My school ranks by decile. Last year the highest weighted was a 102…, however this year it is only a 99.7. My year is very strong and am afraid the highest might be like 102.3, while mine may only be 101. Will this gap hurt my chances given my rank is reported as top 10%? Will colleges think that I may be very far behind given the 1 point gap when in reality i am may only be 2 or 3 spots behind?
Class rank is determined in most places by where you stand in relation to your classmates. The classmate with the top average or GPA for your class will be ranked first and so on down the line. Where you stand percentage wise has to do with where your grade average or GPA falls in that lineup relative to the number of students in your class.
My school ranks only by decile, and of last year’s class of ~330, 10 or more students went to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Penn. It will not matter,
Sorry, I should have worded better, will a person A with a 99.5 GPA in the class where a 99.7 is the highest have a better chance or be better aligned than person B who has a 101 GPA but is in the class where the top GPA is a 102?
In almost all circumstances, no. “Better chances” would also vary widely depending on the school one applies to as well as the school courses he or she has taken that contribute to this GPA and Rank. 1 or less of a point or percentage behind the highest grade in the class won’t make that much of a difference.
@evanian15 so the person “B” would hypothetically have a better chance than person “A?”
The advantage that person B would hypothetically have over person A is so infinitesimal that it’s pointless to consider. So, I would argue no, there’s no advantage.
if you’re school is just a regular school, yeah it’ll hurt son. need top 10%.
Many schools no longer rank. Rank is a misleading metric, especially when there can be many students in a class with the same or more similar than not GPAs. Those students who comes from schools that no longer rank do not seem to be at any admissions disadvantage when you look at the stats of admitted students reported in some of the top school threads.
The HS profiles provided to colleges allow the colleges to make an assessment of rank, even when direct rank is not provided.