<p>My kids attended two different schools, one a famous private school with a class size of about 100 that doesn't rank, and the other a competitive public magnet with a class size of about 550 that does rank. If you look at the top 10 kids from each school, the non-ranking school does a little better at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford (i.e., 4-6 kids/year accepted at one or more of them, vs. 2-4). At the school that ranks, the admissions results for the past few years show that ##2-5 have as good a shot at HYPS as #1.</p>
<p>Also -- if all of these kids are applying to the same college, the same admissions officer will be looking at their transcripts, and will have no difficulty making an independent determination about their relative academic achievment.</p>
<p>It might only matter if the college gives out additional scholarship $$ to 1's or 2's. A couple of the schools that my daughter looked at did give these out, but most do not.</p>
<p>Presumably if your daughter is ranked first in her high school, she would have pretty close to straight A's and would have taken close to the most advanced courseload available (if the school has weighted GPAs). Furthermore, nothing prevents any teacher from writing in a recommendation that your daughter is the top student in math, english, chemistry, etc. Admissions officers can recognize that such an individual would be very highly ranked, close to 1st. I do not see this as a big issue, and I'll bet admissions officers do not either.</p>
<p>If at a particular college there is a special scholarship available only for valedictorians or something like that, then maybe your school would be willing to write some special letter, but on applications your daughter should simply list her GPA and indicate that the school doesn't rank students.</p>
<p>Just the other day I was researching smoe colleges & one mentioned in their stat page that 62% of their students come from high schools that did not rank. The pie chart showing what decile the current students fell into clearly stated that it represented only those kids whose schools ranked. I'm not even sure which college it was (Duh, brain cells are dying quickly) but the 62% figure seemed high. D's h.s. does not officially rank, but the GC said he will check off either the first or second decile if asked on an admissions form. For girls who fall below that, he leaves it blank.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Her gc and others have been very frank with her and us that she has the only 4.0/4.0.
[/quote]
So that's exactly what the gc can say -- a simple remark on the form, "Our school does not rank or weight grades; however, MammallD is the only student in this year's class with a 4.0GPA" (or, better yet "our school is very rigorous -- MD is is the only student to have graduated in the last 5 years with a 4.0GPA") Obviously the college is also going to see the GPA's of any other student applying from the same school.</p>
<p>Of course you can't force the GC to write that... but you can always suggest. ;)</p>
<p>Mammall - you are doing great! You had a question and took others advice - you will be fine!</p>
<p>It sounds like your gc will indicate your daughter's superb accomplishments. Your daughter will benefit greatly by NOT slipping in that she is first. I think modesty is greatly appreciated by ad coms</p>
<p>I think the cc wisdom has solved this problem, and Alumother is lending the OP our always handy roll of duct tape, for getting through the various stresses that come with Senior Year (for the parents :rolleyes:; the kids do just fine, thank you very much). </p>
<p>mammall, if you think about it, it would be very odd for a student to fill in the application form that she "ranks" #1 from a school whose transcript/profile indicates that the school "does not rank." </p>
<p>The colleges will figure it out, as everyone has said. And we cc parents will be here in support. When you are finished with the duct tape, you can pass it on to the parents who will be gnashing their teeth re essays not started, SAT II's not studied for, college visits derailed when the kid refuses to get out of the car... (let your voice trail away)</p>