<p>I was choosing a safety school among the lower UCs (Santa Cruz, Riverside, Merced). Then I saw the class ranks of those admitted in their common data sets. </p>
<p>For example, at UC Santa Cruz, 25% of admits have 3.75+ GPA, 31% have 3.50-3.74 GPA, 28% have 3.25-3.40 GPA, 14% have 3.00-3.24 GPA, and 2% have 2.50-2.99 GPA.</p>
<p>The class rank of the admits from schools that have ranks seem odd compared to their GPA; 96% are ranked in the top 10% of their high school, while the remaining 4% are from 10-25% rank of their school. </p>
<p>This worries me; My UC GPA is high, but my rank is considerably low (probably under that top quarter 9-12) because of my abysmal freshman year.</p>
<p>Can someone explain this phenomenon? Why do the admits of the lower UCs have such high ranks even though their GPA is not-so-good?</p>
<p>maybe ( from my guess ) some high schools do not do class ranks?
Like my school. SO, this could make class ranks in average are high number, GPA in average would be more accurate.</p>
<p>Your class rank is very important in providing meaning to your grades within the context of your school. If, however, the ranking is based on unweighted GPA’s, it becomes much less important.</p>
<p>My school’s rankings are based on UW GPA, but it’s not like my W is much higher. My school actually gives 2 rankings: 1 for 9-12 and 1 for 10-12, but I assume that the UCs look at the former. =(</p>
<p>I am seriously worried right now. Does this mean that I should not consider any of the UCs as safety schools?</p>
<p>^^See, I would think the rank would become less important with WEIGHTED GPAs, since, with weighting, people with better overall grades would have lower ranks just for having fewer advanced classes. </p>
<p>Example: I’m in the top 10% of my class (that’s the highest rank we have; we don’t have individual rankings), but I have fewer APs than many people. But, in theory, my unweighted GPA may be higher than someone with a greater number of APs because I got good grades in my classes (whereas someone with many APs might get a few C’s, but the extra point for honors/AP makes it appear as though that person got a B).</p>
<p>^Irrelevant post is irrelevant. And W is, and SHOULD, be more important. Someone who took all or nearly all normal classes should not be ranked on the same level as someone who took all or nearly all AP classes, which are considerably harder. Colleges realize this.</p>
<p>Back on topic, I would still like to know if I should apply to the lower UCs as safeties. Now I’m doubting that I would accepted to even Merced, seeing how the UCs value rank so much (All UCSD admits are in top 10% of their class…). There HAS to be another explanation for this phenomenon.</p>