After looking at Georgetown stats and based on what I’ve heard, 3/4 of georgetown’s accepted students are their high school class valedictorian/salutatorian/somewhere in the top 5. Just wondering, what have y’all heard? Do you think this is true? Thanks!
Don’t take people’s word for it - judge for yourself: https://georgetown.box.com/s/xani81o0z2iq0anudhge
By “top 5”, do you mean “top 5 individuals by class rank” or “top 5% by class rank” ?
The data referenced in the post above show that more than 3/4 of accepted students at Georgetown for Fall 2016 were in the top 5% of their class – but not necessarily that they were ranked #1 to #5 individually.
Out of 3,369 accepted students for the Class of 2020:
1,247 ranked #1 in their class - 37.0% of accepted students
429 ranked #2 in their class - 12.7%
248 ranked #3 in their class - 7.4%
956 ranked in the top 5% (but not #1, #2, or #3) - 28.4%
So the data show that 57.1% of accepted students ranked as #1, #2, or #3 in their classes. That’s a pretty high number. If you included students ranked #4 or #5, it would be even higher, but we don’t know by how much, because the numbers for accepted #4 and #5 students aren’t shown.
The data do show that 85.5% of accepted students were in the top 5%. However, many of those probably had individual ranks below #4 or #5.
Thank you! I meant top 5 people/ total number of students. Your stats are much appreciated! 
@Corbett
@dzleprechaun thank you!
I don’t think it matters that much. Only about a quarter of applicants submit class rank anyway, and you need to keep in mind the sample bias that results from looking at valedictorians and salutatorians. Those students were valedictorians for a reason. The fact that a disproportionately high percentage of valedictorians were accepted does not mean that Georgetown fawns over valedictorians specifically; they are just looking for the best students to accept, and valedictorians have superb academic records at the very least.
In my case, I came from a very large, well-respected, competitive high school, where I wasn’t even in the top 5% of my class (I’m pretty sure I was in the top 10% but was frankly not that interested). I still got in because I had great grades, hard classes, strong test scores, and a well-rounded application outside of academics. If you have a good transcript and good extracurriculars, don’t sweat your class rank if you aren’t near the very top. You have a chance to get in.
@2016senior2020 I am in the exact same boat, my school is large and my rank isn’t all that great. I am just worried if my standardized tests and extracurriculars will be enough to compensate for that, but thank you very much for you feedback! Much appreciated!
Schools differ tremendously. A “valedictorian” at one school is not the same as one at another. My suggestion is to apply and see what happens.
^ I agree. Having just gone through the Georgetown application process with my DD (who was accepted) and having met quite a few incoming and current students, I believe that GU is really looking for top students. If someone is an extremely strong student (but not a top 10 student) at an excellent high school, I would not expect GU to disadvantage that person merely due to class rank. Top Unis such as GU are well aware of how strong individual high schools are.
Thank you both so much ! @londondad @exlibris97