Questions about class ranking/deciles

Applying to College
1

<p>I have a really important question regarding class ranking and decile ranges.</p>

<p>As a freshman, our school pushed through a proposal to remove its old class ranking system to "reduce competition". In addition to the new policy, students believed if we were going to reform our class ranking system, then we needed to implement a grade-weighting procedure for the ranking process. Four years of student effort turned out zero results.</p>

<p>Today, my guidence counselor let me know that I fall in the top 11% of my class... which naturally gets recorded as the top 20%. This is more than a little upsetting for a student who is applying to several Ivy's, has top level SAT/ACT results, and has done a whole lot of work outside of my school as well. What makes it worse is that given the work I've done on weighted ranking, putting in my numbers into the model our school created would place me firmly in the top 5% of my graduating class on GPA, and that's with a very moderate weighting system.</p>

<p>My GPA is an A, I've received a 5 on every AP test I've taken, but I fear that it now appears I am nowhere near the top of my public school.</p>

<p>So my question is this: what emphasis do colleges (particularly at the top) put on class ranking, and what level of understanding do you think is possible in my situation.</p>

2

<p>I would imagine that they put it in the context of the courses you’ve taken and the rigor of your school. For example, at top prep schools, to top 50% of the student body is pretty much equal to the top 10% at some publics. I think they must recalc. somehow. If you get a 3.7 and someone with keyboarding 101 and childcare gets a 4.0, of course they aren’t going to think of that person as ranking higher.</p>