<p>My high school, one of the top public schools in the country, doesn't have class rank or valedictorians, apparently because it has so many qualified students that rankings would cause unncessary extra competition, but I highly suspect that if my school had a valedictorian, I would be that, seeing as I probably have the highest UW and W GPA, plus the most weighted classes. Is there a way of mentioning this on my application, possibly by asking my guidance counselor to mention it in his rec letter?</p>
<p>Yes, the best way to address this is by your GC in the SSR.</p>
<p>My school is one of the top rated public schools in the nation as well (#2 in NJ) and does not rank as well. Colleges will know that your school doesn’t rank. Talk to your councilor if you have any questions, but I’m sure if your grades are that good you’ll be fine without a rank.</p>
<p>Caruso, is this the norm among top public schools? And actually how would you confirm that you are the top student in your year—do most schools with electronic databases have an easy list of who has what GPA without individually looking at everyone, or could they probably check you with a couple other students whom they also know to be super-competitive?</p>
<p>And wow…I just realized my major typo in the grammar of this thread title -_-</p>
<p>It is likely that the secondary school report lists the GPA range for your graduating class. If you have the top GPA listed it will be clear you are at least a co-valedictorian.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree with Yalegradanddad. At my D’s school, they do exactly what he just said. The school report (which I’m sure your school probably sends in also with transcripts) lists the top gpa, the middle gpa and the bottom gpa. So if you have the highest gpa it will be yours that is listed.</p>
<p>Thanks—and I assue that colleges that receive multiple apps from my HS every year know that it doesn’t rank, right?</p>
<p>Yes it will say it right on the school report, my Ds does anyway.</p>
<p>Dolphin, I haven’t tried personally to get my rank, but I am pretty sure, at least at my school, that you can. Also, this is the norm because each class is so strong academically that someone with a 3.8 is only in the 25%ish range.</p>
<p>Hmm, that’s interesting. Would you think in general, getting your rank is easier if you’re on good terms with your guidance counselor? Anyways it wouldn’t hurt to ask ;)</p>
<p>our school - also a top high school - there are so many of them – does not rank either. Rank, to me, is a numerical # not a decile. What our school does do though is provide a histogram;ie 26 students 4.0 and over, 50 students 3.8-3.99 etc., so it is pretty easy to do the math and figure out what decile you are in - son figured out loosely that he is in the top 25%, so he put that on his app - but that is not a rank (at least in my opinion - it is more of a decile).</p>