<p>This may sound dumb but I can't find the answer on the internet.</p>
<p>-Do colleges even rank you?</p>
<p>-If colleges do rank, how do they rank you? By major? By "school/department?"</p>
<p>-In future job applications how much does college class rank matter? Or is GPA the main factor?</p>
<p>I know that each school at my university has a Dean’s List, but otherwise it’s too big of a school to rank. GPA is definitely more important.</p>
<p>It’s different at every school, but I’m not familiar with any colleges that actually do rankings. The closest to rankings are Latin honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude), and there is a cutoff for each level (sometimes there are also percentage caps - at my school, no more than 5% could be summa cum laude). Of course, Latin honors are determined right before graduation, so it doesn’t really apply during college. </p>
<p>Even the valedictorian/salutatorian titles are not necessarily indicative of rank (and not all schools have vals/sals either). At my school, for example, the graduating senior with the highest GPA is recognized with an award but is not necessarily the valedictorian. Val/sal distinctions are based in part on GPA but also on other factors like professor recommendations, extracurricular activities, and other awards. </p>
<p>In terms of jobs, your GPA usually only matters for the first job (and even then, many entry-level jobs don’t have specific GPA requirements). Of course, it’s more important in some industries than others (e.g., consulting companies like to see high GPAs when they recruit at colleges). It’s never the sole determinant, though. Your past experiences (internships, research, etc) are much more important. </p>
<p>It’s definitely in your interests to keep as high of a GPA as possible (especially if you think grad school might be in your future) but don’t pursue a 4.0 at the expense of intellectual curiosity.</p>