<p>When applying to colleges, everyone sends a transcript that shows their grades, class rank, etc. Currently, I am on the verge of being in the top 10% (I'm at 11%), and it is the end of my junior year. I feel like I will definitely move up into the top 10% by the end of the first semester next year, the only problem is, colleges will only see my rank through junior year. Typically, my school will send out an updated mid-year class rank by January 1-10. The problem is, the application deadline of the majority of my schools will have passed by this time. From what I understand, the high school sends out a mid-year report to show colleges how your first semester performance was. So, will colleges see that I am in the 11%, and they will just see my senior year grades on the side, or will they see my updated rank in the top 10%? How does this work, I am so confused. I desperately need to be in the top 10% for some of my "reach" schools. I just really hope they will get the updated class rank after the first half of my senior year despite the application deadline passing. </p>
<p>You have to remember that even though the application date is early January, most schools have thousands of applications to go through. They may not even look at yours until after the mid-year report comes, and likely will take a final look at your application if you are close for admission OR in the “keep” pile already when the midyear report arrives. I personally think class rank is overrated in the admissions process. Don’t stress too much over it, just put together the best application you can and try to do well in your classes next fall. You can’t control this, and it probably won’t matter anyway.</p>
<p>If you are applying regular decision to schools with Jan. 1 deadlines, and your school sends the new rank by Jan. 10th, the odds are that your application will not have been rated or read by the time that your new RIC arrives, so don’t worry. Also, you can always send updated information in yourself at any time. So you could send an email with your application that says, “My school will send out updated class rank with its midyear report, but I’d like you to know that at this time my current grades are all A’s and I expect my overall GPA and RIC to improve. . .” or something to that effect. Keep it SHORT and don’t sound as though you are obsessing over it, just be matter of fact.</p>
<p>About class rank - there are some schools where being valedictorian would mean little toward getting you in, the school is that weak. Then there’s Stuyvesant, where even if you were only Top 30%, a lot of top schools would still be interested in you. Most schools are somewhere in between and class rank only helps if the college in question has no clue about the overall strength of your HS. If anyone from your HS has applied to the college in question over the last 5 years, and especially if numerous people have, they’ll be able to figure out how good you are without even referring to class rank. And no private top-tier school I know of would ever differentiate between a student that is Top 10% and one who is Top 11%. It simply isn’t that hard a line almost anywhere, except Texas and maybe a few other schools and scholarships with a hard class rank line.</p>
<p>Many high schools do not rank. Others do so solely on unweighted GPAs, and so the top-ranked students might not be taking the most rigorous course-loads (which is what all colleges look at first). If the student ranked two places above you scored two hundred points lower on the SAT, guess whom the college will pick. If the student ranking ten places behind you is applying to a college where buildings are named after his grandfather, or he has an amazing jump-shot, guess whom the college will pick. </p>