<p>hi,</p>
<p>some questions around class rank:
- applicant has 3.7 unweighted, 2200 sat, very strong rigor and ecs
- class of 150, very good high school, no ranking, however 3.7 avg is 5th decile and deciles are sent to schools</p>
<p>would 5th decile class rank make it very unlikely to attend top schools. For example, hamilton reports 97% of class comes from top quarter of class. One would guess the other 3% may have hooks.</p>
<p>thoughts?</p>
<p>tia,</p>
<p>" 3.7 avg is 5th decile"</p>
<p>Colleges need to know relative strengths of their students. They know many schools do not rank. If GPA of top students is 3.7, then that’s relevant. It’s their job to delineate a top student with at 3.7GPA. Don’t worry.</p>
<p>5th decile means that the applicant barely makes the top half of the class. I can’t imagine there are many high school being so competitve that half their students gain admittance to top schools.</p>
<p>Some of this low ranking might be explained by “very strong rigor” and the GPA being unweighted. However, if the high school is truly competitive then most students in the top half of the class will also have a course load that has “very strong rigor”.</p>
<p>In my mind, 50% of a high school class with unweighted GPA of 3.7 is a clear indicator of grade inflation.</p>
<p>oops. Thnx for clearing that up rmldad. I misread 5th decile to mean 5th percentile. I agree with your conclusions fully.</p>
<p>I totally agree on the grade inflation point but disagree on rigor. for example, an A in band counts the same in gpa as an A in ap chem. Some students manage to take band and jazz band in the same year. This distorts the ranking.</p>
<p>applicants rigor is characterized by five ap courses and 9 college credits to date, four more ap courses this year…</p>