Oh, your poor D! She was ranked #1 when she submitted and she didn’t do anything wrong. Colleges must realize that these things are constantly in flux, especially if high schools are computing new class ranks in the middle of marking periods. Who’s to say that the new kid who is ranked first won’t get senioritis resulting in a poor grade for first or second quarter?
I understand why your D feels this way, especially as she knows the other kids, but I don’t think she needs to contact colleges. If she really can’t feel at ease until she does, I like @OhioDadof4 's response, “Since the submission of my application, my class rank changed to #2 from # 1 through recalculation of the class rankings by the school. My grades have not changed.”
@inthegarden I think your D should not be worried about this and I also agree that an AO is not going to think your D did something deliberate like lying about her rank. AOs don’t take a ton of time to read apps. The AO will see the rank your D put on the app, of course, but she also has to look through the whole transcript, the school profile, the essays, the activity list, the recommendations. AOs know that rankings can change. This is not something to worry about. That AO is likely reading dozens of apps per day and is absolutely not going to get hung up on the rank matching or not matching from CA to transcript.
Sounds like your D already sent an email. What’s done is done. Hopefully, it was a very short email and very matter of fact as to not distract from what I"m sure is a very strong application. I would just have your D leave it all for now. No more emails even if the AO does not respond.
Edited to add - I misread. She emailed the GC. That’s fine. I would not email the AO.
@inthegarden Deep breaths! First of all, do you even know that she’s no longer #1? Maybe she still is? Maybe it’s the transfer student that is tied for #2? Regardless, she told the truth based on the facts that she had at the time. She has an email and a transcript with a #1 ranking to prove it. If for some reason, a transcript went out with her rank listed at #2, whoever looks at her credentials will probably assume that her rank was recalculated in the interim and will move on. Nobody will question her honesty! By all means, follow up with the guidance counselor to find out if there’s a discrepancy on the transcript that was sent, if it will ease your mind. But I don’t think this needs to be communicated to the AO. Is she feels really strongly about it, the briefest of factual emails as @OhioDadof4 has suggested would suffice.
Hang in there - it’s hard not to be stressed about college apps even under the best of times, which these are not!
Hi parents! My son’s ED college dashboard on Common App says “downloaded by college.”
In the letter of reco section, the counselor and two of the 3 teachers letter of reco says “downloaded,” but not “by college.” Does that mean the same thing? Yesterday one said “submitted” and now it says “downloaded.” Just paranoid because on Friday, one of the teachers said she input something in the standard box but couldn’t download something? So now I’m all paranoid with that word.
Thanks, all, trying to calm down. @3SailAway, thanks for the moral support, as always. @homerdog, no, she hasn’t written anything to an AO yet, waiting to find out which transcript the GC sent out. She only emailed the GC, asking her which class rank was reported on the transcript attached to the CA. @mamedefamilia, thanks, but she’s pretty sure she can’t be #1 because her boyfriend is now ranked #2 And he has had identical courses and grades as she. Again, she’s not distressed by her drop in rank…in fact, she knows the weighted rank will drop further when semester grades come out because of her own course choices. She just didn’t want any discrepancy between what she reported and what the transcript said. She was just shocked that the only way she even knew was because her boyfriend happened to mention that he was now ranked #2 and there was no mention from the school of any recalculation. @OhioDadof4, I know you’re just trying to help, thanks for the concise wording for a possible email to the AO…I”ll advise her to say that if she does decide to contact the schools. I don’t think she’d be so upset if these were just a couple of random RD schools…this is her high-stakes ED application that she REALLY wants to be accurate (and our flagship where BF will likely go and where she’d like to keep the option if ED doesn’t work out).
@MommaLue , my daughter does not have ED apps on common app but has 2 Rolling and 2 EA apps on the common app all of which have been downloaded by the colleges/ universities. The status is exactly as you mentioned, it says “Downloaded by college” on the dashboard and just just “Downloaded” in the recommendations and FERPA section. She has already received favorable decisions from the 2 rolling admission universities.
@GoldPenn Full disclosure: my D applied ED1 to Middlebury and was deferred. I nagged her to apply to Amherst and Williams RD, but she only applied to Williams. She was accepted to Midd, but once she got into Williams, she was pretty sure she would go there.
We visited both campuses over the same weekend in the fall of 2018, so it’s been a while.
I liked Amherst’s open curriculum, good number of humanities majors (a rare breed at some SLACs) and five college consortium, plus I preferred its location. (I went to a suburban SLAC and liked having lots of places to go off-campus when school felt too confining.) Even though my daughter preferred the open curriculum to Williams’ distribution requirements, she just didn’t get “that feeling.” We took separate tours and she didn’t click with her tour guide. She’s artsy and has become more of a SJW. She thought Amherst seemed sort of bland. (I bet if she had a different guide, she may have felt differently.) Also, she didn’t know any current students, who may have changed her mind.
