank, and I did pretty well in college admissions. Lots of schools don't rank. I think she'll be fine not putting down anything.</p>
<p>For the poster who asked - her high school has no val - commencement speaker is an outside guest and incoming president of next year's senior class addresses the graduating seniors. It's all done very well. I am glad they don't do the rankings.</p>
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D says she can't because she has not official rank.
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<p>Your D is correct. </p>
<p>OTOH, I have heard/read of GC's saying something like: it is our school district policy to not rank students, but if we did, Sally would be #1....</p>
<p>goaliedad: our school does not rank either. Graduation speakers are selected from those students that vounteer, which very do.</p>
<p>Our school does not rank either. The students that have GPAs above 4.4 are vals and the students that have GPAs above 4.0-4.4 are sals. In the last few years, there were about 10-15 vals and 50-70 sals. The vals got in everywhere they applied to. This group of students usually have perfect SAT I and SAT subject tests with very light ECs. The students that are sals do get into Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Stanford, Columbia, Harvard. Yale seems to take the cream of the crop, ie perfect SAT 1, all the 2400s.</p>
<p>In my experience, the schools that have the kind of ranking policy you are describing are all schools that do very, very well in getting their students admitted to selective colleges. Inherent in that is that the school reserves the right to imply that four or five kids are "the top" -- although not usually to the same college. Inherent in that also is that the school is operating to maximize results for the greatest number, not for any particular student.</p>
<p>You have to take the bitter with the sweet. Sure, maybe your kid would be a little better off if she could say she was #1. But I'll bet there are 50 other ways in which her school works to her advantage. And if the school has a good track record, you really should trust the professionals and go with the flow.</p>
<p>Our school does rank and #25 went to Brown. Can't remember the rest though #1 went to Yale and I think #2 did U. Penn ED - Wharton School, #3 is at Caltech, #4 at Princeton.</p>
<p>I've been very impressed with D's counselor. She requires every student who applies to private school to write a brag sheet. Parent also had to write a brag sheet. On top of that, she interviews the student to find out more about the student. This way she is not writing blindly any letter of recommendation about a student.
A student is not made up by numbers. She can feel a student's passion when she talks to that student. My D never talks to the counselor before the interview but D was very pleased she had the informal interview. She believes the school will do everything it can to maximize all students chance. It also makes the school profile looks good.</p>
<p>I agree with those that say you can't put down "ranked #1" anywhere.</p>
<p>Like people said, they'll be able to figure it out very easily. My school didn't have rank or GPA; colleges calculated the GPA. </p>
<p>Also, rec forms used to have boxes that you could check: top 10%, top 5%, top 1%, and "top student you've ever had." So colleges will have plenty of places to see her outstanding academic performance.</p>