How important is rank?

<p>I know in the grand scheme of things, colleges look at GPA + SAT scores + the classes you took + extracurriculars (not in that rank of importance), but how important is class rank?</p>

<p>I'm probably worrying too much, but is the difference that great between rank 1 (top of the class) and rank 6? (And in the same sense, rank 1 and rank 25) At my school, weighted GPA is based off the classes you take, but it really fluctuates because people who take Latin only have to take two years of prep (Latin I and Latin II) before they can take AP Latin, but all the other languages have to take three years of prep (Ex: Spanish I, II, and III) before they can take the AP form of the class. Moreover, in California, you have to take 2 years of PE as a graduation requirement.</p>

<p>I was just thinking about whether to take PE Senior Year or over the summer, and whether to take Spanish III over the summer or during the school year.</p>

<p>Furthermore, if I want to become an engineer, is it bad to only take 3 years of language? ;_; My schedule is so full because of AP Capstone (AP Seminar + AP Research), and I really don't know how I'm going to get 4 years of language unless I take it over the summer/during the evening of my summer/ junior year. (Sorry for two questions, but much appreciated if you can answer it!)</p>

<p>Hopefully this all makes sense, and thank you so much! :) Really, I'm just a confused sophomore who appreciates all and any advice!</p>

<p>As long as you’re in the top 10% then you’re fine. You might be missing out on some scholarships that only go to the valedictorian or salutatorian, but it won’t make much of a difference in terms of admission. </p>

<p>Top colleges recommend 4 years of a language in high school, but if you have a directly conflicting important class then your guidance counselor can explain that in their LOR and it most likely won’t be a problem. You really should try to relax.</p>

<p>I see a lot of threads about the importance of rank. Consensus? Top 10% and you’re fine.
However, I go to a sub-par public HS with an extremely unfair weighting system (I.e. Online classes hurt, study halls help, testing out hurts, etc.). So even though I’m undoubtably taking the hardest course load in my class and getting straight A’s, I’ll probably not be in the top 5. </p>

<p>I agree with the earlier comments. Once you get into the top 10% rank doesn’t seem like it will make a significant impact. With fairly large class sizes there’s usually noticeable gpa/stat/rigor differences between those at the top and those at the very top, anyway. The really selective colleges like to say they reject a lot of valedictorians, and it’s true. </p>

<p>3 years of a language is fine. Usually when colleges ask for 4 years they ask for 3-4 years. I had that problem with my college apps, but I just explained my situation when necessary and I still got accepted to the schools with those requirements.</p>

<p>Speaking of rank, if your high rank is also due to the small numbers of your class, do they take that into account? Freshman year I was number two, right now I’m like, five, but I know that one person is graduating early and another is considering leaving the school. (Plus my GPA is raising.) If I got Salutatorian or Valedictorian, would they look at it any less because my graduating class will probably have about 100 students?</p>

<p>^No, they will not look down on having a class size <100.</p>

<p>Rank is terribly unimportant as long as you’re in the top 10% or close. Every year, there are valedictorians and salutatorians rejected from top universities. Likewise, every year, there are also people ranked 16+ in their class who are still accepted to those same top universities. Rank isn’t the only thing that colleges look for in their applicants. </p>

<p>Wow, it’s a huge relief to see that rank isn’t important as long as you’re in the top 10%. I’m in the top 6%, but seeing the ubiquitous “Class Rank: <em>single digit number</em>” on here can be disheartening to some extent. I probably would have a higher class rank based on weighted GPA, but my school goes off of the unweighted GPA – and a lot of kids take the easy classes where the teachers literally give A’s for showing up.</p>

<p>OH! You should’ve said it’s based off of uwgpa. Colleges only care about the numerical value of your uwgpa. Colleges only care about the rank of your WGPA. </p>

<p>Not to beat a dead horse, but rank really doesn’t matter once you’re in the top 5-10 percent. Places like Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc don’t really care past that. Our rank 1 last year applied to a lot of schools, but only got into Georgia Tech while 20 went to Stanford and 19 went to MIT.</p>

<p>What if class rank is done by unweighted GPA and not weighted?</p>

<p>@DigitalKing‌
I don’t think it’s true/you should be saying that schools don’t look at your rank if it’s unweighted unless you can prove that it’s true. That’s just coming from someone going to a school w/ Unweighted Rank.</p>

