How does your school calculate class rank?

Applying to College
1

<p>Does your school calculate class rank based on unweighted or weighted GPA?</p>

<p>I'm asking because I'm in a bit of a situation right now. I will have a 3.90 GPA when I begin applying for colleges. However, my GPA places me in the top 10 percent. Apparently, ~75 students have four or fewer B's. My school calculates rank based on UNWEIGHTED GPA, therefore not taking rigor of courseload into consideration. I'm afraid my rank will affect my chances of admission, though everything else is good - high SAT scores, unique EC's, ect. </p>

<p>Can anyone shed some light onto this for me?</p>

2

<p>Schools know how to differentiate btn weighted and unweighted GPAs and how they may affect a student’s ranking. I had a 3.9UW in my HS and finished about 10th or 12th but probably no one except the Val took as rigorous a courseload as I did. Was the only one accepted at an HYP.</p>

3

<p>The only thing our school uses weighted GPA for is class rank. Colleges will look at your core subject areas : math, science, soical studies, & english and determine : course rigor (they want to see the most difficult courses your school offers) & grade in that course. With so many high schools going away from class rank it seems that colleges use it less in admissions.</p>

4

<p>This is the reason that many students take basket weaving classes to boost class rank… depending on where you are applying it actually works.</p>

<p>If you are looking at very selective schools however they will look at your course load.</p>

5

<p>weighted GPA…means that my son fights to stay out of classes where he is warming a seat for 4.0 scale classes. It is quite a fight sometimes!</p>

6

<p>My school doesn’t do weighted gpa, so it is all based on unweighted gpa. Yeah…</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the responses, guys. So bottom line is, the rank shouldn’t hurt me, right?</p>

8

<p>It may affect you for colleges that use numbers-driven admissions. However, most top colleges try to take a holistic view of each applicant’s situation.</p>

9

<p>Look at it this way: the colleges that are only numbers driven (UW GPA) won’t care about your rank anyway and frankly, won’t be that selective in terms of admissions criteria –that’s why they don’t bother to re-calculate W vs. UW.. The ones that practice a more holistic approach will see your weighted GPA like nina1228 says above.</p>