GPA and Class Rank question

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

First, three caveats. 1) I’m not sure if this sort of thing has been asked before, but I couldn’t find anything. 2) I don’t care about the whole rounded application thing. I get that, but I’m asking a specific question about whether it advantages me to make a choice to list my rank or not. 3) This is my first post, and I’m new here, so I apologize if I’m somehow violating three or four rules/etiquette stuff/so forth.

With those out of the way…

Basically, I have a pretty high GPA. However, I go to a super competitive magnet school with kids who basically game the system (take a bunch of honors to boost GPA, etc.) For example, I have chosen to take jazz band three out of four years, and that’s not an honors class.

Anyway, the particulars don’t actually matter. Unweighted I’ll have a 3.94, and weighted I’ll have a 4.78.

But I’ll be ranked about 20th-25th in my class, out of about 450. Valedictorian will be about 5.2, to give you an idea. The thing is, I’ll be right on the edge of within the upper 5th percentile of my class versus without. It’s going to be pretty close.

So my question is, for getting into the top, say, ten colleges (the top Ivies, UChicago, Stanford, etc.), how much would that rank hurt me, or am I even better off leaving it on there?

I have the chance to have it removed from my application. Should I do that?

Thanks in advance! It would be super awesome if someone could help me out.

2

I’m not certain I understand the question, are you saying that your school will conceal your rank if you choose that option?

3

Yes.

4

i personally think top 5% (or borderline top 5%) will not in any way hurt you
even for top ten schools

5

At what threshold do you think it would start to hurt me?

6

those schools tend to look for top 10% so it might possibly hurt you if you were top 15% or lower

7

And the colleges will receive your school’s profile, so they will know how competitive it is, demographics, stats, classes offered, %going to 4-year school etc. So I don’t think it really matters if you keep rank on or not. When you look at a Common Data set for a particular college/university, the category is “% of students ranked in the top 10%”.

8

If you are talking about top 10 colleges, 5% will definitely hurt. It’s actually extremely difficult for a valedictorian to be admitted to top ten colleges

9

First, you say the other kids are “gaming the system”, no they are taking harder classes, which is why they get a higher point average. SO, don’t even think about talking about that in say, an essay. Colleges want to see that you took “the MOST challenging courses” your school offers, and you didn’t. Now, that said, if your GPA is lower because of Jazz band, whcih doesnt have honors, that’s something you are passionate about…talk about that. Hopefully you are really good, musically, or it will have all been for naught.

10

I have the same problem you have. I go to a large public school where classes in the arts are not weighted, and I will be taking orchestra all four years of high school. There is a section on the Common App for additional notes - I would include a note in there about how your weighted GPA is lower because you took band. Talk about it somewhere, too, in the application. Show that you took challenging classes and jazz band and you did well in both. Demonstrate your interest in jazz band. You’ll be fine. :slight_smile: