I have been contemplating about this for a very long time, and I would love to know if being number one helps significantly more than being number 2 in admissions. I’m currently number two, and in my sophomore year in high school. I do have a good array of extra curricular such as band (first chair Clarinet), full orchestra (first chair Clarinet), Mu Alpha Theta, and the math and science teams. I’m also in outside academic summer programs such as PREP. So, please let me know if the difference in ranks between 1 and 2 matter.
How large is your class? If it is 20-30 people then there is a big difference…if there are 400-500+ then not much of a big deal. That being said, being #1 does give your application a bit more flare, but remember that generally around 10% of all applicants who apply to Ivies are valedictorians or co-valedictorians.
For most of the very top schools, it isn;t about being Valedictorian. It is about being very accomplished and being Valedictorian may be an outgrowth of that but not necessarily. Sometimes being Valedictorian is the result of being very careful about picking classes that are likely to maximize the weighted grades-and often that means not taking things like band or orchestra and art classes because they are often unweighted. That means those who take more classes and do more are penalized. Universities and colleges are aware of that. The very top schools are more interested in academic risk takers and those willing to go beyond their comfort zone not very careful gamers. So those schools would turn down a valedictorian who took no risks in favor of someone slightly lower in the rankings but who took risks.
It doesn’t really matter that much - as long as you’ve still got great grades and are taking lots of advanced classes. I’m ranked 9th in my school (although we have unweighted rankings) and was admitted EA.
Not really; ~half the HS’s in the US do not rank. GPA’s by decile/quintile is as detailed as they get.
For a school like Princeton, being #1 vs. #2 is not a deal breaker; it’s the rest of your application that will help decide whether or not you are accepted.
From watching admissions results from my kids’ highly ranked public HS, I’ve come to believe that the top 1% have good chances at the most selective colleges, the chances for the next 1% are noticeably lower and, below the top 2%, chances fall off dramatically.
I’ve seen that the top 10 (give or take) % seem to do well at the very top schools for our local district.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=186 says that MIT considers class rank, but it is less important than course rigor, GPA, standardized tests, recommendations, essay, interview, extracurriculars, talent/ability, and (most importantly) character/personal qualities.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=111 says that Princeton considers class rank as one of the very important criteria with course rigor, GPA, standardized tests, recommendations, essay, talent/ability, and character/personal qualities.
Look up each school of interest, because they can all be different.
From watching admissions from my public HS, as long as you’re in the top decile rank doesn’t matter all that much. It depends on your essays and ECs. Now, it just so happens that the people who write the best essays and have the best ECs tend to be in the top 1% but that’s not necessarily true.
agreeing with the above- in our experience, it’s about being in the top cohort, but #1 or 2 or 3 doesn’t seem to correlate (last year, #1 got turned down by schools that accepted students ranked #8, 10 and 12 (all still in the top10% of the class).
MIT in particular is not bothered by the number (read their admissions blogs, especially Applying Sideways).
You may want to read this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1866659-need-advice-im-so-mad-at-dds-school-p1.html
It’s about as important as it sounds. Counting down one number on a piece of paper.
You mean how important is it to be named Val AFTER college admissions are done??
Colleges only track Vals so that the class profile published next all can state – “Class of 2020 has X number of high school Vals,” but the difference between 1 and 2 (or 1 and 12 at many schools) is completely irrelevant when making admissions decisions. Most schools don’t rank, many don’t name Vals until graduation, and adcoms absolutely know which schools require careful strategy to become #1. They are far more concerned with the rigor of your schedule and your actual performance than whether you are 1 or 2 or 7.
If MIT openly states that building a functioning nuclear reactor in your garage wasn’t impressive enough on its own to merit an acceptance, do you really think being called valedictorian (vs. just being a top caliber student generally) carries that much weight?
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways
I think it matters not at all. Our school thankfully doesn’t engage in pitting students against each other like this but I can say that the majority of students from our school who have been successful were not those with the top GPA. Those same students were the ones that everyone knew were the best students, regardless of what some arbitrary and most likely flawed ranking system may have said.
Wow, thanks for all of the replies! However, I’ve been thinking about this situation: what if the current ranked number one person in my class has a significantly higher GPA than me? Would this actually hurt my chances in getting into MIT or an ivy college if that ranked number one person actually applies to MIT? I’m talking about a one point difference. Also, my class has over 700 students if that helps.
It doesn’t matter as long as your own grades and scores are high enough to be considered viable. A very close friend of my son’s was #11 in her high profile magnet school and was accepted to Princeton. Another student outside the top 10 was also accepted to an Ivy, while none of the top 10 were.