For most colleges im looking at i am in the range for all the requirements but class rank is where i fall short. Is Class Rank a big factor to colleges or do they mostly focus more towards GPA, SAT, and stuff like that?
I really don’t think that colleges care all that much about class rank. However, some of the top schools are accepting kids with near perfect GPAs and test scores. Chances are if you have a great GPA and SAT score, you are within the top ten percent of your class. I think that’s a bigger contributing factor to the fact that 95% of students at a school like Harvard were in the top 10% of their class in high school, rather than the idea that AOs automatically reject someone who isn’t ranked in the top 10%.
On the other hand, being ranked #1 in your class will not make up for test scores that are out of the range of the college you are applying to.
In regards to your question about your stats, “GPA, SAT, and stuff like that” are so much more important than class rank. Being valedictorian is a great achievement, but it varies so much school to school that worrying about rank is a waste of time. As long as your stats are within a school’s range, you have a good shot! Good luck!
I think most colleges don’t look at a student’s rank in a vacuum. They look at the school profile sheet which accompanies each transcript, and tells where you are in relation to everyone else in your h.s. class, as well as what courses are available so they can see whether you have taken a challenging course load. Ask your GC to go over the school profile sheet with you.
From what I understand class rank has little significance unless you are a valedictorian for most schools. Where I am, class rank matters the most because of auto-admission for the top x% of the class.
MidwestDad3 is right. An admissions officer would normally have the school profile in front of them to help them put your performance in context. Also, for most private high schools very little information on class rank is released. Having said that, to the extent possible, shoot for a high class rank just don’t obsess if you aren’t at the top
It varies greatly by school. For instance Class Rank is the Primary stat for admission to Texas Public Us. Look up the Common Data Set for each of your schools, section C7.
Tons of high school don’t even report rank - check the percentage reporting on the CDS from lots of top schools, and you will often see numbers below 50%.
It’s a piece of the puzzle when it is available. If your GPA is 3…50, but your class rank is top 10%, it certainly seems like your high school graded pretty tough, so perhaps that will mitigate the damage from your GPA. Conversely, if you have a 3.90, and you are NOT ranked in the Top 25%, there will be some suspicions that perhaps your school inflates grades.
In most cases, I very much doubt it matters at all.
As Erin’s Dad said, it varies with school. Many HS do not report exact rank so making it hard to be a universal prime factor for admission. It is however a piece of useful information when evaluating your GPA though as there is no standard in grade distribution and therefore GPA values. Nevertheless, most of the top schools would predominantly admit students within the top 10% which may be simply an outcome of high academic performance by other indicators (such as GPA and score).
Depends on the college. For example, for GTECH, class rank does not matter at all.
http://www.irp.gatech.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CDS_2013-2014_04292014.pdf
(see page 8)
I don’t think it matters that much in terms of admissions, as everybody else said.
However, I will say that it DID change the amount of one of my freshman scholarships. Most colleges give merit scholarships for people who had at least X GPA, Y ACT/SAT, and Z % Class rank. For me, the Z% class rank is also where i slacked a little bit (GPA wasn’t THAT bad…top 10% with 4.3 but I had a class of 600 kids). I got $3000 LESS in merit scholarships because I wasn’t in the top 3% of the class, despite being more qualified than plenty of students from smaller schools with lower GPA/ACT/less challenging classes.
It doesn’t really matter much at all, but I’m still a little salty about it.
^Just curious. On what basis do you think you were “more qualified”.
@CHD2013 Pure, unadulterated narcissism. 
Just kidding of course. 
I guess “more qualified” was a pretty poor description; I more so meant that, in a purely numerical sense, I had better credentials for GPA, ACT, AP, curriculum, extracurriculars, etc. Everything but class rank. Also, “plenty of students” was a bit of an exaggeration; more like “a few students.”