<p>I am a senior at a small private school with 40 students in my grade. We are easily the most competitive class the school has seen in a long time, including the three grades below us. This, of course, means that only 4 students in the grade will get that coveted top 10% marker on their transcripts. With a 4.17 weighted, am number 5 or 6, I can't remember (this could change after semester grades are released but it would be something of a miracle). Because I've already been accepted to Carnegie Mellon, I am skipping the safety school. I am applying to the following: Yale, Brown, Columbia, Middebury, Vassar, Swarthmore, UChicago, Tufts, and Pomona. Other than being in the top 20%, I have a strong application. Looking at the stats for these schools, the number of students not in the top 10% of their classes is REALLY small and I'm not an athlete, minority, genius, or first generation student. How worried should I be?</p>
<p>You shouldn’t be worried. Nothing is less worthwhile than agonizing over that which cannot be changed.</p>
<p>That didn’t exactly answer my question, but thanks</p>
<p>Was the question not “How worried should I be?” Did I not tell you exactly how much worry you should concern yourself with? Does, therefore, my answer not answer the question? Might it be, otherwise, that I have misunderstood? Perhaps you would rather hear this: Class rank is a superficial indicator of academic ability; college’s realize this; holistically, you ought to have nothing to worry over. Perhaps this is the answer to the question?</p>
<p>Yes it is- thank you.</p>
<p>Note: I am evaluating the following from a statistical standpoint and do not have any actual anecdotal evidence to either support or oppose my statement.</p>
<p>If one considers the importance of class rank, the result is that top 10% is much more important as class sizes increase. This is simply a result of sample size. In a small class of 40 especially at a private school, it is in no way absurd to believe that the top 20% of students are all at the same intelligence of the top 1 or 2 percent in a population. On the other hand, for the student who misses top 10% at a large school with say 1500 students per class, it would be hard to justify that the top 300 kids are equivalent in intellect to the top 1 or 2 percent of the overall population.</p>
<p>The key point is that top percentages are based off of a group that is not always representative of the larger population at hand. The adcoms will probably realize that they can’t compare the top 10% of a small private school to that of a large public school.</p>
<p>In conclusion, while top 10% is always advantageous it can easily be a false metric as well.</p>
<p>The above is unfortunately not correct.</p>
<p>If a school only has a few percent who were not top 10%, you will need something very unusual to be in that small group. Most will be recruited athletes and URMs. A few will be development or well connected legacies. The rest (a handful) will have something unique a college really wants.</p>
<p>@2college</p>
<p>I am not sure how that can be definitively stated. If a student is 51/500, it can almost definitively be stated that that individual was bested by a representative top 10% group of students. If a person is 3/20, how can one know without a doubt that said individual was not bested by a statistical anomaly of two highly, highly intelligent students who do not fall into the normal boundaries of intellect? Similarly, by being a private school, the school is likely to attract the best and brightest making the same group of students inaccurate for comparison to others.</p>
<p>Since you’re already into Carnegie Mellon, which is a fine school, I don’t see that you have anything to worry about at all. Apply to the other places and see how you do, and if they don’t admit you, you still have a great option.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice. I know that it would be best if I were top 10% but hopefully the colleges will understand how the small sample size and very competitive environment skew those results.</p>
<p>I doubt your school will even include class rank on the transcript if there are only 40 people in your grade. That would be brutal. A failed algebra test in the ninth grade could be the difference between 10th percentile and 30th percentile. It makes no sense at all to count it.</p>
<p>Peggy sue:</p>
<p>Were you accepted ED by Carnegie Mellon?</p>
<p>CMU does ED, but a select group that goes through its summer program can do EA. Perhaps the OP did the EA. But Top 10% is usually very important because the colleges use that to their advantage in statistics. But if you go to a top small private school being out of top 10% may be fine. Plus u already got into CMU…</p>