<p>How important is the class rank based on unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>My school is so competitive, we don't even give out class rank (unless specifically requested by the university).</p>
<p>It all depends on the college.</p>
<p>If you're are talking HYPMS (harvard, yale, princeton, mit, stanford) then it is the most important thing in the app. still, not all schools use unweigted GPA to rank. Mine uses weighted.</p>
<p>Alot of public school districts do not rank. The theory is that ranking disadvantages people taking the honors and AP courses. If a high school doesn't rank, they will estimate your rank based upon the high school's profile. Each high school sends it profile along with your transcript.</p>
<p>That's true, but my school system (public) gives extra points for Honors & AP classes when figuring your class rank (and also your GPA, of course).</p>
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If you're are talking HYPMS (harvard, yale, princeton, mit, stanford) then it is the most important thing in the app. still, not all schools use unweigted GPA to rank. Mine uses weighted.
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<p>There's no way rank can be the most imnportant part of the app since it changes a lot from school to school (some use UW, some W, some don't rank at all).</p>
<p>I think rank is more important than GPA, because you could have a high GPA from grade inflation, or a low one due to a tough school/cirriculum, but rank shows how well you did against students in the same enviorment/ circumstances.</p>
<p>Lucky for me we include P.E. in our ranking, that's why I'm #1 right now. Another kid has same grades if not better in other classes. I still have all A's, but he got a B in P.E. so I'm #1.</p>
<p>"I think rank is more important than GPA, because you could have a high GPA from grade inflation, or a low one due to a tough school/cirriculum, but rank shows how well you did against students in the same enviorment/ circumstances."</p>
<p>This is true. Rank lets you know where you stand in YOUR class compared to your fellow classmates. If you have a 3.7 gpa and are in the top 10% of your class, then that's really good. However, if you have a 3.7 gpa, but are in the top 25-30% of your class, that may not be viewed as highly.</p>
<p>what about if I have a 3.9 and I am number 1?</p>
<p>I have a 3.96-3.97 GPA unweighted which looks very good. But my class rank isnt as good.. maybe 7-9 out of 250 because I've taken the hardest course load (including accelerating into AP English courses as a junior). It frustrates me to be ranked lower after working so much harder than ppl ranked ahead of me.</p>
<p>Have you guys ever thought that schools use a COMBINATION of rank and GPA? Neither can really tell a story on its own--but used together, they're much more helpful.</p>
<p>its all about putting everything in perspective with ur high school ... believe me, a 4.0 means nothing in itself, just as a 3.0 could mean nothing... rank and/or what ur GPA truly means is what counts and HS profiles will explain this</p>
<p>a 3.0 from a difficult private school could be stronger than a 4.0 from some crap public school, where 25% of the people have a 4.0 or above</p>
<p>even if ur school doesnt rank, the profile will explain the grading system and general percentages and trends of grade distribution over the last few years</p>
<p>if you check the common data sets at the top tier schools (ignore Penn since their data borders on fictitious), you'll see that anywhere from 50-80% of matriculating students even report rank. Thus, if you school does report rank, it IS important to private colleges. If your school does not report rank, it is not important.</p>
<p>fyi - In Calif, for example, ~50% of public schools rank -- and thats a LOT of high schools.</p>