Okay, so it appears, that our private high school, that we pay money for, is eliminating class rank.
Their rationale is that they have a lot of smart kids, and it hurts the kid who is ranked #17 out of 100. My point is, no it doesn’t hurt that kid, because that kid isn’t taking all AP/IB courses… sure, maybe has all A’s in CP or H classes, but isn’t all out focused on taking the most challenging coursework.
My petition is if ranked #17, not getting into an elite university. Yes, a 4.8QPA with 1100 SAT is well rounded, but that kiddo isn’t fighting to get into a top twenty five university.
Oldest was #1 and received many invites to top universities.
Next two… likely will be #1… but the school will no longer rank… and I’m just wondering how big of a deal it is?
The next two kids will do fine, will have 1450+SAT, will have 5.0QPA / 4.0GPA, lots of EC/Service, etc… but I have a feeling being CR#1 got a lot of the EA direct to next queue, and then accepted if no red flags. I cannot prove this… but my HS senior got into a lot of universities EA or whatever… and peer group didn’t with maybe higher standardized scores, etc.
I have two more kids to worry about… and believe… because they will easily be #1 at their HS… that this is actually quite unjust.
Lots of schools do not rank, including my kids’ school. It doesn’t hurt the kids in college acceptances… name any highly selective school, we have kids from our HS going there.
I think this won’t negative impact your kids. In many cases, the high school counselor sends a school profile to each school. This often includes the ranges of GPAs for the class. Clearly, if your kid is at the top of that range, it will be easy to figure out that your kid ranked number 1.
Our high school stopped individual rankings years ago, and sends only deciles. Honestly…no one is complaining.
It actually seems to be becoming more common to not rank. And AOs are probably aware of that and know how to compare students even without that extra bit of information.
(My D23’s school doesn’t rank, either, and the top students still tend to land at the top schools without it.)
100% agree. It will not hurt not having a class rank.
We do not have class rank either and it has never hurt students from our school or school district which is over 33K students.
Also, keep in mind, the school profiles shows a significant amount of information on it that AO’s can deduce where a student falls in the range of students from a graduating class. Looking at the GPA ranges and amounts of AP’s taken and then cross referencing to a students application, they can see if they fell within which % of grades.
My daughter’s private high school doesn’t rank. Instead, they submit a school profile that shows the GPA distribution amongst that class. It can easily be figured out.
I don’t think your feeling about the impact of #1 CR, based on anecdata point of 1, is borne out in the real world. In any case, the lack of class ranking will not likely impact #1 more so than #2 or beyond.
SO many high schools have removed class ranks because they are such a meaningless metric with, just as your school suggests, a strong ceiling effect. It doesn’t differentiate well between those with high values. Thats why so many schools have dropped it, with some reporting whether student is in a certain percentile category instead. This provides a more meaninful statistic for college use.
Even without percentile, there still remain a number of student characteristics that can be judged against the school profile. For example, course rigor, as represented by the number of AP/IB courses- you seem acutely aware of which students in the class ranks are taking such courses, so there’s no reason to assume colleges aren’t as well.
Very few high schools, especially private/highly competitive ones, rank or release rank to colleges.
By the way, many kids ranked 17th at competitive high schools do indeed have highly rigorous coursework and go to T20 colleges. On the flip side, some high schools will have “valedictorians” who didn’t take the most rigorous courses. It’s very school-dependent.
School profiles will typically show a GPA range and AOs can extrapolate a student’s approximate rank. You can ask the school’s college counselors to mention rank in his/her counselor letter, though, if this is important to you.
Our school doesn’t officially rank except for #1 and #2, and weighs honors and AP’s the same, so someone can be #1 without taking any AP classes. The top 20 figure it out amongst themselves and figure out their actual rank, I think colleges can figure out where students stand using other means.
Our high school (one of the top public high schools in the state, which sends many kids to elite schools) has never ranked, and now our district has ended rankings in its other high schools. I think it’s a good decision. The competition to get to the top of the class can be cutthroat and there could be hundredths of a GPA point between the valedictorian and #50 in a large class – a meaningless difference. Moreover, rankings can drive families to game the system by getting exemptions for required courses that are not weighted (i.e., art, PE, or similar). Meanwhile, families with equally high-achieving kids might not have the savvy/cultural capital to try the same, and why should their kids lose out for following the rules? Why not encourage kids to focus on getting an education rather than seeking out the hundredth of a point that can put them at the top of the class? And in this day and age, when academic pressures are the source of so many mental health crises, why add to the problem with this kind of competition, which can be unhealthy?
