Looking through Harvard’s common data set, I noticed that they do not consider class rank. To what degree is this true? Do they just completely disregard it all-together, even if it’s on my transcript? I ask this because I’m looking to apply RD, and my class rank is not spectacular. Due to some personal problems, my freshmen year grades were not so good, but I have much improved since. My class rank is currently 62/352, right around 17%, I attend a very competitive public school that currently has a 26 way tie for rank 1, so it is very difficult to move up the ranks despite having done very well the past 3 years. My ACT score is much better than my GPA, a 35 (tied for highest in the grade, surprisingly), and I’m planning on taking 2 subject tests. So is it still worth it for me to apply (and be competitive) despite my discouraging low rank, EC’s aside for this dilemma.
Harvard does not consider class rank because the majority of applicants attend schools that do not provide an ordinal rank. Those HS’s will generally only provide a decile rank.
Having said that, if there are numerous applicants from one HS, I would not be surprised if the AO’s put the folders in rank order. Your ACT score is an advantage, but a class rank outside the top 10% is not, particularly if you are not attending a top academic HS like Andover, Exeter, Stuyvesant, etc.
At most 2-3 students from my HS will be applying to Harvard, would I still be at a disadvantage? Harvard usually accepts someone from my school every other year or so, not many apply according to my GC.
If the 2-3 are ranked higher than you, than perhaps you will be at a disadvantage, but Harvard evaluates applications holistically. Without looking at all 3-4 applications, nobody here can say for certain.
^^ It’s difficult to say. While Harvard ignores ranking, and your high school may not even supply ranking to colleges, your teachers likely know your relative ranking among your peers. Sometimes that translates into teachers giving students ranked #1 in their graduating class a better, more enthusiastic recommendation than a student ranked 45th, 62nd or 123rd in the class. And those teacher recommendations matter to Admissions Officers! So your in-house school ranking might effect the quality of your recommendation letters (relative to your high school peers applying to the same college) and thereby your overall chances – or, maybe there will be no effect at all. No one really knows, as we don’t know the virtues your teachers will be extolling about you versus what other teachers will be saying about higher ranked students at your high school. As @skiEurope said, Admissions Officers look at an application holistically, but your application is viewed in the context of your high school relative to your peers (as described in your high school’s profile) and the student’s applying from you high school to the same college.
I would say…it depends. It depends on what else you have to offer to make the mix of students in the class an interesting one. It isn’t a competitive game centered only around grades, rank or scores.
So a less than perfect class rank would not be the only thing keeping me from being accepted, if everything else I have to offer is what Harvard is looking for?
Your GPA and class rank demonstrate how you performed over time relative to your peers. Let’s say you and two other students from your high school, both of whom have a HIGHER rank and GPA, apply to Harvard. All things being equal expect for the GPA and rank – which they never are – for your application to bubble to the top, you would need to possess something the other two students from your high school don’t have. It could be a special talent, a thought provoking essay, brilliant teacher recommendations, a stellar interview report, a sense of greater maturity, wonderful character, an EC that Admissions is looking for this particular year. It could be anything. Who knows? And, as you have absolutely no control over the matter, my suggestion would be to let it go.
This article, while dated, will give you an idea of how Admissions goes through applications and what they look for as they read your file: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/keys-to-the-kingdom/
Thanks!
If I read what you’ve written correctly, your class rank of 62/352 will appear on your transcript. Even though Harvard says they do not consider class rank, with a 3% RD acceptance rate they are looking for the best and the brightest and so I would assume AOs would have have a hard time ignoring that there are 61 kids ranked higher than you in your HS. Almost all of the kids I know who were accepted to Harvard (including myself) were ranked at or near the very top of the class. The only kids that weren’t had very substantial hooks like being a recruited athlete. I hope you are successful but I do think you should not have high expectations and you apply to good mix of match and safety schools as well. Good luck!
Every application has strengths AND weaknesses. Most colleges are looking at the apps holistically. Therefore, if you feel your ranking is weak, you need to have other things in your app that mitigate that ranking, and speak to your being in the top percentile in other things: national awards, national competitions, published research, sports, etc.
^^ Agreed, but all top schools state that academics come first and foremost and being in the 83rd percentile of his/her HS, OP will have at least one if not two strikes against them before even getting to the other aspects of the application. That being said, I know kids who attended RSI and had otherwise perfect applications who did not get in so it’s difficult to say what exactly they are looking for. Hopefully, OP has stellar accomplishments, great reds and will write some killer essays that will give them a better shot at getting in. Again, best of luck!
Thanks all for the advise! I’m applying RD so I’ll have an updated rank on my mid year report that will hopefully put me into the top 15% but other than that I suppose there’s not much I can do in that regard so it looks like I’m banking of my test scores/EC’s/essays, just hoping my grades are good enough for AOs to consider what else I have to offer
You wrote “EC’s aside” and it is not really possible for anyone to comment without knowing more about you and what you do outside of academics.
Why do you want to go to Harvard? There are many good schools out there for you.
In general, schools will see that you had one tough year and then recouped. But a school like Harvard will want you to be able to excel even in hard times, frankly.
We don’t know anything about your interests and goals. But I always suggest the Colleges that Change Lives website (and book by Loren Pope) as a good place to start when looking at schools.
If you are in the kind of highly competitive school where talk is of Ivies all the time, try to find a way to get a more balanced and healthy viewpoint.