How important is class rank and how is how is it determined? How do colleges know your class rank? Thanks (:
If your school ranks, then colleges will know, I think the counselor sends in the rank via their secondary school report.
If your school doesn’t rank, then colleges won’t know your rank.
Class Rank is usually listed as a “very important” factor in college admissions. If your school doesn’t rank, then it is not considered in the process.
Colleges will be able to infer class rank based on the HS Profile which lists GPA breaks within the student ranking.
As far as how important it is, it varies by school. It’s the most important item in TX public Us. Some schools like U West VA don’t consider it at all. Look up the Common Data Set for each of your schools, section C7.
The HS Profile may or may not include the information that will allow a college to guess at an approximate rank. Class rank, if it is done at all, is determined by the high school. At our high school only “academic” courses are included and it is based on the weighted GPA. This means you can take extra art courses and not be dinged. Other schools used unweighted GPA, still others count all the courses. The only way to find out is to ask.
If you are ranked and are applying to a class where most students are in the top 10% or top 25% of the class it’s going to hurt you if you aren’t.
@mathmom so if my school doesnt rank is that a disadvantage for getting into a top school?
No it’s not a disadvantage.
No it’s not a disadvantage. Many, many schools don’t rank especially smaller ones that have high performing students. They know reporting a rank will only hurt their students. That said, sometimes colleges can get an idea of the rank from other information that the high school provides. And sometimes the GC will say things in their letter like “___ is one of the strongest students in the class” or “We don’t rank, but if we did, ___ would probably be in the top 10%.”