<p>Hey, I was just curious how much class rank makes for Brown admissions regular decision. Does it make much a difference if you are ranked 2 or 3 as opposed to 1, if SATs (2320) and UW GPA (3.92-ish) are better than average? thanks in advance :)</p>
<p>These numbers are taken directly from the Brown website.</p>
<p>Class Rank | Applicants | Admitted | Percent Admitted | Enrolled
Valedictorian | 1,507 | 385 | 26% | 155
Salutatorian | 692 | 133 | 19% | 59
Top 10% | 7,708 | 1,045 | 14% | 505</p>
<p>This states that those who graduated first in their class got accepted more than those who graduated second by a relatively large margin. However, this doesn’t not imply causation - it’s not necessarily true that they got in <em>because</em> they were ranked first. It would likely help to be number 1, but the 19% admit rate for those who were number 2 says it’s not necessary.</p>
<p>Those SATs are certainly better than average; the median appears to be between 2100 and 2200, and I somehow doubt the average gets significantly higher.</p>
<p>As far as the GPA, while it likely is better than average, I quote the website:</p>
<p>“For one thing, grades at one school are not awarded in the same way as they are in another school, so it does not make sense for us to be unduly focused on comparing applicants’ grade averages. The same applies to class ranks. Everything else being equal, students with mostly high grades often stand out among our applicants, but we do not make our admissions decisions based on a grade average or class rank without also considering the many other factors that help us gauge students’ academic promise.”</p>
<p>I went to a private school (an Ivy feeder, of sorts), where a 3.6 was considered an excellent unweighted GPA. Because of this, such comparisons may be flawed. The SAT scores seem to indicate that the GPA is no mistake or vice versa, but it’ll be the courses themselves, the recommendations, and so forth that determine how much of a chance you have, not the numerical GPA.</p>
<p>bump 10 char</p>
<p>As long as your rank is in the top three, there won’t be much difference in your decision. You have good stats. The adcoms know there are often school irregularities which determine the top rankings (course selection, availability, choice of unweighted arts courses, etc.)</p>
<p>Class rank is very important, but it goes usually in percentiles as what matters (top 10, top 5, top 50). It’s almost more important the your GPA itself because it provides a measure to put your GPA in perspective. If you are top 10% you have a good GPA and you shouldn’t freak out about it.</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>
<p>If you search for my postings with the word “Dartmouth” you will find an analysis of data from Dartmouth, Princeton and maybe (I don’t remember) Brown, indicating that contrary to popular opinion, SAT percentile is more influential than class rank percentile. 2320 is rarer than being valedictorian.</p>
<p>bumppppppp</p>
<p>it really depends on the school. I go to a public school in california and about 20 people get into ivy league schools each year. For us, class rank isn’t very significant, and people who are in top 40 (about top 10%) have good shots at top tier schools. However, I know many valedictorians of other public schools who don’t get into any ivy league schools.</p>