@momofsenior1, that is awesome that your HS honors students who maintained a 4.0 and in 98th percentile on standardized tests. That makes sense. Totally agree the Val should be one person!
I usually see it the other way around. Parents force their kids to take AP or DE classes that have a reputation as easy “A’s” (e.g. AP Environmental Science, Psych, Stats, etc) so they get the added weight rather than allowing them to take non-AP/DE classes that they may actually be interested in.
This comes up annually and how schools compute gpa or rank or don’t rank seems as variable as can be. Our system uses a formula comprised of unweighted gpa and act or sat score from the state test and a percentile based on the AP classes and names the top scholars. It seems fair although meaningless outside the high school as colleges will look at the very same information and interpret as they wish.
Agree that being Val/sal is not everything. I’m certainly solidly in the top 10% (21/305) but not the tippy top with a 3.9 UWGPA. Got a couple B’s in harder unweighted non-AP/not-on-campus DE classes (Physics, Human Anatomy, Programming) that many rank focused people don’t take, which pushed my rank down.
Two of us with similar UWGPA/Class rank/ACT (~3.9/20ish/32-34) are attending the highest ranked colleges in our class. I’ll be attending Washington and Lee and the other girl in my position will be attending West Point, which are numbers 10 and 12 on the USNWR (for those who care, this is the only way to give context to people at our rural midwestern school!).
Don’t worry. Your kid will be considered in the context of your H.S. if your school profile is decently written. Ours is on our website; perhaps you could see if yours is available and make sure it accurately reflects the real situation.
@momofthreeboys, I think a little of both occurs. In any case, glad to be almost done with the process.
Glad to say that ranking did not affect admissions or merit scholarships anywhere he applied. I’m so glad the whole high school thing is about to be over. We’re in the final stretch and I feel the stress cloud starting to lift just a bit.