<p>Do class ranks have a HUGE impact on your admissions chances? Because I moved around a lot, I wasn't able to take the right classes in jr. high (such as spanish 1 to let me go on to spanish 2 in my freshman highschool year) and consequently im now stuck in a schedule that puts me behind others in terms of # of APs i can take (everyone else taking spanish AP while im stuck in spanish 3). Also, because i liked choir so much I signed up for it every year......and because it is not honors or an AP class, the 4 point it gives me actually lowers my GPA overall and lower my class ranks (percentile) as well. Does colleges really look at class ranks and think of it as very important? Wouldn't they rather look at your commitment to one group or a school activity and not care so much for your class ranking if one was put in a disadvantageous situation like mine?</p>
<p>I was wondering that as well. Bump bump please. I took marching band my freshman year and also took spanish I. Nobody told me honors biology is a 4 point class and pretty much I was behind from the beginning (I'm still bitter about that). Help us out someone.</p>
<p>It depends. Some schools look at ranks with all eyes blind (that is, they don't consider it at all), but on the other hand, many private universities use rank as a method to see how you placed among your peers. Unfair, but, hey..</p>
<p>bump......</p>
<p>i stil dont get what "BUMP..." means...</p>
<p>Bump Up My Post (also Bring Up My Post)</p>
<p>Rank is THE fair way to compare to your peers. Everyone is on equal par. NOT HAVING RANK can be unfair to students in competitive high schools since their GPA will be much lower then a blowoff GPA inflation school.</p>
<p>Rank, I do believe, is much more fair then GPA in terms of comparison.</p>
<p>hmm.. i dont have an inflated gpa... we have "quality points" for honors or ap classes... i dont know, and frankly, i dont care...(magnet school in urban area...90% go off to a four year university) you should see all the spoons and forks stuck to the side of the school... and about the BUMP... i one saw someone say BUMP... about 2 min after the last post so that threw me off...</p>
<p>Its not about the inflated GPA system crumflake its about the hardness of classes. I can definately tell you that my school's classes are hard hard hard, thats why there is a GPA weight system. Unfortunately, the colleges that I apply to will most likely convert my GPA back to the 4.0 scale, which would put me at a SERIOUS disadvantage.</p>
<p>Thats why I prefer rank since it puts you among your same peers who have the same teachers, resources, GPA weight system, class hardness, etc.</p>
<p>^ yes, thats all well and good except for the slightly smart fools who take the easiest classes, pull a 4.0 unweighted, and, when you go to a school where ap and honors classes give you no boost in gpa, end up looking much better than the intelligent people who take a challenging coarse load and end up getting a few B's. therefore, in my opinion, schools that rank students on an unweighted system, such as my own, completely screw the people who take hard courses. do i sound bitter????.......... its because im getting ****ed</p>
<p>Class rank is a fair way to compare you ACADEMICALLY against the OTHER STUDENTS WITHIN your high school.</p>
<p>However, it is an absolutely HORRIBLE way to compare applicants from school to school. You have applicant A who was one of the top ten students of Crappy High School X, and then you have applicant B who was only in the top quartile, but of an extremely competitive public/private high school. Clearly, applicant B worked harder but applicant A gets the advantage. Fair? I think not.</p>
<p>Except it really isn't. </p>
<p>In my school, for example, PSEO classes aren't weighted while AP classes are. That means, when I take honors calculus III next year at the University, thats worth as much to my GPA as taking geometry I. Furthermore, looking at GPA neglects other aspects of a person. Someone may be doing intense research(we have a program in Minnesota that allows you to do this during school hours, actually) and thus not have time for an additional class period, but again, that's not weighted.</p>
<p>[qoute] Class rank is a fair way to compare you ACADEMICALLY against the OTHER STUDENTS WITHIN your high school.</p>
<p>However, it is an absolutely HORRIBLE way to compare applicants from school to school. You have applicant A who was one of the top ten students of Crappy High School X, and then you have applicant B who was only in the top quartile, but of an extremely competitive public/private high school. Clearly, applicant B worked harder but applicant A gets the advantage. Fair? I think not.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And how do you know applicant B worked harder?</p>
<p>haha... lets think about this logically shall we?
last time i applied to college (in january) they asked for a TRANSCRIPT
i saw my transcript, and the GPA and class rank wernt the only things on there
it also listed the CLASSES you took, and what you got in them. what im trying to say is that colleges actually consider that, and if they dont, they are pretty screwed up, in which case you dont belong there.</p>
<p>"^ yes, thats all well and good except for the slightly smart fools who take the easiest classes, pull a 4.0 unweighted, and, when you go to a school where ap and honors classes give you no boost in gpa, end up looking much better than the intelligent people who take a challenging coarse load and end up getting a few B's. therefore, in my opinion, schools that rank students on an unweighted system, such as my own, completely screw the people who take hard courses. do i sound bitter????.......... its because im getting ****ed"</p>
<p>Actually they get hurt since our weighted system favors AP courses. A B- is a 4.0 Weighted in an AP class. You need to pull off a 100 in a regulars course to get a 4.0.</p>
<p>I think that class rank is a pretty horrible way to compare students, even in the same school.</p>
<p>Case in point:</p>
<p>At my school, AP courses are weighted (final grade X 1.25) and honors aren't. If you take three or more AP courses, you can take a period off.</p>
<p>So, this boy and I are both taking five AP courses next year. However, he's taking one period off, whereas I'm not. Think about it... his GPA will include five weighted grades and one unweighted. Mine will have five weighted grades and two unweighted--mine is almost guaranteed to be lower than his, even though my load is tougher because I'm brave enough to do the homework at home. </p>
<p>What makes me mad is that he's doing this on purpose--playing with the weight to up his GPA.</p>
<p>"Actually they get hurt since our weighted system favors AP courses. A B- is a 4.0 Weighted in an AP class. You need to pull off a 100 in a regulars course to get a 4.0."</p>
<p>yeah i was talking about schools that don't have weighted gpa's and therefore rank students based on unweighted gpa's. you may want to reread my previous post.</p>
<p>so if my grade has 7 other people in it.... does rank matter in that case?????</p>
<p>Haha our school is extremely competitive (some top 100 in the country) and does not rank either. Talk about getting screwed over.</p>
<p>Any competitive college is going to recalculate your GPA. They usually throw out PE, art, health, etc and then compare you based on their own calculations. They consider your HS so top 20% in a competitive high school would be in range . They know if your school has superstars. It does get tricky if 10 of those super stars from your HS apply to the same college. There are so many factors considered that rank should not make or break you unless you are say top 30% and applying to a top tier school,</p>