<p>My DS's school does not have or at least report "Class Rank." How do colleges (especially Honors Colleges) deal with this since there is no way to prove you are in the top 5% of your class? Seems like most scholarships are based on class rank. I always thought it was strange to use this criteria since students at his school could be in the top 25% of their class there but top 5% is they were at local public school.</p>
<p>I have the same question but presume that the guidance counselor checks off the appropriate range on his/her recommendation form, particularly when a scholarship or honors college placement is at stake. Would I be correct?</p>
<p>Since over half of high schools, public or private, do not report class rank, there has to be some method used by scholarship organizations and honors colleges. Often it is a combination of GPA and SAT/ACT scores. The UWash honors college doesn't even mention class rank: <a href="http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/prospective/admissions.html%5B/url%5D">http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/prospective/admissions.html</a> but does require an additional essay.</p>
<p>Class rank is not revealed at our competitive suburban public high school. However, the school does reveal decile rank, and will reveal other ranks (e.g. top 5%) if required for scholarship applications.</p>
<p>The school stopped class rank perhaps three years ago. So far, there has been no noticeable or obvious change in college acceptances from our school; the top kids still are still getting in to competitive colleges.</p>
<p>It's an interesting question. Our school "has" but does not "report" class rank. If you look at common data set info, it becomes apparent that at least half of high schools don't report rank. For example, check out the link below. Princeton, in their 2002-03 report claims on p. 7 that class rank is "very important." On p. 9, they state that only 39% of matriculants came from schools that reported class rank. Our GC says the colleges have various formulae for figuring it out for themselves. In the case of scholarships, our GC reports the rank privately....they just don't put it on the transcript.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=76444%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=76444</a></p>
<p>There are several posts on the kids' forums that have this language or similar "Rank: my school doesn't rank but I'm #2 or #3." LOL.</p>
<p>On many of the the School Report forms that the guidance counselor fills out, the class rank question is asked. The forms ask that the guidance counselor estimate by decile if class rank info is not disclosed.</p>
<p>The HSs think they are doing you a favor or somehow they are above tacky class rank. The colleges still need selection criterias. De facto the colleges probably use Sat I and II, AP scores, etc. more than they did 20 years ago in the absence of class rank. And people wonder why colleges put so much emphasis on test scores. What are they supposed to look at?</p>
<p>At some schools ranking would just not make sense. DS goes to a competitive private school with 25 in his graduating class. 100% of his class will go to 4 year colleges, mostly prestigious schools. Ranking would be misleading at best - you could be in the lower 50% of his class and still be a stellar student.</p>
<p>most of them examine the School Profile, and make an estimate from it.</p>
<p>OP: ask to see your school profile, which usually includes grade ranges, average test scores, etc.</p>
<p>The private school my son attended did not rank which is pretty much the practice at the most of the bigger private schools in our area. Their reason is well founded. Using my son's class as an example, there were 82 boys in the class, 19 were NMF semifinalists, 18 made it to finalist and over 30 others were NMF commended. The top 10 percent would have been only 8 boys. All of the 19 were in the toughest curriculum the school offered and the class ended up with over 25% enrolled at Ivies (7 were accepted at Yale alone) or other comparable schools (MIT,Cal Tech, Stanford etc) so to use ranking as a differentiation point would have been difficult to discern at best.</p>
<p>The difference in GPA between the top 25 students was probably somewhere between .05 and .09. The difference maker in selecting Validictorian and Salutatorian (the only two that are officially ranked) has often been determined by which foreign language the student took because of available Honors and AP classes in some languages that weren't there in others.</p>
<p>A major plus from this process is that students focused on learning and weren't worried about their rank slipping a place or two because they were taking 5 or 6 APs, were varsity athletes and otherwise heavily involved at the school. Additionally the competition they felt was internally driven with students trying to be THEIR best rather than being THE best and having a cooperative learning environment (study groups etc) was never an issue.</p>
<p>There will always be a few who are driven to be number one (which is why they still have VAL and SAL) but to be honest, at least at this school it really wasn't an issue that the majority were concerned about. They knew how academically strong their class was, and the mutual respect that existed was something to behold.</p>
<p>I think using class rank as an important admission's criteria is unfair to students for the reasons spikemom mentions, as well as for other more important reasons. Kids cram their schedule with AP courses so as to compete for class rank when they might be much better off taking courses that interest them. Sometimes the honors or even regular courses have a better teacher, or even a better curriculum - yet the AP gives that extra point, so they go for it regardless. Some teachers at the same school are more difficult graders than others - not just in grading, but with regards to amount of homework and difficulty of tests as well, so an A- in one class might be equal to an A from the other teacher. When you have less than 100 kids in your grade, these differences can mean that one A-, rather than the A , can bring lower your rank several places.<br>
Ranking also creates unnecessary competition among students. You can see that on this board. When the difference between being #1 and #5 is one A- in a challenging course, it becomes pretty meaningless.</p>
<p>Edit: What eadad said. :)</p>
<p>Let's make the distinction between using class rank and abusing the use of class rank. Clearly class rank has value. Even at a selective private HS, the college may find it noteworthy to know whether the applicant was first or last in his/her class. Abuse would be to make a major decision by statistically insignificant (i.e., 8th or 10th in a class of 600 or .001 GPA) differences.</p>
<p>We readily assume college admission directors can properly analyze and assess essays, ec's, recommendations and test scores. I would assume they would also make an enlightened assessment of class rank as well given the opportunity. Remember one never rewards for the lack of information in making decisions.</p>
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<p>I think that's why high schools have no problem checking the boxes showing in which decile a student falls. Top 15% vs bottom 15% says a lot.</p>
<p>But colleges must adjust since top 20% at my DS's school could equal Top 5% at local public school. Its just seems like a wierd thing to compare...since the dumbest kid (although not dumb) at one very competitive school could be in the top 25% at another school. There MUST be a school weighting factor involved.</p>
<p>They do adjust for schools. Relax. Just look at the high numbers of kids from the well-known preps who get into the most selective schools.</p>
<p>Thanks ASAP......I will take a breathe ;-></p>
<p>The non ranking of my child's school did not affect acceptances/scholarships at all- especially when the high school is a small,private, college preparatory one.
The rigor of the curriculumn and all the other factors(SAT,GPA,course selection,SAT II's) usually suffice.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to a very large (4000+) NYC specialized HS. They claim they don't rank, how ever we have found that the do estimate the decile for college/scholarship reqs. My D was not happy about this becuase she probably would have been #1 or at least top 10 in our local school, in the school she goes to she barely cracks top 10%. This with a 95 uw average (they claim not to weigh either, who knows) and 5 AP classes.</p>
<p>Most colleges are fully aware of the rigor of curriculum at well known private/prep schools and ranking is not an issue. Our school gives the colleges a grade distribution report (as part of the school profile) for all classes taken by the student with that student's grade in the class highlighted. They see all courses offered, courses taken and performance in each course taken compared to others in the class. From what I understand this is a practice used by many other top prep schools as well.</p>