Hi! I’m currently a sophmore in high school and my class rank is 50/246, and my freshman year gpa was a 96. This is partially because i just transferred schools this year, and my freshman year school DID NOT provide GPA or class rank, and partially because I kept getting flipped online and in person. The school was also HIGHLY rigorous and my worst grade was a B+, and i took 4 college classes and 1 honors.
Knowing this information, I was wondering if anyone can HONESTLY let me know if my class rank remains this way (Maybe 20/246 by sr year) if it will be a turn off to t20 schools such as tufts, Georgetown, brown, yale, and bsmd programs. please let me know what i need to do to become a competitive applicant regardless of this if possible?
i appreciate any advice so so much! thank you all!!
You’re a sophomore. So do well in school. You can’t control your rank. You can control what you do school wise.
Do well, stop panicking and in a year it will be time to create a list of reaches, targets and safeties. Sounds like you have reaches in mind already.
Your current class rank (top 20%) would adversely affect your chances for an offer of admission to top 20 schools & may preclude you from receiving serious consideration for most or all BS/MD programs.
You are right to be concerned about your class rank at this stage of your education while you still have time to improve it.
thank you! do you happen to know if i would be able to balance it out with great extracurriculars + medical ec’s ? i predict by the time I’m a senior it will be higher, the only reason its as low as it is is bc of freshman year 
If you asking about BS/MD programs, most require exceptionally high standardized test scores, GPA, outstanding teacher recommendations, & demonstrated interest.
Below is a list of 55 BS/MD programs, then visit each website for more specific information.
Not sure why Northwestern’s HPME program is not included in the above list.
Maybe HPME ended & now the program may be open only to Northwestern Undergraduates who have completed 2 yearsat Northwestern ? Not sure.
https://feinberg.northwestern.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/programs/nupsp/
Undergraduate Premedical Scholars Program
It’s been discontinued.
Thank you.
Has it been replaced by NUPSP Undergraduate Premedical Scholars Program) ?
Class rank is one of the most important factors for competitive colleges. Even more so during the COVID era where many schools were test optional.
If you are an under-represented minority, then you might be able to squeak by with a rank outside of top 10%. An over-represented minority would be even tougher. You can’t really compensate for this by doing more ECs. They will expect to see a high class rank regardless of your ECs.
Have you thought about switching to another HS? Each school district has its own policy on converting prior grades for purposes of class rank. Other options include: online high school and home schooling. Another thing to consider is post-grad year at a boarding school (grade 13).
thanks for the advice! I cant switch schools, as all the other ones in my area do not have enough high-level English and math classes, I also just switched high schools this year due to administrative issues at my old one. I have gotten near-perfect grades all year this year and will be taking all aps for the rest of high school, so hopefully, those will help boost my class rank 
thank you so much for that list, super helpful!! i have done an insane amount of research on bsmd’s so i was expecting my class rank would be too low, but i wanted to see what other peoples experiences are, so i appreciate ur help
Many high schools don’t rank anymore but you should find out if your first high school can provide a freshman gpa to your current one. You should speak with your guidance counselor about how they are weighting/evaluating your freshman year grades and coursework. Was your old school private?
Be careful - take a rigorous schedule but not one that will penalize your mental health and / or your GPA - i.e. if they’re too much for you.
I go back to my first comment - don’t worry and do well.
Your rank is not controllable in the sense of - you can only get As. Yes, rigor will impact your rank in a weighted system - but not in a good way if you get Bs. So taking 6 classes but not mastering them does you know good.
You can only control what you can - and you could actually hurt your rank if you overwhelm yourself. You could also wreck your mental health.
There’s a lot of people who don’t go to top 20 schools that could. There’s also a lot more successful people in life (by rank, title, money, etc.) that didn’t go to top 20 schools that do.
Oh- and they are both “excellent” schools and I’m not sure what rank you are using - but neither Tufts nor Gtown are a top 20 school in the most used ranking - but both are fantastic - especially in internation/foreign service majors.
Be the best you that you can be - and it will all work out.
Don’t kill yourself mentally - because guess what- get your rank up to top 5 or 7% - and 80-90% of those kids are still getting rejected.
Good luck.
my old school was not private, it was a public magnet school, they reported final grades in letter form, and would provide gpa on a 4.0 scale, whereas my new one does it on a 1-100 scale, so there is a possibility of a miscalculation somewhere.
thank you so much! i do plan to have the most rigorous schedule possible for the rest of high school that is also reasonable. also, good to know about tufts and gtown, i have been told that they are t20, so ty for letting me know
There’s many rankings - most use US News. But three’s Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Niche, and more.
Then there’s “major” rankings. For example, if you wanted to manage in Supply Chain Management, you would likely find more opportunities out of Arizona State, Tennessee or Michigan State, etc.
You need to find the right school, not what someone says is the highest ranked school.
That’s still a year away. However, as you start to look at schools, you want to find the right ones for you, not the ones high up on a piece of paper!!
It’s also really not the end of the world to go to undergrad, apply to med school at the beginning of senior year, and go straight to medical school. For some people, that path works out better.
yeah, that is definitely a good point, and something i have to keep telling myself haha, so thank you for pointing that out ideally i want to go the bsmd route, but in the long run whatever leads me to becoming a doctor will be great
@user302903
Hofstra 4+4 BSMD requirement says rank in the top 10% of the graduating class. You may fit into this if you are at 20/246 class rank.
University of Rochester BSMD (REMS) says top 3% of the graduating class (they said you might be a good fit). You can still apply even if you aren’t in the top 3%.
You need to check in to all interested colleges’ individual program reqs to understand whether your final rank fits into their avg intake student’s rank, or you can take a chance.
IMO, instead of worrying about your class rank, I suggest focusing on your course work, getting good grades, and targeting to get a 1550+ SAT or 35+ ACT score, then you are in the game for T20s and BSMDs. Several individuals have overcome the lag in GPA, class rank, and stats with strong ECs, and essays and some lucky ones got into T20s and competitive BSMDs too. Good luck.