<p>Called the GC today to ask about D2's (a HS jr) class rank. We traded phone messages, so I never got to speak to her in person, but this is the answer I got:</p>
<p>D2's class rank is 22/575, but the school does not officially rank students. That means that there will never be an official piece of paper from the HS that indicates class rank, or top 10%. The GC said we are free to report class rank to colleges, but the school will not report rank.</p>
<p>So should we report her class rank on the "interest" forms she is filling out now? What about next summer/fall when she is doing the applications? I would think a class rank in the top 5% would only help her, but if the high school does not report rank will the colleges think we are making things up?</p>
<p>I would because that’s a great rank. If the colleges are suspect, they could call the school to verify, but I would assume your dd would have a great GPA and so there would be no reason to doubt it.</p>
<p>First, if she’s applying to very selective colleges most will approximate a rank for her using historical data of applicants from her school and info in it’s profile. Rank matters to these schools.</p>
<p>To answer your question though, it would help her at the vast majority of schools. At the very top school that are looking for vals and sals, you may not want to if she has a particularly competitive class and her GPA may have correlated with a higher rank in past years.</p>
<p>Finally, it really doesn’t matter much because if colleges really want to know where a kid falls they pick up the phone and chat with the counselor.</p>
<p>I don’t see how reporting her rank could hurt. Though since the school does not accurately report class rank, university may find it hard to find given rank reliable.</p>