Class Ranks...

Applying to College
1

<p>Does class rank matter so much? Because I am so confused right now...</p>

<p>My class rank is 113/339, or 33.33% in other words. While I do have an interesting percentile, I didn't expect this... This is a public High school!</p>

<p>With just class ranks, all my safeties are matches and matches are reaches. But...</p>

<p>I have a 3.69 UW and 4.07 W GPA. I know this is far from being a stellar GPA, but I've had circumstances during my freshman and sophomore years that caused a drop in my grade. Plus I was an ESL who moved in as late as my Freshman year from a non-English speaking country. Both these were to be covered by letters of recs and my essay, so I didn't worry much until I noticed my rank just today..</p>

<p>Throughout my High school tenure, I've taken 4 APs and 1 college course. And many honors -can't even count them b/c so many random classes are labeled honors and some rigorous ones are not... Got 5s in three of them, and one 4.</p>

<p>I have 2240 in SAT -shooting for 2350 this time- and 760 and 790 in SATII US History and Bio respectively. I am also planning on taking math II which I expect an easy 800.</p>

<p>Again, I admit this is not a fantastic profile; I know there are others who take more rigorous courses.</p>

<p>But seriously... This is a public High school. A lot of the top 10% students are not even qualified for this. For instance, this one kid who's ranked 13th has never even taken an AP class, and her SAT score -which is her only standardized score- is in the 1800s. Meanwhile, I'm down here... And the class ranks are based on weighted GPA.</p>

<p>What I learned is that those random business, drama, and even something like Foods & nutrition class are counted as honors (5.0 credit). Frankly, many classes that count as honors aren't even academic -like foods or photography classes... And yet our school website only mark those math, science, APs and very rigorous classes are being weighted.</p>

<p>Is my class ranking going to impact me? I know that our school discloses it only when requested by the college, but seriously our school had to do this... Giving 5.0 credit to those inept kids taking whatever easy classes they could find...</p>

<p>*Our school ranks in 4.0 scale.</p>

2

<p>Thank you for reading, and I’m sorry that I am rambling a bit up there. But I am seriously unnerved right now seeing my low class rank.</p>

<p>And I’m not asking about how Class ranks will help to get into colleges. I know that the top ranked "unqualified"s are at most applying to state colleges and will not get a huge boost other than for their ridiculous weighted GPA from their “random” courses.</p>

<p>What I am asking is here is how my ranks are going to hurt me. If you’ve read what I’ve written up there, you’ll see how an unequal representation the class ranks are. Seriously, a student with no APs or challenging academic courses at all having 4.4+ Weighted GPA? I know a guy who has taken 7 APs -and 6 more for senior year- and has yet a lower rank than her due to a single B… But the colleges have no way of knowing it, and if they ask for my class ranks, they’ll see my rank and think I am the one who’s inept. And our website doesn’t say that the “random” classes don’t count as honors…</p>

3

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<p>It depends on the colleges you are applying to. Look at their common data sets, or information on [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) , to find out how important class rank is relative to other factors.</p>

4

<p>Thanks ucbalumnus! I am looking into Middlebury for ED actually. But while Middlebury was a reach from before, now with the class ranks I’m even more unsure of my decision.</p>

<p>But do colleges dig into the class rank? Do they request from the school if the school doesn’t officially release it?</p>

5

<p>You are not being disadvantaged when compared to students with higher ranks on the basis of non-academic classes. The schools can differentiate between an A in trigonometry and Food Sciences even if your high school’s transcript does not. Some colleges even recalculate their own GPAs based on a set of core academic courses. Your GC, who will discuss your ESL issues in his/her letter, should be able to let you know if it is reasonable for you to use your ED chance on a particular school. FWIW, I think the majority (or solid minority) of schools do not issue ranks any longer and students from those schools are not disadvantaged.</p>

6

<p>“But do colleges dig into the class rank? Do they request from the school if the school doesn’t officially release it?”</p>

<p>As per Middlebury specifically – NO. Middlebury gives strong consideration to class rank IF it is provided. However, only 26% of the Class of 2010 attended schools that provided Middlebury Admissions with class rank. (Middlebury did not indicate the percentage of students who provided class rank on its 2011 CDS)</p>

7

<p>@YaleGradandDad - it is a disadvantage because the schools he is applying to may not know that those ranked above him got there through weighter non-academic classes. If it’s on the same transcript, yes they can see the difference between trigonometry and food science, but they will never see those classes.</p>

<p>My daughter has a similar disadvantage - I’m not even completely sure why her HS even bothers with a weighted average. Weighted average is shown on their transcript (+.4 for honors, +.8 for AP), but unweighted average is used for class rank. She was originally shown as 51 out of 255 (top 20%) with a 3.6 weighted average calculated through powerschool (using all weighted averages). Then they recalculated rank using unweighted averages, and she dropped to #60 out of 242 (now top 25%). 13 students no longer counted, but 9 moved ahead of her.</p>

<p>Given that most selective colleges will recalculated GPA using their own unweighted system, why even bother?</p>

8

<p>The high school also sends a school profile that explains how the GPA, class rank etc are calculated, as well as the AP and honors courses offered.
Colleges know how to evaluate a transcript in light of what the school offers. I don’t think any good college that has a holistic approach to admissions would reject you because of your rank if your grades/course difficulty/test scores are high enough.
Some college ignore class rank altogether, while some will look at it but consider less important than other things.</p>

9

<p>OP --</p>

<p>Every school looks at things differently. Given a holistic approach, a top top school might overlook a relatively low class rank if it felt the rest of the application was spectacular. In your case, ESL can explain your fresh/soph grades and might well work to your favor.</p>

<p>However – if a school is a ‘reach’ or a ‘match’ based solely on class rank, I don’t think you can consider it a safety school under any circumstance. (My definition of safety is one that you are positive or almost positive you’ll be admitted to.) I’m not saying you shouldn’t apply, and given your accomplishments, I think an ambitious list is probably warranted. </p>

<p>You should, however, have a couple of matches and at least one safety based on the weakest part of your application.</p>