<p>There was an article on class rank in today's Milwaukee Journal.</p>
<p>JS</a> Online: Some districts drop class ranks to improve students’ college chances</p>
<p>missypie--I feel your pain. Son is just below 20% too. He says that by the time first marking period grades come out he should be within 20 %. I'm not so sure of that. It's definitely rough. The frustrating thing in our case--it's 15 year old sophmore version of son (of 2 years ago) who has caused these problems (Cs, Ds). Currently, son (now a senior) got almost all As in junior year and plans to do the same this year. So, what can you do? You said it well, missypie--look at & appreciate the student you have, as he is, right now. </p>
<p>It's painful, because I think a lot of son's 'almost reaches' are now completely out of reach. I'm definitely talking up the state school now, and in fact am planning an 'overnight/indepth visit' there w/son & a few of his HS friends.</p>
<p>True. And, I told my D that unless the school was private and had a generous financial aid package, she will not be going to an out-of-state school. There's usually quite a jump in tuition, as you know.</p>
<p>We live in Santa Cruz, so UCSC is out.:) Unless my D's GPA suddenly took a nose dive, it's doubtful she would consider San Jose State or some of the other state colleges for undergraduate work. SJSU has a good Occupational Therapist grad program she might think about. </p>
<p>Her 32 year old sister got a BS in Biology at CSU Fresno back in 2000. But that's not on her list. If she continues to do well in h.s. I would hope she would give some of the selective schools a serious look. My husband said he knows she can do better than Chico State. But then back in our days, it was considered a "party school". :) I think it's changed somewhat. </p>
<p>Quote:</p>
<p>Other California schools for B+ students to consider that might not have been mentioned on this thread:</p>
<p>Cal State Chico
San Jose State
UC Merced
UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside
University of the Pacific
Santa Clara University</p>
<p>Any of the excellent community colleges as a path to a UC if that's the student's goal.</p>
<p>Is this what you mean by class rank? This is on my D's transcript for grades 9 and 10. We'll see how it goes this year in 11. So, if several kids have a 4.0, they all share the same ranking??? I suppose as the classes get harder, the GPAs go down...</p>
<p>Academic Summary
Total GPA 4.000<br>
Academic GPA 4.000<br>
Class Rank 1<br>
Academic Class Rank 1<br>
Class Size 287<br>
Completed Credits 120.0</p>
<p>Getting back to the B+ thread....I'm trying to listen to my husband and become more realistic about expectations. Yeah, part of me would love for D to be at the top of her class or close to it. And, sure, I would be proud if she got accepted to a highly rated college (for what that's worth.:) My husband is a Stanford grad and got an MBA from UCLA in the '70s. But, would he be able to do that now? I doubt it! Waaaay too much competition and pressure. And, honestly, he's not doing what went to school for (economics and accounting). Instead, he went back to San Jose State and got his teaching credential for secondary math. Has been teaching for 20+ years. I told him he took the expensive route!</p>
<p>Anyway, in the end, I'll be thrilled if my D gets into a decent college that will give her a well-rounded education and the type of experience she'll always cherish. I just hope she challenges herself along the way...unlike her ol' mom. :-)</p>
<p>2Leashes, if your d's GPA is 4.00 and her class rank is 1, you do not belong in the B+ parents thread. </p>
<p>Missiepie, I feel your pain. D is a junior, and our hs won't calculate class rank until fall of sr year, but I suspect that she'll fall around a similar spot. But I fear you may have over-reacted to your son. I don't know what his college choices were, but there are PLENTY of schools, public & private, that are happy to have 3rd decile kids. You may just need to shift your focus a little bit.</p>
<p>BTW, how did 78 kids just disappear? Does your school have that high a drop-out rate? Did it merge with another district?</p>
<p>Thanks for saying that! I was thinking the same thing!</p>
<p>A hearty seconds on thoughts above.</p>
<p>Class rank is an interesting touch point in our smallish, uber achieving district. My B+ kiddo is smack dab at the middle of his class going into junior year with his 3.5 unweighted GPA; school does not weight. (His older siblings were between 20 to 30% with their 3.8-ish GPAs.) We're just not sure how to interpret that piece of this puzzle. On so many levels I wish the school would do away with class rank, but there's a snowball's chance of that happening anytime soon.</p>
<p>The challenge for us is to grasp what a realistic college list truly is for this child - not too tough, not too easy, but just right. </p>
<p>My new mantra for the next 18 months - "love the kid on the couch".</p>
