<p>Hi,
My daughter is a soph. in a smallish private school (Class = 48 students) The school announced last night they are eliminating class rank. My wife is freaking, because she has worked as hard as my daughter to get/keep her at #1/#2. My daughter's test scores so far are excellent (197 PSAT) , but she wants to go to UNC_CH, and even though we are in-state, it's highly competitive. How hard should we push our school to change it's mind?? (Or change schools?)</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I think it is fine. Usually if a student has one of the highest gpa’s the GC will include this in their report. Also most school’s that don’t rank include a school profile which shows the distribution of gpa’s in a bar graph.</p>
<p>“My wife is freaking, because she has worked as hard as my daughter to get/keep her at #1/#2.”</p>
<p>Time to back off and stop putting this kind of pressure on your daughter. Being #1 in the class does not mean that a student is smarter than others in the class. Often times, it comes down to how well a student plays the system in regards to easy classes vs. weighted classes. College admissions offices understand this and thus, being valedictorian is not a huge boost in the admissions process—especially in a class of 48. With that said, being Val. in a class of 800 has a much greater impact.</p>
<p>Ditto what nysmile said. You can’t control everything. Trust that the administration knows what it is doing. Would you really change schools at this point in your d’s high school career? That would be more damaging than her newly unranked status.</p>
<p>My children also attend a very small school that does not rank. It is my understanding that this is quite common for a small school with a rigorous curriculum. Generally in this situation a student ranked at only the 50% could be quite strong and therefore rankings would hurt. </p>
<p>Many schools, for the same reason, don’t even calculate GPA, but instead just send a list along to colleges that list the grade distribution of the different classes.</p>
<p>I’d LOVE it if my D went to a school that didn’t rank. </p>
<p>If you’re at a small school, rank can work against you. You might be #8, which would look great if you had 800 kids, but your school only has 40. BUT…maybe it’s a highly competitive private school, so the top 8 are all 3.9-4.0. Yet you’re not even in top 10% there. </p>
<p>If you’re at a large but very competitive school, you can also have 3.8-3.9 and be BARELY within the top 10%. </p>
<p>If you already KNOW you’re #1 or #2, then you can SAY that (“school no longer ranks but applicant was #1 last year when they stopped ranking, and is still in the top 1 percentile”).</p>
<p>If you don’t know at all, or can’t fit “words” into the slot on the application where they ask for rank…if they ask you to ESTIMATE…you’re still in the cat bird’s seat. “Well, I can’t know for sure but I was #1 last year and I have no reason to assume it went down so I can still put #1 because they just want an estimate”.</p>
<p>Depending on where you fall in an actual ranking…it could help or hurt you. Let’s say you’re between top 5% and 10%. If you go to the Academic Index, and enter an actual RANK of #8 out of 100. You’re obviously in the top 8% and your Index score is calculated on that. BUT…if you go back and put the “range” (i.e. top decile)…your Academic Index score increases. It seems to average everyone out at 5%. So, if you’re top 1% it can decrease, but if you’re 9% it helps you. </p>
<p>Don’t sweat it. Unless you’re a tiny nothingville school where NO ONE ever goes to Ivies…the admissions offices KNOW your school. They have a prospectus and stats and can “guess” at your rank.</p>
<p>Example…you listed your D’s PSAT at 197 but she’s 1st in her class. In our school…someone with a 221 is BARELY hanging onto the top 10%. Yup…my own D. If your daughter is 1st or 2nd…I’m sure she has a 4.0, right? No worries. A 4.0 says she’s done all she can do, and she’s “as” eligible as any other 4.0</p>
<p>My kids’ huge suburban high school, very competitive, does not rank and has not done so for years. It will not hurt your daughter at all – don’t stress! College admissions officers are very skilled at figuring out where a student falls in a class, even if the high school does not technically issue a ranking. The admissions officers use the grade distribution reports and the counselor’s report to figure it all out.</p>
<p>You should definitely panic.</p>
<p>While I would not trust the school administration knows what it is doing–in my experience, more don’t than do–I would not panic.</p>
<p>What I would do is make sure the school profile is detailed enough to show your daughter is at the top. Colleges know where kids rank even when it’s not official by using that profile among other things. It should have detailed grade distribution info, show how many took the advanced courses offered, etc.</p>