I’ve always admired Williams, but as a city person, I just can’t imagine spending 4 years in such a small, remote town. OTOH, my city D loved the idea of being in the mountains. She spent many happy summers at camp in the Berkshires and loves the area. She’s interested in art history and fine arts, which are outstanding with unparalleled undergraduate access to top scholars and museums. But the real hook was the people. She knew several current students from high school and her camp which allowed her to get a fuller picture of Williams life. She felt confident that she could find her people. This made a big difference when she had to make her final decision last spring when schools only offered virtual admitted student events.
I’m so sorry this is causing additional stress for your daughter @inthegarden . I think when you’re shooting for a low admission rate ED school, everything feels like it’s monumental. I agree with several previous posters though that I don’t for a second believe any AO is going to think that she was being dishonest if the transcript reported 2 vs 1. I imagine it’s why the guidance counselor didn’t notify her. Not sure how many your counselor is dealing with, but ours have around a hundred seniors they’re getting through the process and started meetings in September. Their rank is calculated over the summer through junior year grades. They will recalculate a final rank in the spring. I’m thinking that if a new kid showed up at the school in the fall and they had to recalculate rank, I’m not sure they would email everyone to say you’re now 16 and not 15, etc as it’s just not a meaningful difference. It obviously feels different when you’re talking 1 vs 2, but I’m not sure it really is from the AO’s perspective.
@inthegarden I agree with the others…take a deep breath. They will not think she is not telling the truth. It probably changes constantly in many schools. Your whole situation sounds terrible and should not have been allowed. It also sounds like someone tipped off the new transfer that they would be # 1. I truly feel for your daughter, her BF and both families.
I realized my son’s first year that I was glad he was in band because it meant he would never be in that race for #1. I didn’t want that stress on him. The good news is we have had many #2’s accepted to Princeton, Yale from our HS, so I don’t think it will make a difference in her decision.
In other good news his LOR are finally complete. 3 months after they were requested LOL…YAY! I am truly glad the stress of waiting for that is over. No on to the next waiting game.
@inthegarden - I would strongly recommend your D wait until she talks to her GC and find out what was transmitted to schools. If the schools see a transcript with #1 rank then your daughter needs to let sleeping dogs lie. She was #1 at the point in time she applied and that’s an honest answer.
If the GC reported a different rank, then have the GC send a correction and explanation. That way it’s not big deal.
I know your daughter is focused on the integrity side, but AOs will be likely to think she’s focused on the class rank as a status thing and that might not be a positive.
Maybe it’s just me but I think the AO is going to spend zero time on this. It’s giant in the minds of @inthegarden and her D but, again, the AOs are reading SO many apps and are absolutely not going to be pondering about why a student has ranked themselves number one and then a transcript says two. It’s such a teeny tiny thing and won’t even make a difference in the decision and the AOs who read it are not going to be sitting around discussing what’s up with that applicant who has a discrepancy on their app about their rank. The person reading the app will look at it in its entirety and either decide that the student is one they should admit or not. They are definitely not going to say “oh she was great but I bet she lied about that rank so now she’s a no”.
@inthegarden, I am so sorry about all of this stress! I agree with others, and try to get her to relax–this is NOT her mistake! If a note needs to be sent(not sure it does!), send it just like Ohiodadof4 said.
Congrats to her! 4.0UW is amazing! Your school’s ranking seems very odd to to me to apparently have many others that all have the same gpa with similar rigor, and that they have different ways of “recalculating” that change the ranks? Wow.
Do other schools have multiple kids up for VAL /SAL all tied and same rigor?
I am sure her ED school will be just as impressed with 2 as a 1–her grades are still the same great grades.
Personally, I don’t even see why “new kid” has a rank at your school before 1st semester finals. All of her grades were earned at a different school. Shouldn’t her transcript 9-11 be sent from the other school (with its associated rank) and then she can show her current courseload at new school? After this semester, fine - she should be slotted in there somewhere - maybe at the top if her GPA is 4.0, but the whole thing seems a little odd to me.
@inthegarden 100% agree with AlwaysMoving. I would impress on your D that this has nothing to do with her integrity. (And, I can’t imagine an AO would think anyone would lie about somerthing so easily checked). Her CGO is the one who erred, if there was an error at all, and any correction needs to come from him/her. No big deal there. She was 1 when she applied, then a kid transferred in, so now she’s 2. Problem solved.