<p>@TheAtlantic Traditional UWGPA is on a standard scale. Rigor is not taken into account. Thus, a UWGPA rank is not really valid. WGPA rank is more accurate because it takes rigor into account. The only problem is when the WGPA system is screwed up, which is why colleges are starting to care less about rank (a quick google search will prove this)</p>

<p>Rank depends a lot on your high school quality. If you are in a bas school, rank becomes a great indicator. For a lot of private schools and public schools with good reputations, rank will matter a lot less. My private school didn’t even report rank to colleges because it would hurt so many students due to the quality of the school.</p>

<p>Well that sucks. I’m at a terrible school and my rank will probably be out of the top 5 because of the ineffective system. I undoubtedly have the hardest freshman course load in my class (and maybe in the last decade at my school, not kidding) with a 4.0 </p>

<p>Class rank is a scam. It is declining in importance every year because of the wonky systems schools create. Being val/sal will set you apart, and I think top 5%-10% roughly is normal for top applicants (won’t help or hurt).</p>

<p>Class rank is a bit of a sore topic for me, so sorry if I sound bitter. I met all qualities to be admitted to the Honors program with a large merit scholarship at University of Pittsburgh other than class rank (must be top 5%, I am not). However, my school does unweighted- thus, my rank doesn’t accurately reflect my standing as some kids above me take no honors or AP courses (I took plenty). Just seems kind of silly that my school measuring my GPA one particular way literally cost me thousands of dollars in lost merit money, when some other schools just don’t do rankings. Frustrating.</p>

<p>Doing weighted has it’s drawbacks too, though, in the way you mentioned earlier- kids in Latin get extra weightage though a technicality, etc. The system is absolutely bonkers and the fact that colleges actually use it as admissions criteria blows my mind.</p>

<p>Rank is very important if it’s done by GPA. Sometimes colleges will compare you to other people in your class. For example, schools like UCLA and UC Berkeley will usually take the top applicants in your class. According to Naviance, those at my school who had the highest GPAs were almost always accepted to UCLA and UC Berkeley. They were in the top of the class because of their high GPAs. Very few students with lower GPAs were ever accepted. Every single person who got into UCLA this year was in the 10% of my class. Besides, the majority of accepted students were in the 10% of their class anyway. However, it’s not always the case if you have an amazing hook. This just goes to show you that rank/ GPA is very important. Rank stops mattering after you’re in the 10%, but you should still maintain a high GPA. </p>

<p>Can I ask for an opinion? Here’s my story:</p>

<p>I took Geometry and Spanish II in 8th grade, both of these were 1/2 credits as I was at the school for only a semester. At the beginning of freshman year, I very stupidly asked my counselor if I could get credit for these classes. She said no, however, 2 months later they were put in. Soon after, I discovered CC and saw that this was bad, very bad for my GPA, so I asked her to take it off. They refused. Now here’s where it gets complicated. I’m taking Spanish 3 H freshman year, only level 3 languages and above are honors (e.g. Spanish 1 and 2 are not honors, 4 and 5 are.). I am the ONLY person taking a level 3 language freshman year in my entire grade, so I would have the highest GPA even with 2 B’s. The Geometry and Spanish 2 credits ruined that. Moreover, if I haven’t told them to add them on, they would have never done it. They even said no. What do I do?</p>

<p>Heck, I know multiple people that weren’t even ranked top 100 that got into and go to UC Berkeley. I’m rank 13 (okay thank a bunch of English B’s, but nothing else), and it was a no for my college of engineering admission :/</p>

<p>Oh, and I don’t believe the college (UC college, and other colleges you get what I mean) sees your rank until you actually submit the transcript.
As far as foreign languages, I think 3 is fine, well on an engineering perspective, engineers at my college are exempt from foreign language graduation requirements (because why do they even need to have skill in this? / lighten graduation requirements)… </p>

<p>@apandia I’m in the same boat. Didn’t get honors credit for geometry test-out and now my WGPA is pulling down my rank (I should be #1, but now I’m somewhere between 15-20).
My advice? Eventually people will get B’s and you’ll get closer to the top. But goodbye #1! (I know, it sucks…)</p>