Would a consortium of college be attractive for your son? Haverford College is outside of Philadelphia but you can take classes at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and UPenn.
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Our feederish HS doesn’t even rank at all.
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Even if a school doesn’t rank, the high school profile that your school guidance office submits to colleges usually includes information about the grading system and grade distributions. College admissions officers can figure out where an applicant generally stands in their class even if it is not a precise rank. Here is a link to the profile from Choate for an example.
2023-2024 PROFILE FOR COLLEGE ADMISSION OFFICES https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1634144492/choate/i3v8yxnp4pdstl9n8noo/School-Profile-21-22.pdf
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Sure, but the colleges do that for themselves based on their assessments of our kids’ transcripts, what the school report says about our curriculum, and so on.
What they don’t do is rely on our high school to decide for them how to weight different classes for the purpose of ranking our students by a weighted GPA. That is what the OP is referencing, and I don’t think the OP should be concerned about that. Because I think these colleges will make such decisions for themselves.
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If your son might be interested in a public policy track, this site may offer you further ideas:
My information is from each school’s CDS filings which indicate that class rank is among the most important (very important) factors considered in the admissions process. Nevertheless, class rank is not a requirement. (And, surprisingly, according to Dartmouth College’s CDS, a high school degree or GED is not a requirement.)
But how many private schools rank these days? None of the rigorous privates in our area do. Seems to me public schools are the last bastion of class rank. Our super magnet public school in our town which is a feeder to top schools has dozens and dozens of valedictorians so not sure how their ranking works.
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Good point. And, as I noted, class rank is not a requirement, but, if available, is very important. In the case at hand, the applicant’s class rank is available so class rank becomes a very important factor in the admissions process for many colleges & universities.
Plus, many elite private schools have coded group rankings of, for example, the top 20% in each class in addition to val & sal.
My D’s private didn’t officially rank but the GCs reported val/sal (only one each) and the top 10% (along with rigor).
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I do not believe they mean that school-reported weighted class rank is very important. I think they are just using that to confirm they evaluate applicants in context.
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If I understand correctly, I disagree.
Some schools place a high value on class rank, while others do not. Check out each school’s CDS to see the emphasis placed on an applicant’s class rank.
By the way, Harvard in their CDS marks class rank “Not Considered”:
In the Yale Admissions Podcast, there are several discussions of courses and grades but not a single reference to school-reported class rank. On their website, they say:
If you do not have a GPA or a rank, you and the school official completing the school report may simply leave the GPA and class rank spaces on the application blank. Yale admissions officers review transcripts holistically. You will not be at a disadvantage if your school does not provide GPA or rank.
And so on.
To my knowledge, all these colleges “review transcripts holistically” and actually reprocess transcripts according to their own standards for course rigor.
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Good to hear! Thanks!!
I’d second the idea of Wesleyan University; 3000 students; small city halfway between the New York/Boston market (the mayor is a twice elected alum of the college). A male applicant from KY would almost have a double hook (for gender parity and geographic diversity purposes.)
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I’d have to agree with that sentiment. Lots of politically involved kids at Wesleyan as well! It’s a bit on the small end but it fits mostly everything else the OP is looking for.
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If looking at LACs, I also agree Wesleyan would be a good choice. Two others to consider would be:
Swarthmore, very strong in Political Science and History, has a close location to Philly, and also has a consortium relationship to Penn. I think people who like Chicago, or for that matter Penn, often also like Swarthmore for an LAC;
And Macalester, again very strong in Political Science and History, and a great location in the heart of Minneapolis/St Paul.
Swarthmore, of course, is a very tough admit, and Wesleyan is quite tough too. Macalester, though, is getting more into a similar range as William & Mary OOS or Wake Forest.
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I think Swarthmore is a bit too small for the OP (who is indicating they prefer a mid-sized university). Wesleyan is slightly closer at around 3.5K.
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I agree Swarthmore is smaller itself, but then Philly is a much larger metro area than Hartford (about 5 times I believe), and Swarthmore does have the consortium relationships as well.
But this is entirely up to the OP’s kid–either, both, or neither could be an acceptable compromise for them.
True. I just think, being one of the most competitive LACs, it’s already nearly as reachy as schools like Brown – which the OP already has enough of on their list. Not sure adding Swarthmore really improves the list…
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At least at our HS, LACs like Swarthmore are indeed tough admits, but it is not necessarily the exact same kids always getting into LACs like that and Ivies (obviously holding aside the recruited athletes). I think the conventional wisdom is the most selective LACs are maybe just a bit more into specific fit, and there is some evidence in SCOIR to suggest that (basically just that at least taken collectively, the most selective LACs seem to have a significant number of admits over a somewhat broader range of GPA/test combinations).
On the other hand, Chicago is considered even more like that, meaning they seem to have a specific type of fit they are looking for, and again the SCOIR data is “smeary” in a way that would support that hypothesis. So maybe the OP’s kid will just get into Chicago.
But if not, personally I would not rule out that they could get admitted to Swarthmore but not the Ivies remaining on their reach list. Nor would I guarantee it, and indeed it could be the opposite. I just think we would not find it surprising if there was a Swarthmore admit but not a Yale/Penn/Brown admit . . . for a kid who was as a really good fit.
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