<p>I just found out my exact class rank (18/370). This just places me in the top 5%. My UW gpa is 3.7~ and W gpa is 4.4~. Does my rank look "good" or "bad" with respect to my gpa for ivies/top schools? I took the hardest courseload out of anyone in my class/in years. The difference between me and the val is like 0.2. I attend a decent public school in New England. </p>
<p>It depends on the context of your school, which we don’t know. There’s nothing you can do about your class rank, and it will likely be sent by your school if it’s available, so it really shouldn’t be a worry. The bigger problem might be your GPA. It’s decent, but might be low for Ivies, although again it depends on context. You might have had a very difficult schedule, tough grading school, etc. And then there’s ECs, test scores, APs, SAT IIs. We just don’t know enough to answer.</p>
<p>Right…but will colleges assume that if I don’t submit my rank, it is lower than it actually is, given my GPA? Would they think that a 3.7 at a decent public school should be ranked less than top 5%?</p>
<p>Also, my lower rank/GPA is due to the extremely difficult courseload I had throughout high school. I took four more APs than the valedictorian and salutatorian, and at least two more than anyone in my class. </p>
<p>Two things - rank is lot less important than you think it is and your rank is nothing to be ashamed about. I’m not sure how your HS calculates rank, but it seems like a system that grades pretty hard if a 3.7 UW puts you at top 5%. In my daughter’s district this year, you needed 3.93 UW just top get in the Top 25%, 3.7 UW would put you about the Top 40%, not 5%. So either we have a bunch of brilliant students or rampant grade inflation or both.</p>
<p>If you had more APs that the val/sal and more than everyone else, you might very well end up doing better than them by virtue of your greater rigor. List everything and let the chips fall where they may, there’s no point in trying to hide anything here.</p>
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While you can certainly list your rank, colleges are NOT going to take your word for it. They are going to consult your transcript and see what rank (if any) is listed. If your transcript does not list your ranking, I doubt a college will accept the ranking you self-report, as it’s unverifiable. I would check with your guidance counselor to see if your rank is listed on your transcript. If it is, self-report the same ranking on the Common Application. </p>
<p>Does course rigor really play into this more than I think? Because I know one year at my school, the val got into an ivy but she only took two APs as of her junior year. Her ECs were kind of just average. 2200+ SAT. So I feel like rigor doesn’t matter that much.</p>
<p>Could a higher SAT, harder courseload, and much stronger ECs potentially get me chosen over the higher ranked students at my school?</p>
<p>Yes absolutely, SATs, course rigor, and ECs, combined with UW gpa are much more important that class rank. This is why my county doesn’t rank at all. My school (that i just graduated from) in particular would be hard to rank since we’re a magnet school with nothing but honors and AP/post-APs for academics (with the exception of stuff like band and PE), have to maintain a 3.0 to stay, and have kids that easily graduate with 13 ap classes. Who would you place on top at a school like that? Personally, I find ranking stupid because there are different systems and systems like your school’s often don’t put the best students on top. Rigor is very important. Think about it this way, who did better in their classes, 4.0 UW with only regular classes or 4.0 UW with 12 APs. Im exaggerating, but that is very difficult to do with that many APs. Colleges do not like to see kids who coasted through high school. All As in regular classes with no honors or APs suggests that the student took easy classes just to get the grades. They should have taken more challenging classes and pushed themselves.</p>
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Outside of state schools, which tend to use GPA and test scores as cutoffs, the reason one student gets chosen over another is subjective. At selective college’s, most of the time it comes down to the “feeling” an Admissions Director gets after reading your teacher recommendations and essays. Have you watched this video and listened to what the Amherst Admissions director says at about the 1:13 time mark: <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-OLlJUXwKU”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-OLlJUXwKU</a></p>
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So, in answer to your question: Who knows? It’s anyone guess.</p>