<p>I'm going to be a senior in high school next year, and I'm starting to decide what colleges I'm going to apply to. I'm not applying to any Ivies or very selctive colleges. Right now most of the schools on my list are public schools in my state and neighboring states, and some private schools in neighboring states. My family doesn't have a lot of money, so when I was looking at colleges I looked especially at the ones where my stats were higher than their average stats so I could hopefully get some scholarship money. However, I'm still worried that my class rank might hurt me. My rank is 28 out of 188. I moved back one spot after this last report card (the last report card of junior year.) However, my g.p.a went up. My g.p.a. is a 3.75 unweighted and a 4.4 weighted. My act is a 29, and I retook it in June to try to get at least a 30. All through high school I've taken ap classes and honor classes also. I've also improved my rank from freshmen year. My rank freshmen year was 51 and I've improved my g.p.a. from 3.5 freshmen year to 4.4 now.Do you think my class rank will hurt me? I'm worried my rank will hurt me for scholarships and stuff. Thanks for all of you opinions!!</p>
<p>class rank is very dependent on your high school. Like a student that goes to one of the top boarding schools may just be average there, but if he went to an inner city high school, he’d probably be at the top of his class.</p>
<p>Yeah…as the guy above said, class rank in one high school can mean something different in another. How competitive is your high school?</p>
<p>My high school is a private high school, but no one really applies to the Ivies. People in the top 10 or top 20 sometimes apply to Notre Dame, but that’s usually the most selctive school people will apply to. A lot of people apply to schools like U of I, ISU, and Iowa State. And everyone else just applies to private schools or public schools in state or in neighboring states. Most student stay in the midwest. We are about the same as other private schools in the area. And we are maybe a little above or the same compared to the public high schools, depending on which one you’re talking about. Does that help or did that not make sense at all? Thanks for commenting!!</p>
<p>if it’s money you want you need to look at more selective schools. that’s where all the money is. your class rank does look bad but how many kids are there overall? how competitive is it? that will help put the number into better perspective. as long as your gpa is high your class rank probably won’t hold much weight.</p>
<p>Another factor might be the rigor of your courses. On most applications, your guidance counselor is asked how difficult your courses were compared to what the school offers. If you are taking the hardest courses available to you, for the most part, adcoms will look favorably on you, and they might infer that some of those ranked higher than you are taking a less rigorous courseload.</p>
<p>Honestly, I believe college admissions officials ask for class rank (if your school has it) to put your accomplishments in context. If you have a 3.98 but you’re only in the top 45% of your class, then the counselor knows that your school has insane grade inflation. On the other hand, if you have a 3.6 but you’re still in the top 10% of your class, then the counselor knows that you are performing near the top of your class.</p>
<p>In your case, 28 out of 188 puts you in the top 15% of your class. I certainly don’t think being in the top 15% of your class is going to hurt you at all. The schools are more concerned with other factors, and with a 3.75 unweighted GPA, it definitely appears that you are earning mostly As regardless of what kinds of classes you are taking.</p>
<p>I disagree with BananaSandwich that you need to look at more selective schools because “that’s where all the money is.” Schools that meet 100% of your financial need only meet 100% of your financial need as <em>they</em> calculate it. For example, even if I had gotten into Columbia or Harvard as an undergrad, my EFC was almost $20,000. They would’ve given me grant aid for the rest, but my family would’ve had to take out loans to pay the $20,000.</p>
<p>In contrast, schools in which you rank in the top 10% or even 25% of applicants (depending on how much scholarship money they give out) are more likely to give you a full ride or near a full ride. Emory is very selective; it was a match school for me, and I didn’t get any merit aid there. However, I applied to some selective, solid LACs in which I ranked in the top of applicants, and I was offered a LOT of merit money at those places. I was one of the very top applicants at my alma mater, and I received a full scholarship.</p>
<p>Thanks for all you comments!! Anyone else?</p>