I’m sorry your D has had to deal with the anxiety this caused. Her sense of fairness and her honesty (remind her she was/is honest) are commendable!
@2Devils, I know that my D and a few of her classmates work hard, but I don’t know how they would rank in a larger and more competitive school…(class of around 170). I think the top five or ten kids would do well in any solid high school but might not rank in the tippy top. Who knows? (That is why getting solid SAT scores was important in her case). I think there is a steep drop in rigor (and of kids taking school seriously) below the top 15 or so students taking mostly APs, DE, by junior/senior year. It may be that it’s easier to get an A in some classes here, but I do know that my D is studying most of the day and evenings. . Class rank here is calculated with weighted GPA, and AP/DE class selection is really limited so the top few kids take almost the same schedule every year, and probably explains why there is a clustering of GPA’s at the top. For example, this year there is no AP foreign language, and each year there is usually only one AP science offered in addition to AP enviro. No math above Calc AB. No AP Econ, European history, art or art history. Not enough advanced students to support such a schedule (and we may not have enough teachers qualified to teach at that level, though the ones we do have are pretty good (the AP Lang teacher has a PhD.) So, the top kids have pretty uniform schedules. In January my D’s rank will drop further even with a 4.0 uw because she chose to take honors Spanish 5 instead of AP physics 2. She is already taking DE bio and AP enviro and did not want to take a third science class just to keep her rank, as she will not be STEM in college, but a couple of students are doing just that and will outrank her as long as they keep up their grades. She took AP physics 1 and doesn’t regret not continuing with physics!
We have a little stress over here too on top of the normal last minute stress. The school portal where the kids can see their transcripts has been down since yesterday. I was on the couch from 11am to 5pm with D21 and 3 friends trying to finish up all of the EA applications. One girl did not have her class rank and couldn’t get it with the portal down. Another had a school where you have to input every grade and of course she couldn’t get to that either. They all slept over and I know they are going to freak out when they wake up and hear it is still down today!
The quarter also ends tomorrow so the portal being done is terrible for the teachers as well as kids like my S23 who has some zeros to make up today before grades are final.
D21 has really pulled through like I figured she would. We do have a little editing to do before she sends the apps that are due today but not much. One supplemental she thought was done but I didn’t think it was great. It is for a bit of a reach school and she doesn’t even love it so I was just letting it slide but while I was falling asleep last night I came up with an idea she could add that I think would really help so she has some more writing to do this morning.
The teacher who said she would write her letter then never responded to the email from 5 weeks ago JUST emailed her back yesterday! She said she would be happy to write a letter but she needed a resume (which we had attached but I guess she didn’t see it), a counselor form that has more questions and she wants D21 to write her own letter of rec! She ended with please let me know when it is due.Uh, tomorrow!! D is going to write back and tell her November 15th I think, if the schools that are due today will let her send one letter late she will but otherwise they will just get the one teacher rec. Nothing we can do now so we are trying to be relaxed about it.
Hang in there everybody! We submit the last EA today and I’m really feeling greatly relieved even though he has one 11/15 that is not started. Kind of a bummer S had to work on an essay on Halloween evening but he totally could have done that one before school started. I told him next year Halloween would be more fun off at college. He took a walk in the neighborhood last night to get a last look.
Right there with you all on the EA deadlines. My S is still working on 2 that he’ll submit today. One has a supplement that just needs a few small tweaks; the other he needs to write, but he can repurpose some things he’s already written.
Then he has a break until a 12/1 deadline when he has another EA due and an honors college essay for another college.
He’ll have submitted 9 applications by 12/1; he may just add another reach or two for RD deadlines in Jan. That’s TBD. It’s been an intense month, but, honestly most of his work is behind him! That’s crazy to me!
Learning the advantage of engineering is it tilts towards lots of public schools with EA options. My D18 only had two EAs and the rest were RD so her big crunch was over winter break.
oh, ok, thanks @inthegarden --that helps. Still, though, she has clearly risen to the top and stretched what her HS offers, and that will not go unnoticed I bet. Pulling for her!
I think with the impending messy election, Covid spike and some having to go TO, there has been so much more stress this application season. Let’s all be a little kinder, a little gentler with ourselves, our kids, counselors, recommenders, etc. I myself hate surprises, I like to control things and the reality is this year it is clear that I can’t. (but really, did I ever?) I have to believe that it will end well for our kids. It’s us parents I am worried about Ha!
D is going to write back and tell her November 15th I think, if the schools that are due today will let her send one letter late she will but otherwise they will just get the one teacher rec. Nothing we can do now so we are trying to be relaxed about it.