<p>I am a current mother of a daughter who attends a large public school (around 600 students per class). Her rank is not very outstanding for top-tier schools, as she is ranked 54~55 and is very barely in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Recently I stumbled across this Academic Index calculator: Academic Index3 - College Confidential</p>
<p>In the last part, it asks you to choose an option: Exact Ranking, Decile, Quarter, or GPA only. I calculated this for my daughter and she came out around a 210/240 and 4/9. However, if I switch to GPA only, her index shot way up and came out as a 8/9.</p>
<p>I am wondering if class ranking will negatively impact her chances at HYPMS. She has solid ECs and a 2340 on the SAT. I know that many schools these days do not rank their students. Therefore, will a college pre-screen its applicants using the Academic Index and basically toss her out because her AI is only a 4, as compared to some students who have a 8 or 9 simply because their school does not rank?? Admissions officers are aware of these discrepancies, are they not? I feel that class rank always hurts you unless you're in the top 5%, and even then it is not as advantageous as schools who do not rank.</p>
<p>“am wondering if class ranking will negatively impact her chances at HYPMS.”</p>
<p>Well…yes. Not fatally impact, but impact. Where HYPMS don’t get ranking data, they’ll try to reconstruct it based on the school profile, prior applicants from that school, the teacher recommendations, etc. All things being equal, they’re looking for students who are among the superstar handful in a class. But HYPMS do not pre-screen and just “toss them out” – if an applicant has outstanding non-academic qualities, they’ll see that and consider it.</p>
<p>So what if your daughter went to a school of 60, not 600, and her rank was 5, not 50, would that satisfy you? This is exactly why your HS doesn’t provide rank. With a large school like yours, ranking doesn’t really show an accurate picture. Relax, since colleges use a slew of factors. Her 2350 looks pretty good too.</p>
<p>Unless this is a very highly regarded high school, or the student is hooked in an important way, I have a hard time imagining why HYPMS would take someone who is ranked 54th in a class of 600. </p>
<p>To some extent it does depend on what your daughter’s transcript looks like relative to the other top students. Is the ranking system inherently flawed, is it based on weighted or unweighted grades? Did your daughter take a much more demanding curriculum than the other 53 students? Is her rank just a lot lower because she got one or two bad grades in freshman year or are her grades lower across the board? What does your daughter think- does she think she is academically as strong as the other students ahead of her in rank? Do her teachers and the high school counselor think that? </p>
<p>Do not let the SAT score fool you- sure it is a good score, but for HYPMS it is not as important as the transcript.</p>
<p>Past history is best predictor. Look at naviance or other historical info. What kids got into ivies prior years? Is your daughter as strong a student as them? Is the ranking flawed such that the best students aren’t at top of class? Do her teachers think she is one of the handfulnof best students in the grade? If there are truly 50 kids who are better students than her and she is applying without a hook and based mostly on academics, it seems unlikely she will get in. Why is her rank so low?</p>
<p>Re naviance - Alone they don’t tell you everything. A lot of our HS’s students get into Ivies but if you just looked at Naviance you’d miss that a good share of them are also athletes (and some are also legacy, not as easily discerned). You have to toss the outliers (in scores and grades, etc) and redo the averages, which then shoot up considerably. I am not saying that the OP’s student doesn’t have a chance, but it is a huge long shot even for the number one student in a school without some pretty remarkable hooks.</p>
<p>MIT gives an admissions advantage to girls, so I don’t think they will toss her out at all.
And, with those outstanding SATs and top 10%, the others may not either. I say go for it, but have some good safeties in mind!</p>
<p>This has proved true at our high school. We have had some students who are just within the top 10% band who were accepted to super-selective universities, but they were URMs from a low socioeconomic/single parent family circumstances.</p>
<p>If the ranking was lowered by extra nonweighted classes (music, art, etc) instead of study hall… I think the smaller colleges may notice that when they review the transcript.</p>
<p>The top schools like to see applicants in the top ten percent, but there are no hard and fast rules. The 2350 is solid and, remember, there are a lot of wonderful options out there aside from HYPMS.</p>
<p>From our high school (class size 600-700) HYPMS rarely look past the top 2 or 3%. The fact is whether schools rank or not they will often give out enough information that it’s pretty clear where a student stands. Remember there will be teacher recommendations where they will have similar rankings (Best student I ever had, vs in the top 10%). The top colleges are looking for great students and there are more than enough to go around. </p>
<p>My younger son’s ranking (6%) was affected negatively by his inability to do well in Latin (but his unwillingness to drop it) and a couple of bad experiences freshman year, it was affected positively because the school considers orchestra an academic course. It evened out in the end. He didn’t get into the Ivies he applied to (and didn’t really expect to), but he did get into some great schools and is loving Tufts. I really feel you can make yourself crazy worrying about the stuff you can’t control. My son knew where he looked weak and he made the best case he could for himself in the parts of the application he could control.</p>