I just finished my freshman year of high school and just received my overall grades for the year. My school uses a 100 point system instead of a 4 point system.
My GPA for the entire year was a 97/100. Although this would be good at most high schools, I go to an extremely competitive STEM-focused magnet high school in New Jersey. Only 20-30% of applicants get accepted every year from my county. The high school ranks in the Top 5 in New Jersey (US News) and Top 100 in the country (US News).
My school doesn’t rank but publishes grade frequencies(ex: 21% of students had a GPA in the range 95-100). So, using the frequencies, my class rank is around 10-15/75, which is only the top 13-20%.
My question is: will my poor class rank hurt me, considering that I go to an extremely competitive high school? Should I stay at this school or go to my hometown high school where I would likely be in the top 2%?
I am not sure if this is the same magnet HS, but one very like it in NJ where my daughter went had the following in their School Profile:
Class Rank
The majority of our students earn grades that are exemplary. Each year a large percentage of the senior
class receives Semi-Finalist or Commended Status on the NMSQT. We believe that our students’ levels of
achievement are not fully communicated by using class rank as a singular transcript statistic. and XXX County Vocational School District policy, therefore, precludes
reporting of class rank.
If the high school does not rank, then the ranking statistics will not factor into US News and such. Therefore, I doubt your “lower” rank will hurt you. GPA is more important, especially coming from a high performing school.