Hi everyone, so my class decile rankings (based on UW out of 4.0 GPA) were just released and I found out that I am in the top third (33% of my class), even though it shows at top 40%. The third decile (top 30%) is displayed as 3.85-3.76, while the fourth decile (top 40%) is 3.75-3.68. My GPA is 3.75 flat. I go to a competitive school, and the people in my grade are so smart that the top 5-6% has 4.0s. How is it that some kids with 3.75 are in the top 10% of their class? Will the fact that my class ranking (despite equivalent GPA) hurt me?
@athenisa I don’t live in Texas, and the best thing that the UCs offer to top 10% of CA students is ELC. I can still go the statewide path though.
Where are you located?
I know it seems now like a crappy plan given how hard you worked in high school, but a lot really successful people in the tech industry went to state schools or transferred from CCs. It’s a cheaper route and the end result is essentially identical for those who maintain their work ethic into their careers and develop good people skills.
The colleagues from my team range from a guy who spent 5 years at Sacramento State to a girl who went to Harvard – everyone on the team does well and makes about the same salary.
Hope this serves to ease your mind a little even if it isn’t directly what you want to hear.
Every school is different so their grading policies are different as well.
A 3.75 in School A is very different from a 3.75 in School B.
A 3.75 in the top 10% of the high school class generally means that the school is extremely rigorous and the teachers grade very harshly; thus, everyone has low GPA’s, but high standardized test scores will show that they were well prepared despite their lower grades.
If you go to a very competitive school, colleges will take that into account. Standardized testing is also important as a way to counter the fluctuation of GPA between schools.
GPA is not everything. If it were, everyone would be flocking to ‘easy’ schools and getting a 4.0.
Yeah, I would not think the fact that a 3.75 is only at the top 30 or 40% means the class is especially high performing. It may mean the school’s grade are especially inflated. One way to assess which of the two is true is to look at the relationship between student grades in the school and test scores. Certain patterns are very telling. For instance, a school with lower than average SAT scores but students with very good grades suggests grade inflation and a low performing school. And, schools where students get A’s in the classes but score low on SAT2’s or AP’s in the classes they got As in suggest low performing school and grade inflation.
To clear things up: here are the average data things for my school:
Average GPA: ~3.56 UW
SAT: 638CR/657W/691M (well above district, national, and state averages)
AP pass rates:
90% overall pass rate
45% 5 rate on all tests
24 types of test taken, 5 of which are classes not offered at the school.
Sounds like high performing to me. The standardized tests seem to hold up against the GPAs.
Note that OP’s 3.75 GPA put him at 33% of his school. He is questioning how 3.75 can be top 10% in other schools. For OP’s school, it is a bit lenient compared to national average (50% around 3.0). It should not be a surprise that a student at 33% of OP’s school can be within the top 10% if moved to another school. The GPA value can be irrelevant as there is no absolute grading scale. The adcom would cross reference your GPA, class rank, and test scores from you and other students at your school.
It will depend on the college and how they recruit from the OPs school.
Typically rank is based on weighted GPA so perhaps other students had more rigorous schedules or more dual enrollment.
Schools that are uber competitive mirror prestigious colleges. Students that finished in the top 5% with the ideal profile might be solid fits for those ranked colleges. Those at the 30-40th percentile not so much. (Or even 10-20th percentile)
Ok reasons for class rank being so low:
- The school IS competitive. But as upperclassmen, we get free range on the classes we get to choose. Around 20% of the people who have 4.0s chose “easy” classes, therefore creating some type of inflation. Other than that, there is NO grade inflation whatsoever.
- There’s a lot of people with >~3.75 GPAs, causing the first six or so deciles to be more tight, and the last 4 to have a lot larger ranges.
- I ran into some problems my sophomore year, if that hadn’t happened, I should be in the top 15% of my class.
- Contrary to what others may think, and what the CDS might say, people within top 40% of our school go to places like UCB or UCLA. Others can go to more prestigious places, but not always as athletic recruits.
What can you do about it? It is your gpa and your ranking. You can try to move up to 3.76.
You could ask the GC to give a specific class rank and percentile for you, so that rather than saying you are in the 30-40% range you are number 33/100 and therefore at the 33% mark. My daughter was in a situation where her rank was a lot higher with unweighted gpa than weighted. The school only used weighted for graduation (magna, summa, and to pick the top 20) so had no problem providing colleges with both weighted and unweighted rank and gpa.
@twoinanddone our school does not officially “weight” GPAs. It’s not anywhere on our transcript, and we calculate ourselves. If all goes well, I should safely be in third decile by the end of this semester.