First of all, do class rank include the freshman part of your high school years?
2nd, do colleges take this into a lot of consideration?
3rd, do class rank come for each year? like class rank for freshman, class rank for soph, etc.
<p>it depends on your school.</p>
<p>At my school class rank gets recalculated at the end of every semester. I'm not sure how it is when it comes to graduation and vals' and sals at that point I think the calculate the commulative GPA's</p>
<p>thanks
can someone answer if it is really that important for colleges</p>
<p>It is important, it indicates how well you have done in relation to your classmates. However, it is viewed in relation to your school...so if you come from a mega competitive school, if may not matter as much, as long as your GPA is decent.
Many selective schools admit especially high numbers of valedictorians and salutatorians; Rice admits 57% of vals and 54% of sals while Brown admits 33% of vals and 30% of sals (vs 24% and 16%, respectively).</p>
<p>At most highly selective colleges, they analyze your academics in terms of your SATs, SAT IIs (if you took them), and class rank...this is b/c grading policies are different at every school, and a student could easily have a 98 GPA and be a much weaker student than someone with an 85 who is at the top of their class...they also takje your course load into account of course.</p>
<p>Ask your GC about what counts in your rank, usually it is the grades you have received during all high school classes...</p>
<p>What if your school doesn't rank? I only know I'm in the top 10% because I'm in a honours society that requires a minimum percentage of 90%, and by dividing the number in that group by the total amount of students, I can calculate my decile.</p>
<p>The order they take it (I think) is rank, weighted GPA, and if ur school doesn't weight, regular GPA...so if they don't rank they will look to your GPA but of course they can also compare that with your test scores/decile/etc. to get a sense of how lenient/stringent your school is on grading.</p>
<p>I was ranked #2 last year, but this year I dropped to #5 because of a B in one class. it says #5 on my transcripts. but if I'm sure I can make it up so that by next quarter it averages up to an A, and therefore I'll go back to #2, can I put down #2 as my RIC on my apps?</p>
<p>No, you usually have to put whatever your transcript currently says.</p>
<p>Class rank means a lot for colleges but it is only one piece of the puzzle. You are not going to get into a selective college just because you were #1 in your class. </p>
<p>At our local high school, the school calculates weighted and unweighted cumulative GPAs and weighted and unweighted academic GPAs (cutting out classes like PE, etc.). They also calculate your GPA excluding your freshman year. Class rank is based on weighted, academic gpa including your freshman year.</p>
<p>Each class, freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, will have its own separate ranking.</p>
<p>Some colleges do not take into account freshman grades. The University of California system is one and Stanford is another. </p>
<p>Class rankings show up on the transcript and often the counselor filling out the school report is asked to put the ranking down. If your school doesn't rank, the counselor is asked to estimate which decile you will fall in. </p>
<p>I haven't seen a college application where you are asked to self report your class rank. But if you do, you better report the one that shows up on the transcript that will be sent. Reporting a hypothetical ranking based on some future event isn't proper.</p>
<p>I had read that Ivies (perhaps others, too) have their own preferred way of recalculating your GPA to suit their interpretation -- regardless of If and How your hs weights/doesn't weight. (Just as UC has their own weighting system based on their "a through g" courses, & what they assign Honors & APs. And I only know that because I'm ELC & they told us the adjusted UC GPA.)</p>
<p>I don't know if Ivies still use Academic Index, but the Ivies' in-house GPA recalculations used to be an element of that.</p>
<p>I think it would be really important to remind recommenders of the importance of stating the content of the coursework they've taught you, the kinds of things that were required, & the level at which you produced (especially if those are Honors or AP classes). That would be a much truer sign of your ability to handle college work than a bleepin' standardized test. One of my recomenders teaches the 2 classes I take from her in college-seminar format. (as in, Upper Division) She's already told me that she's writing a rave review about me, but -- sigh --- that'll probably mean less to the adcoms than my lame Math SATI (650). The adcoms will probably also ignore my Verbal SAT I (two 800's in a row). Sounds pessimistic, but it seems that they're always looking for quantitative imperfections as excuses to eliminate applicants.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wonder if any of them reads these boards.</p>
<p>the main reason i ask this is because i got an awesomely bad gpa in freshman year *(3.6 weighted) and pretty good the years after (soph 4.3, junior 4.5)
i am applying to the UC's and Stanford mainly and i don't want them to see my class rank so low with that 3.6 included because that will probably bring my whole gpa like .2 or .3. I know that these schools don't calculate the gpa with my freshman year, as ellemenope said, but what about the class rank? Will the high school's send the rank including the freshman year or will they send a another rank excluding it? This is very stressing because my freshman year sucked like c rap. I hope that they see my rank according to my sophomore and junior year. will they?</p>
<p>thanks guys</p>
<p>Class rank is usually one of the most important admission factors, sometimes even more important than SATs and GPAs.</p>
<p>It shows how well you can perform in context of your surroundings. Generally the very top colleges only accept from the top 2-3% of regular public schools, and probably from the top 25% of mega competitive private/magnet schools.</p>
<p>I have a question...</p>
<p>Does being ranked #1 at a really small public school (as in 40 per class) mean nothing since there are only 40 peeps and it is not a competitive school. Sure, I work and take AP's online since my school doesn't offer anything. I don't mean I am not at all hardworking. I just mean my peers, for the most part, are not. Do you think a school like Williams college will basically ignore my class rank since I go to a pretty small and rural public school?</p>
<p>Sorry I'm just being picky or whatever as I await my ED decision.</p>
<p>No, I think it might actually help you. They want to see that you took full advantage of the opportunities you had...and you seem to have gone far beyond that. The fact that you go to such a small rural public school might actually help you b/c they will see that you "beat the odds".</p>
<p>Thanks for the reasurrance Nicky!</p>
<p>LOL, you're welcome!! We can all use some of that right about now! Haha</p>
<p>Jose, I can answer you giving you the UC example. I just don't know if other colleges are similar/different. For the ELC program, for example, UC obtains the transcripts from the particular high schools they seek, asking for top 12.5% of the Sr. Class (cumulative GPA, I think). From there, though, they only calculate sophomore & junior year GPAs (based on their required course list, not all courses), & figure the 4% from there. So even though all colleges do <em>see</em> the whole transcript, perhaps most of them mainly focus on those 2 years, + 1st quarter/trimester of Sr. Yr.<br>
Obviously all colleges mostly like to see progress, & an upward trend is more favorable than a downward. If you have the chance, I would esp. call attention to the upward trend and/or reason for it.</p>
<p>Umm.. classicist
What if, without the freshman year gpa, i'm inside 10% (4.35-4.4 gpa), but with the freshman year gpa, i fall short of even 15% (4.0-4.1) (I don't know my exact class rank, but this could be possible)? Does that mean they won't even take me into consideration?
btw my school is a tough magnet school</p>