Which is more important when it comes to college admissions (specifically more competitive schools), class rank or GPA. I have a 3.768 weighted overall GPA with a class rank of 201/874. My current GPA for sophomore year is a 4.065. My class rank was 387/893 last year with a GPA of 3.481 weighted and unweighted.
Many schools have stopped reporting rank. That said, it can provide context for a student’s GPA.
Also, UW GPA is usually a more useful tool.
Depends on the college.
Google Common Data Set for each of your schools and look at Section C
We heard from colleges during info sesions last year they care more about GPA (grades) and rigor than class rank. As someone else said, many HSs / districts are moving away from ranks.
Good luck!
if 10 people from your high school apply and class rank is provided, rank will obviously be most important since that also signals GPA. Take it for what it’s worth the only kids to get into Stanford from my kids high school in the last 5 years were twins that ranked 1/2. … and low and behold on the common data set Stanford check’s the box “very important” for class rank. I get in arguments here all the time and although I wish my state did not require public schools to rank, they do. Private schools generally don’t provide colleges with rank, public schools do. Psychologically if an admissions committee considers their school highly selective, the chances they take a kid ranked 102 from a typical public school are very low.
If 10 people from your high school apply and class rank is not provided, one can assume that an AO will still note each GPA/rank relative to the other 9. And if the school profile provides some type of GPA distribution, it’s not hard to guess how close the top CPA from those 10 is to the top GPA of the class.
For schools that provide rank (or at least GPA distribution), I think where you place in your class relative to your classmates is more important than your GPA number. For example, I would rather be in the top 5% of the class with 3.7 UW GPA than in the top 15% with a 3.9 UW GPA.
Let’s take two quick examples:
LSU https://www.lsu.edu/bgtplan/cds/2017/3_1718_Admissions.pdf
Class Rank is Considered, GPA is Very Important
UTexas https://reports.utexas.edu/common-data-set
Class Rank is the dominant attribute for TX schools
Each school is different. Look at the CDS info.
It varies by college, but in general grades are more important than rank, and highly selective colleges may review the transcript in detail and consider things like course rigor and how harshly your HS grades, rather than just looking at GPA alone. Each year the NACAC asks admission officers at hundreds of colleges to rank the relative importance of different application criteria in admissions decisions, including GPA and class rank. A summary of the most recent public survey is below and available in more detail at https://www.nacacnet.org/globalassets/documents/publications/research/2018_soca/soca18.pdf
In 2017
81% say GPA (grades in all classes) has considerable importance in admission decisions
71% say grades in college prep classes have considerable importance in admission decisions
…
9% say class rank has considerable importance in admission decisions
Note that class rank becomes increasingly less important and GPA becomes increasingly more important as an increasingly large portion of students do not submit rank. The majority of high schools in the United States no longer rank students. A comparison with the percentages in the 2007 report from 10 years ago when the majority of US high schools still ranked students is below.
In 2007
80% say grades in college prep classes have considerable importance in admission decisions
52% say GPA (grades in all classes) has considerable importance in admission decisions
…
23% say class rank has considerable importance in admission decisions
@Data10 This is a great document, thanks! A lot of good information. A couple interesting stats:
- 2017 ED and EA admissions are up, but overall yields are down. That's an interesting combination.
- On Table 7, it says that 61.5% of institutions said ECs were of limited to no importance. Also, 82.2% said an interview was of limited to no importance.
Of course it would be nice if they provided this same data for, say, just T20 schools or just T50 schools.
They provide some clues in the correlation matrix of Table B.4. Using acceptance rate as a proxy for T20/T50/selectivity, selective private colleges have the following adjustments compared to the overall average of colleges. “Far more likely” means selective private colleges are far more likely to consider the criteria important for admission than the overall average of colleges.
Essay (far more likely)
ECs (far more likely)
Interview (far more likely for selective private, somewhat more likely for selective public)
LORs (far more likely for selective private, somewhat more likely for selective public)
Grades in College Prep Classes (somewhat more likely)
Strength of Curriculum (somewhat more likely)
Demonstrated Interest (somewhat more likely for selective private, little change for selective public)
High School GPA (little change)
Test Scores (somewhat less likely unless international)