<p>I am currently a freshmen in high school, and today my school released the rankings for the first nine weeks. I found out that I was 10th out of 1254 kids. My question is, if this is good sign? and can someone explain to me the concepts of GPA, rankings, and being in top ten percent of the class? There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about these topics. </p>
<p>The overriding issue is the transcript - did you take advantage of the toughest courses offered, did you do well. Class ranking is one more aspect of the transcript - compared to your peers at your school how well did you do. Since so many schools no longer do class rank and since every high school is different, your rank, in isolation, is not very meaningful and Yale will certainly not admit you a priori because you are in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Geez. You’re 8 weeks into your HS life and you’re already tracking your class rank and seeing if you’re on the pathway to Yale? You should instead track the number of books you’re reading, people you help, museums you visit, and time spent alone in your own thoughts. Build your creativity, your hunger for learning, your compassion for your fellows.</p>
<p>Don’t link into your class rank. That’s a load of baloney.</p>
<p>What T26E4 says is 100% right. </p>
<p>OP, you said “today my school released the rankings for the first nine weeks” which I find unusual for a freshman class. I don’t mean to pry, and don’t answer if it makes you uncomfortable, but can you roughly categorize what kind of HS it is? Public/private small/large geographical area, etc., but nothing personally identifiable?</p>
<p>The only thing I’d add to T26E4’s is: build your hunger for learning and feed it.</p>
<p>I just saw where you posted your 8 weeks grades to see how you were aligning for an Ivy league school. If I could push a button and erase that kind of thinking from your mind i would. Your 4 short HS years are not solely about your grades and how they propel you to the next stage. If that’s your thinking, all hope is already gone for you.</p>
<p>Thank you for the critique</p>
<p>My school has a lot of diversity. It is a public school that is not really known for academics but sports. </p>
<p>Another agreement with T26E4.</p>
<p>Also: I’m kind of amazed that there’s a school that publishes rankings 9 weeks into a semester. Maybe it ties into the sports emphasis? Kind of like publishing the football standings and statistics every week?</p>
<p>Student box scores 
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<p>I admire Maddie’s ambition. Different kids have different approaches to academic success. If class rank and good grades are her motivators (AND she’s good, kind, emphatic human being) so be it. </p>
<p>The point is that focusing on grades and rank will not be the magic key. Thousands of kids have the grades and rank (and Student Council President, and Captain of the track team, and orchestra, and hospital volunteer, and…). There is this belief that “all you have to do” is check a bunch of boxes and you will get into school X. What some are trying to say is, spend your energy becoming the best <em>you</em> that you can be. </p>
<p>Yes, and that is why I said in my post above at 2:33pm, “Yale will certainly not admit you a priori because you are in the top 10%.”</p>
<p>My own kid is well rounded with a passion for his major at Yale and does community service work in New Haven but the goal of getting straight A’s from elementary through high school become a motivational game for him and probably prevented procrastination/slacking off in subjects he didn’t care for. </p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with being goal oriented and motivated. It’s when it turns into an obsession that it becomes worrisome. For someone to start posting multiple threads only 9 weeks into their HS career, things could quickly turn into unhealthy obsessive behavior. Maddie should realize that even if they were able to maintain their current grades through senior year, this would only mean that they would qualify to be considered along with the other thousands upon thousands of high academic kids. As we all know, there is so much more that is being considered than just grades. That being said, perhaps I was mean, I guess I will just answer the OP’s question.</p>
<p>You are currently in the top 1% of your class through nine weeks. If you are able to maintain this ranking up through application time and you’ve taken a rigorous course schedule, you will have definitely have the grades for further consideration. You will still need to have test scores, recs, EC’s and essays that all meet Yale’s high standards to possibly become one of the chosen few.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response. I totally agree with what you said about my obsession. I just don’t know how to stop obsessing, maybe it’s because I surround myself with people that have the same motivation and goals that they would like to accomplish during their four years of high school as me. I will definitely take your advice on just enjoying my high school years before I begin having unhealthy obsessions with my grades. </p>
<p>Well, there was Merrill Kenneth Wolf, the youngest ever to graduate from Yale, I believe, at age 14 in 1945. He talked at 4 months. He was also a piano prodigy who majored in music and studied with Paul Hindimeth. Gave up piano, as a career, and became a prominent neuro-anatomist researcher/professor. </p>
<p>Maddie - my D was obsessed too. Add to that - she was a legacy - and her internal pressure was high. However, I made sure she did other things in life like varsity sports, national organizations, oratorical contests and community service. Coupled with that, I refused to make her take academic classes during the summer and allowed her ample time to vegetate in front of the television or on Netflix. She had friends, went to parties, loved Disneyworld, was a determined vegan.</p>
<p>Please keep your standards, keep your eye to your goals, but what I think the parents on here are saying is that you must enjoy yourself along the way. High school only happens once.</p>