<p>I was shocked that 78 kids disappeared. We are one of those "wealthy suburban school districts"; every year the high school comes in around 90 in the Newsweek Top 100 list. We don't have a high drop out rate. I didn't think we had a highly transient population - no nearby military bases, not very many apartment complexes. I know of three kids who graduated early, one who transferred schools to be near the love of her life, one who "got into trouble" and got her GED. That accounts for 5 of the 78...no idea what happened to the other 73, but I suspect that they weren't in my son's AP classes.</p>
<p>In our "wealthy suburban school district" a fair amount of students are "lost" as transfers to private schools. While our public school is considered one of the best in the state, there are a couple of extremely high caliber privates in the area that traditionally send a high percentage of graduates to the very tippy top colleges. The biggest shift is seen from middle school to high school, but transfers continue throughout high school.</p>
<p>Missiepie, how many kids are in your HS? How big of a percentage of the class was 78 students? In our hs that would be 18% of the class, your school must be bigger than that.</p>
<p>We had an unsuccessful school budget vote last year, and a higher than normal percentage of 8th graders opted for private school over our public school. But once the kids are in our high school, not too many transfer out, they become vested socially, athletically, etc.</p>
<p>The class started out in the mid-600s. I emailed the principal, just to get her take on it. Since we are in the suburbs, we don't have a lot of terrific private school options that are nearby. (There are a few Christian schools that people send their kids to for religious, rather than academic, reasons.) Like I said before, it's fascinating to me because I just don't hear of kids leaving.</p>
<p>i think this might be where my D might fit in. she does not have the stats for (nor would she be interested in) a top 20 ultra competitive school.</p>
<p>she is just starting her junior year, so i don't have a bunch of stats collected just yet.</p>
<p>her original plan was texas a&m, but after visiting baylor, she liked the smaller school size there, so i think we need to explore more options.</p>
<p>around here even the top kids with full ride offers to other schools will choose texas a&m or UT.</p>
<p>Our '07 Val went to Baylor.</p>
<p>Baylor is a mystery to me. They only accept 43% of applicants, but their 50th %ile SATs are 540-650 CR and 560-660 math (not ultra-high). They don't require an essay-they just look at your SAT essay, so there's no essay to let them get to know you. Their app form doesn't really let you list ECs and time spent on each - it's a "check the box" thing. They do let you download a resume and teacher recs are optional. I just can't figure out how they make their selections. I guess we'll find out in a few months.</p>
<p>The problem in our state is that we have one top public, and then there's a steep decline to ehh publics.
When I look at LACs, I see lots for B+ ers to like, but now with the stock market tanking, those are looking very pricey.</p>
<p>Our district dropped ranking a while back: I would encourage CCers to call their school board members and pressure them to act on this, citing examples like Missypie's.</p>
<p>Of course, here in Texas, rankings will never be dropped as long as we have the "top 10% rule."</p>
<p>yeah, i don't see the ranking going away here unless they change the top 10% rules somehow.</p>
<p>in texas i think there are 2 top state schools, then it seems like a big drop and that the requirements are about the same for all the rest. there may still be some decent schools to choose from, but i was disappointed to see tht the entry requirements for all the rest were all about the same and all a good deal lower than the requirements for the top 2.</p>
<p>i was thinking/hoping tht the non top 2 would be benefiting from the top 10% rule in that lots of kids who would have gone to #1 or #2 are now choosing some of the other state schools, thus bringing their stats up some. maybe just wishful thinking, but the top kids who are not top 10% are still going to college somewhere!</p>
<p>does anybody know if this is true?</p>
<p>I've been trying to figure this out as well....what is the next best state school after UT & A&?. I guess technically it's UT Dallas. After that, I bet the favorites are regional - UNT is popular with the Dallas kids. I know kids who go to Texas State and Tech. But I really don't know how those rank against each other academically.</p>
<p>I believe that UT Dallas has the highest SAT scores in TX (after Rice). Great scholarships. Known for engineering and computer science, in particular. I know it is often confused as a part of the UT system, but it is not - separate application required as it is a separate and distinct school.</p>
<p>From the UTD website:
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 14,500 students. The schools freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The University offers a broad assortment of bachelors, masters and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UT Dallas, please visit the Universitys Web site at The</a> University of Texas at Dallas Home Page.</p>