<p>how crucial is the difference in admissions between being in the top 10 and top 11 percent of your class</p>
<p>Extremely crucial. Once you pass the top 10 limit, you have no chance.</p>
<p>i cant tell if youre being serious or not, cuz college confidential is known to be quite sarcastic, i felt this was a serious question from be tho</p>
<p>Chances fall dramatically from 10 to 11 percentile. I'm also betting that college want top 10% because the USNWR ranking for selectivity is based on top 10%.</p>
<p>Here's the actual data:
Rank and Percent Accepted
Valedictorian 46%
Salutatorian 35%
Other Top Five Percent 23%
Second Five Percent 9%
Total Top Decile 25%
Second Decile 7%
Second Quintile 4%
Third Quintile 1%
Fourth Quintile 0%
Fifth Quintile 0%
No Rank 21%
Incomplete Information 0%</p>
<p>according to that the difference between the second five percent ( 9 percent) and the second dile (7 percent) thats not that big</p>
<p>Hmm. I dont know where you got that information, but i dont believe it too much. You're saying there is a cause-and-effect situation. Yes, there may be a correlation between getting accepted and high class rank (or getting rejected and "low" class rank), but one doesnt cause the other.</p>
<p>Not every school in the country is ultra-competitive, and so the kids who arent in the top 10% may not have the grades (and, more importantly, the scores and EC's and essays) to get in. Granted, the top 10% of kids in a high school are generally extremely motivated, and those kids are the ones applying to Ivy leagues - i dont have some crazy stat, but i do know there is an enormous ratio between the number of top 10% applicants and applicants who are below that. </p>
<p>Also, it is these motivated top 10% applicants that, as a result of their academia goals, are incessently motivated to possess the EC's and scores that will assist them in getting in. There is much more to acceptance than rank. Valedictorians, etc get in because in the comittee room, when debating between two similar applicants, the Valedictorian will usually win...but not always.</p>
<p>You're right. There isn't that much of a difference and I was being over-dramatic. </p>
<p>The data is real and from Penn's website.</p>
<p>People say top 10% as a general cut-off, but I think it's really more like top 5%. Think about it: Penn accepts 9% from the rest of the 1st decile (6th-10th%). Many of these accepted w/ "low" ranks are athletes, URMS, & children of celebs/really rich people. </p>
<p>If you want an idea of your chances, the Academic Index (AI) on the home page of this site is a great tool. Is there much diff. b/w top 10% & top 11%? No. But w/ 90+% of Penn's class coming from the top 10%, it's hard to expect much if you don't fall within the first decile range.</p>
<p>stambliark i dont disagree with you but the 9 percent that they take from 1st decile arents the athletes or celebs most likely if u want to be honest</p>
<p>You may be right. There is no way to know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of them were, especially since they would have all the resources in the world to excel. </p>
<p>What I am sure we can agree on is that the number is anywhere from just under to much under 9%. Either way, it doesn't look good :)</p>
<p>You guys underestimate atheletes too much. Not all atheletes are stupid and many of them have over 1400 SAT (many CCers are recruited atheletes and same stats as normal applicants).</p>
<p>dooit makes a good point.</p>
<p>Probably only a fraction of athletes have a significantly low (lower than the average) SAT score, etc. Are there really THAT many recruited athletes that bring down the SAT average of nearly 2,500 matriculating applicants? The same goes with URMs and legacies. Not all of them are below the average, and many of them are probably hovering around the average anyway. It's hard to tell, so there's really no point in arguing this point..</p>
<p>My daughter was class Salutatorian and the Valedictorian applied to Penn also and guess what, my daughter was accepted and the Val was rejected so you never know what can happen...</p>
<p>But what about schools that have ridiculous deciles? The top 10% in my class of 454 students is a 4.0 unweighted for grades 10-11. I had a single B in the first semester of AP US History and now I'm in the 20% bracket. How will Penn view this? (I have the most demanding, or really really close to it, schedule at my school and have solid grades)</p>
<p>Or what about ridiculous grading systems? </p>
<p>My D's school has 5 levels of coursework. In order of difficulty, easiest first, they are....below level, on level, above level, Gifted/Honors and Honors/AP. About 10 years ago, the parents of school athletes pressured our district into giving the same points to above level, Gifted/Honors and Honors/AP. So,to a large extent, the rankings at our school are upside down. A huge number of the top 10% kids haven't gone anywhere near Honors or AP classes...why should they and risk getting a B in an AP class and ruining their rank?</p>
<p>My D has SAT scores in the high 700s, National Merit Semi-Finalist & National Hispanic Scholar. She has State and National level wins in a well known humanities competition and a folder full of achievement awards from the State Board of Education and the school district. She is a varsity cheerleader as well as National Champion competitive cheerleader. She has taken every AP class available and is currently enrolled in 5 APs. She is in three honor societies, has tons of community service hours, President of two clubs, VP of another, Chair of several committees, founded a free tutoring program for local kids. And she works as a restaurant hostess and cheerleading instructor.</p>
<p>BUT she is not top 10%. </p>
<p>I pray this doesn't keep her out of a good school.</p>
<p>silverspeed: you get bonus points for having a really tough schedule, and your GC can explain the ranking system on his/her report, just make sure you remind him/her to.</p>
<p>Idmom06: she should be ok; see above /</p>