Okay, so basically I am a international student that suffered from dismotivational and personal problems in my last year of high school but still got 3/37 in the class rank. The problem is, the average grade in my school is lower than normal due to its difficulty, and my school does not really have a rank, this rank was made by the students of the class.
Should I tell my rank in the commom app even though it is not something “oficial”?
Should I say that I had some problems during my last year of high school to explain the lower grades when compared to the others years?
Keep in mind that my school never sent a student to a elite US university, and that it is ranked 10th in the north of the country and 1st in the state.
Sorry for any mistake, I had to write this post in my cellphone while taking a bus.
If your school does not have an official ranking policy I would not mention any sort of rank. Are you saying you rank 3rd when every student lists their GPA somewhere? How would a university know this is a real, valid ranking? How do you even know it’s a real, valid ranking? No one in the history of your school has ever lied about their grades?
@iwannabe_Brown we got that ranking looking at the report card of each student on the day that we got the final grades. I cant say this is a 100% accurate rank, but it is close to it. But yes, it might be best to dont say my rank in this case. I just hope that I don’t hurt my application.
No school will care about an unofficial ranking created by students that is “close” to correct. Don’t include it on your application. Many high schools don’t rank so it is a non-issue.
If your school does not report class rank, then it cannot hurt your application. Don’t report an unofficial one that you don’t even know is accurate. Also if the only reason you got lower grades your final year is difficulty academically then it is not worth reporting. Everyone encounters difficulty because of a rigorous courseload. The college will be able to infer this. Only report if there are extenuating circumstances.
I don’t understand why students sometimes feel compelled to explain poor grades. An explanation does not explain them away. What is the better reason for bad grades-problems with motivation seem like they are the most common and they are problematic. Why would you think that would help you?
@shawnspencer it was not due to the difficulty that I got poor grades. It was because I had some problems in my senior year and ended up in depression for a while.
@lostaccount why would the rank help me? Well because I actually got grades above the average eventhough I was suffering from some problems. I don’t feel like telling what happened, but it affected me for 3/4 of the year. It is not just “lack of motivation” it was actually external problems that made my motivation go to the bottom.
@josevi If that is the case be sure to explain it clearly in your application, or better yet let your guidance counselor know so she can help explain the situation, especially if there were many external factors