<p>for several of the ivies, MIT, and stanford, how much does class rankings matter? I'm in the top 5 out of about 500 but expect it to drop about 10 spots when people who took college classes over the summer transfer over.</p>
<p>15/500 should be okay for a competitive school.</p>
<p>1/500 too be safe.</p>
<p>It matters a lot. Too much. The research is pretty clear on that. There will be a lot of other factors, of course, but even a drop from #1 to #5 has an outsized impact on admission probability.</p>
<p>It's fairly stupid on the part of the Ivies, I think, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>Tarhunt is right, unfortunately...</p>
<p>although the majority of schools no longer rank and the majority of Ivy/elite applicants come from such schools, competition among ranked students is fierce; dropping even a few spots could really hurt. That said, 15/500 is an excellent rank; top 3%. You certainly have a fair shot.</p>
<p>I understand how the rankings come into place, but does it really matter if you're number one like in a class of 90. So would rank even matter in this particular case?</p>
<p>Yes, jamarin, rank matters. Heck, the Ivy League academic index uses rank as one of its factors.</p>
<p>Would the ranking look wierd as heck if the person has got an F in a class before?</p>