In the end, getting rid of rankings won’t matter. Lots of valedictorians get rejected from Harvard. And the counselor’s letter will make clear that the school does not rank, so students are not penalized for not including this information. Meanwhile, the transcript and the awards and honors your kids surely will receive will tell the whole story. (Btw, I went to a private school that did not rank and ended up and an Ivy. My husband went to the high school that my kids go to now – no class rank – and ended up at a top 5 LAC. Different times, I know, but rankings don’t have to be a big deal.)
AFAIK, a majority of high schools no longer rank students. Most that I’ve seen, like my local school, provide weighted and weighted GPA of the top 5%, 10%, 25%, etc. in the school profile. This is sufficiently granular for an AO to understand where a students stands vs. the population.
One thing that I have wondered about. A student will not know where they are ranked until the end of their senior year. However, acceptances come in earlier than that. Even with top schools such as Harvard or MIT or Stanford, you will know whether you have been accepted before you know whether you were #1 or #2 or #3 or … in you high school. I knew that I was going to MIT long before I knew what my high school ranking was.
Regardless, I do not think that this matters. University admissions will see your child’s grades and references. They will see what classes your child took. They will care about how they want to compare class rigor to grades, which might not use the same formula that the high school uses. Admissions will know how strong each student is as a student. For the top schools, they will be comparing your child to a rather long list of other exceptional students.
One of my daughters was #1 in her high school. It was rather obvious even though her high school did not talk about rank. She applied to universities long before her final grades and ranking were available. She nonetheless got accepted to her first choice with merit aid, went there, and got a great education.
Yes… we encourage our kids to do more… try more… even risked “losing” class rank by taking summer courses (max QPA of 4.0 for summer course, so effectively hurting QPA).
So no need pass judgement. We learn to learn. Look to be the best.
Maybe I’m just stuck on the fact if we still have scoreboards in the gymnasium … of an academic institution… those should come down too??? Why do we care that Johnny practiced his whole life to play golf and go play at some small local school??? I digress, maybe my issue isn’t really about my kids, CR, and maybe more with the whole focusing on the wrong things.
For those that game the system, that’s ludicrous. That’s not in our DNA. Those that work hard, and get #1CR… should get it… my oldest has it, and if he lost it, we didn’t care… never was anything cut throat in our house… just always worked hard.
I guess I don’t have an appreciation for all the nutt jobs out there?
Ah the class rank…you do understand there are a LOT of different formulas for computing GPA and that’s what is used to determine class rank…right?
Something was clearly wrong with my kids’ school computation because their weighted GPAs (with honors, AP and DE classes with A grades) was lower than their unweighted one. I sent my DDs transcript to five different area guidance offices. All I really wanted to know was of the weighted should be higher (consistent answer…yes). But the funny part was every one of those five computations netted a different GPA and weighted GPA. Yep…all different. Some schools used only core courses. Some used + and - grades. Lots of variation.
Well. After two years of haggling, the school did agree there was an issue. They changed their way if computing GPA and this affected class rank as well. The student who had previously been number 2 went to 3 (the number one kid remained number one). The parent blamed ME for this, and swore she would never speak to me again…and she didn’t.
Her kid graduated from Notre Dame, went to medical school, and is a practicing physician. ND was always her top choice. Being ranked 2 or 3 didn’t matter one bit.
I will add…my own kid’s rank didn’t change.
School discontinued ranking by number and went to deciles.
I wouldn’t equate a multidimensional and individual high school career and a sports match. One is a competition in which a score and ranking are essential, and the other … is not.
Are they aiming for Texas public universities, where rank is the most important admission criterion?
If the answers to both of the above questions are “no”, then it is less likely that the absence of rank will matter.
However, it would have been better in the interests of full disclosure before parents and students decide to enroll if the school made the discontinuation of ranking effective beginning with the next incoming 9th grade class.
