<p>If this is the wrong forum, mods please move. My D is applying to several different summer programs. The applications opened this week. She met with her counselor today. In the course of the discussion my daughter asked for her class rank, this is information that is kept by the school but not distributed to students. Some students know others don't. My daughter decided she wanted to know her rank to use as her own motivation tool. She knew in freshmen year she was in the top-ten, with weighted courses and now with AP courses she believes she is probably higher. Her counselor refused to give her the rank with no explanation. Is this allowed? I have a call in to the counselor but it is something that I would rather my D work out. Does this fall under some guideline of what is in her educational file and her right to view it? Her GPA is 3.9/4.57 weighted last spring. Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>YOU have the right to see her school records (I would think that includes class rank, transcript, whatever). SHE may not, until she’s 18 - depending on what your local regulations are:</p>
<p>[Family</a> Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)](<a href=“http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html]Family”>Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA))</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous for your daughter to not be able to get this information. All our kids have to do is go to the couselors office and make a transcript request. The class rank is on the transcript.</p>
<p>Call the school.</p>
<p>Does the school officially rank?</p>
<p>My daughter’s high school didn’t release ranks at all to anyone.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school they didn’t distribute the info until junior year, as I recall. The counselor’s “refusal” may actually be a matter of school policy regarding when they officially calculate the rankings. Also, as mathinokc points out, the school may not rank. If some people have been given this information while others haven’t, that would be a problem. But it could be that people who say they know their ranks are making stuff up. I would call the counselor’s office myself to find out what the deal is. As far as motivation goes, it seems your D is on the right track. Maybe the class rank info would help her if she is competitive, but she already seems to understand that getting lots of As is a good plan.</p>
<p>If her daughter knew her freshman year that she was in the top 10, and some other people know their ranks, I was just assuming that:</p>
<ol>
<li> The school ranks.</li>
<li> It’s possible they only release ranks to parents. If it’s a highly competitive high school, this might cut down on students comparing ranks and disputes and struggles that might come from that during the school day.</li>
</ol>
<p>And also, I was trying to point out that it might not be something the D can just “work out on her own” - they may not release record information to minor students - period.</p>
<p>My daughter is a senior at a private school in Los Angeles. Her school also does not distribute class rank. My husband & I recently met privately with our daughter’s college counselor, and I asked for my daughter’s ranking. I was immediately given that information verbally at the meeting. (It had never occurred to my daughter to ask for this.) I would recommend that the parent(s) ask for the ranking directly.</p>
<p>LosAngelesMom - exactly. If they rank, they have to give the parents the information. They are not required to give them a copy though - only verbal, or let them SEE the record.</p>
<p>I’m not disagreeing with you, cromette. I would also, as a parent, ask for the information and clarification on policies. Maybe the D knew officially where she stood after freshman year and maybe it was not official. Sometimes facts and rumors get mixed up when high school kids are involved. In a case like this, the simplest thing to do is for the parent to ask the school for more information.</p>
<p>^^good idea. That way your daughter will understand what is available to her, and what might be available to you. Plus, I’m sure the school has a reason for not releasing rank to her (probably all students - I doubt she’s being singled out). It would be helpful to know what that reason is.</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t officially calculate ranks until senior year. Rather annoying if you are trying to get a handle on how good your child’s good grades actually are. The counselors are generally happy to give you a handle on it. I asked junior year at a joint meeting with my younger son’s GC and was very happy to discover he was definitely in the top 10% as I thought it perfectly possible that he could be ranked much lower. Huge difference between a B+ student and a top 10% student in terms of what looks like a reasonable bet.</p>
<p>At any rate, I would guess that the reason for the refusal is to cut down on the atmosphere of competition, especially if getting a better rank involves playing games like not taking electives and other unweighted courses. As a parent, in this case, it seems okay to call. Your daughter tried to get the info and failed. You may be able to be more persuasive explaining that it helps with future college planning and figuring out which summer programs she has a shot for.</p>
<p>Thanks, I have a call in. The school profile states that they don’t rank but it is known that the number is kept on each student. It is a helpful number for college planning etc. but the school appears to hold more guarded. I am hoping I can get more info.</p>
<p>I had a similar experience at my daughter’s HS. They officially do not rank and name the val and sal at the end of senior year. They do say that they will provide class percentage if required for scholarships (NJ has this thing for kids in the top 10% of their class so they are required to generate that list). They do put the highest GPA for the class (through Junior year) on the school profile so you can get some idea of where you stand relative to that number. I asked for my daughter’s rank during senior year and was told that the information was not available. I then requested to know if she was in the top 1% (because that was the requirement for a scholarship for a school she had been admitted to) and guidance ran the special report for me and told me the yes/no answer (but not the rank number). Then at graduation they put an asterisk in the program next to the top 10 students in the class (the grad class is about 500). I thought this was nice (and my daughter was pleasantly surprised by this when she saw the program), but sort of too little too late. I think the top ten kids would have liked to have known where they stood earlier. I do know that before the sal and val were named the girl who I believe ended up ranked 3 tried very hard to get them to tell her what her rank was all senior year long and they refused.</p>
<p>If you’re going to speak to the GC about rank, this might be a good time to get a look at your daughter’s transcript and the school profile to make sure there are no errors. I learned that here at CC and it was a very good lesson for me with D1 as there actually were errors in both.</p>
<p>Our school also does not “officially” rank, but does keep ranking calculations and names a val and sal. Just because the counselor won’t/isn’t permitted to tell your D her rank, doesn’t mean the guidance office won’t/can’t release that statistic to parties who absolutely require it for admissions decisions, eg. selective summer programs and the military academies. That is what our high school claims to do.</p>
<p>The HS both of my children (now and in the past) attend(ed) states that they do not calculate rank or GPA, and there is no weighting. In fact, they do internally calculate GPA, but since it’s not released anywhere (transcript is sent without any GPA or processing by the school) the internal GPA is fairly meaningless, since the internal methodology would be unlikely to be universally employed by anyone else looking at the raw transcript. Obviously, this strategy can either hurt or help the student, depending on the student’s record.</p>
<p>It would definitely hurt a student applying for public college in my state.</p>
<p>Our high school did not rank. That did not stop my son from getting into the flagship (top 25 school) with a full tuition scholarship</p>
<p>3bm103, I don’t know what state you’re from, but I would have to say that your son would be the exception and not the rule in our state.</p>
<p>Michigan…</p>
<p>Congratulations! Your son must be an exceptional young man! :)</p>
<p>We have kids in this state ranking in the top 8.01% of their class with a 3.8 gpa and a 1300+ SAT that are not allowed into the biggest and highest ranking flagship.</p>
<p>At the other flagship, if you’re not top 10% OR top 25% with a 1300 SAT (CR +M) you will most likely be admitted to a feeder program, or not at all.</p>