<p>
It had been ages since I had been on, so I was skimming by and saw this. As an upcoming senior this fall, class ranks had been released before summer.
I wasn’t thoroughly pleased with mine. Apparently, the bottom half of the top 10 is made up of kids who coasted through high school by going through C.P and stupid classed like puppet making. Versus a kid like me who take all A.P and struggled to earn a measly A-
I really wanted to get into a good school, but now I have huge doubts. If class rank is really important, what are the chances of a person ranked as 14 who take all A.P’s and honors with barely any easy electives. Against someone ranked number 7 who takes C.P’s and stupid useless classes and is too afraid to take A.P’s in fear of harming their “4.0” G.P.A
=[</p>
<p>IMO Subject tests and APs are the most accurate…no grade inflation, no take-the-easy-road competition, and few prep courses so affluence isn’t as big of a factor (who takes a prep course for APs and Subject tests?). Still demonstrates you learned stuff at an in-depth level.</p>
<p>There are prep courses offered in my neighborhood for APs and subject tests. Offers come in the mail almost daily!</p>
<p>I completely agree.
the level of the difficulty of classes varies from school to school.
if you go to an extremely competitive school, like my school, where 38 students out of a class of 340-ish got into Berkeley and 15 got into Ivies this year, your GPA is going to be lower than if you went to a school where one student gets into an Ivy and 3 get into Berkeley.
GPA is so skewed.
my school doesn’t rank the students either.
pshhhh.</p>
<p>
I completely disagree. </p>
<p>The exam is a indicator of how much you know versus other people because it is standardized; the grade is an arbitrary mark given by teachers who may or may not like you.</p>
<p>@Norrel: Don’t sweat the class rank thing in your case; just make sure your GC checks the “most rigorous curriculum” box on the secondary school report. Adcoms have seen that kind of thing before, and the school profile probably tells them if grades are unweighted. They’re not dumb. Where being out of the top 10% might hurt you is in formula-based merit scholarships. But if you’re “that good,” other merit aid will probably be available to you at your safeties, and a lot of tippy-top collges don’t even offer merit aid anymore.</p>
<p>Class rank can be flawed as well… for example, at my school top ranked students often are taking vocational classes which count as three credits and are an instant 97-100. Even among the upper level academic students… there is a tremendous variation in classes and course load. My class rank fell this year because I skipped a year of french and took AP Calc ahead of grade level… but the GC at my school is going to check off the “most rigorous” box on anyone who takes the normal progression of difficult classes (AP Calc senior year, French 4 senior year, etc.) that’s why you have to be careful… make sure your GC writes in his rec that you are taking classes more difficult than the students ahead of you.</p>
<p>we had a mentally ■■■■■■■■ girl (she was not mainstreamed) in our top ten percent this year. lovely.</p>
<p>Ability isn’t something that can be measured whether it is through GPA, test scores, or class rank. There is no way to measure one student against another therefore the entire system of college admissions is flawed.</p>