Some schools do not rank, so I highly doubt that school rank is the be all end all decision factor 
Exactly. My daughters school does not rank.
I think the 90% in the top 10% of their class, or whatever it is, is more coincidental than purposeful. I doubt they rely heavily on rank (though it does help to put students in perspective), but rather end up choosing those top 10% students because they truly are the best. I’m happy my school does not rank - I would probably be top 20% due to grade inflation from taking easy, highly weighted classes, that I haven’t been taking.
Ranking can’t be heavily relied on since the kids who take easier classes and get fantastic grades would then be considered better applicants than the kids who take harder classes but don’t do as well, and that just doesn’t make sense.
@GSikka I think most schools rank based on weighted averages, meaning that the harder classes will sort of have some points added on to make up for the fact that they’re more challenging. I do see your point though, and I agree with you all. I, for example, regret not taking AP World History in my younger years of high school, and instead I took regents-level global history and did not get the best grade because I just didn’t put in enough effort. However, my grades increased more and more each year of high school, and after the global incident, I took basically all honors and AP classes. So my bad grade in global in 9th grade is probably the reason I’m not in the top 10%, but I think colleges will care more about how I improved throughout high school and how I did well in junior and senior year. At least I hope that’s what they’ll care about.
I was in the top 11% of my class for three years and now jumped up to top 8% because of my senior year grades. Does that bump up my chances in anyway? In the same boat as those who applied to a bunch of reaches in the hopes of getting accepted to at least one.
@crazypencilg If you sent your mid-year report, as I’m assuming you did, then Tufts will get your updated class rank. They will incorporate it into the decision, although I can’t say for sure how much it improves you chances, but I’m sure it will help even if only slightly!
Keep in mind that for a lot of schools the projected percentage of students admitted with a certain class rank are only based on students that reported a class rank. So that 90% could be only a fraction of the admitted students. Many schools don’t rank, and so it is likely that that high percentage is comprised of those who were able to report a rank.
Most universities form a pseudo-class rank and can estimate your true class rank by taking into account your GPA and other GPAs from other students who have applied from your school. Of course this is something done behind closed doors, but I would imagine it plays into US News Rankings somehow!
It is indeed very purposeful, as % of students in top deciles of their high school classes is an academic factor weighted on the US News Rankings. Highly ranked universities will be sure to admit a vast majority of students who were in the top decile of their high school classes in order to score highly on that section. They can do so, after all, without sacrificing other factors. There is no shortage of top 10% ranked students who also have great ACT scores, GPAs, activities, etc. There is little motivation to look beyond this elite upper echelon of College Applicants!
It does indeed not make sense, but as I have stated before, average class rank is a factor weighted by the US News rankings. Maintaining a high ranking is more important than maintaining a purely holistic admissions process. Your point also does not make sense because you will not get a high weighted GPA, therefore a high class rank, by doing well in easy classes. That is, if your high school does give higher GPAs for honors or AP courses.
You are statistically much more viable for admission now; you will be surprised at the increase in chances you have at these selective unis. Great job your senior year! I also had a rank-buff (21% to 16%) due to my senior year grades. Unfortunately since I didn’t make the mature, future-minded decision in 8th grade to take Honors courses freshman year, I am forever plagued by a mediocre class rank that will bar me from admission to these really cool, affordable (because of high need-based FA) colleges. I also did apply to a bunch of reaches, but for financial reasons–it’s either these selective unis with lots of need-based FA, or my safety, which is an intellectual graveyard where I would toil away for 4 years as I mourn my lost opportunities to learn Arabic and Greek, visit France, do a physics research project, join a language immersion house, join a fencing team, etc. Oh well. Sucks I’m not in the top 10%!!!
True, although since I am ranked, that unfortunately does not apply to my weary soul.
Wow @Ctesiphon , you have a bunch of people offering support and a more optimistic ways of looking at your ranking situation, but you keep arguing against them and yourself. Be more optimistic. If you end up as one of the more qualified students at another school, you will have amazing opportunities that other students won’t have. And suggesting another school is an intellectual graveyard is disrespectful to all the professors and students there. College will be what you make of it. Make it meaningful, see the wisdom and beauty in every place you go and everyone you meet. Tufts is a fabulous school, but the school will not make or break your life. You, not an admissions committee, holds the keys to your future.
It is hard for me to disregard the facts. I am done internalizing overly-optimistic fantasies when the situation is as grim as it is. Optimism will not get me in anywhere. I have already applied and so I cannot incorporate any auspicious qualms into my Tufts application in such a way they will sense my natural affinity for the university. I can only semi-qualitatively predict my imminent doom as March rolls around and the pile of rejection letters accumulates.
When I say it’s an intellectual graveyard, I do not mean it is a bad school. My safety is certainly good at what it does, but the types of students it attracts are more technical and vocational minded, not really there for the “life of the mind”. Intellectual (and I use the word with all of its conceited, ivory tower-esque connotations) pursuits are not prioritized at MOS&T over more technical activities, like building robots and design teams. I guess while one could argue those are “intellectual pursuits”, they aren’t really my cup of tea; I am sure there is other stuff to do there, but I would imagine it would not be as widespread there as certain other schools.
I am not critiquing the professors or students there. Despite the fact MOS&T accepts 90% of its applicants, they train excellent engineers who go on to do great technical things for their engineering firms and companies. Graduates come out of MOS&T making excellent starting salaries with their college degrees, and they make that very clear on their website and on the mail I’ve received.
College “will be” what opportunities I am presented with while I am there. I always make the best out of what I have, as I know I am very resourceful and hardworking. If the opportunities are simply unavailable for me, I can’t make anything out of it. I am in fact human, so I cannot conjure up false optimism, thoughts or opportunities to mask the reality of the situation.
@Ctesiphon I understand your frustration about the ranking and admissions systems. They can be frustrating for everyone in different ways. But the thing is that all of our applications are already sent and in the offices of our colleges. There is nothing we can do anymore. So there isn’t really a point in dwelling over reasons that we may get rejected. It isn’t in our hands anymore.
“Your point also does not make sense because you will not get a high weighted GPA, therefore a high class rank, by doing well in easy classes. That is, if your high school does give higher GPAs for honors or AP courses.” @Ctesiphon
Yes you will…If you take a regular World History course and get a 99, then the grade that gets factored into your GPA is that 99 itself since regular classes do not get weighted higher. However, if another student takes AP World History and gets a final grade of 90, then the numerical value that gets valued for that class will be a 95 or a 96 depending on how heavily AP courses are weighted at that school. Therefore, you will get a higher grade (99) being factored into your weighted GPA whereas the student taking the AP course will get a lower (95-96) grade. Thus, doing well in easier classes will give you a higher weighted GPA than if you got a lower grade in a harder class, depending on that numerical grade (this is all on a 100 point GPA scale, I don’t know how the weighting works on a 4.0 GPA scale.)
Also, how can you be so certain about something even though you don’t know if you got in or not? I get that you are frustrated, and I get you think you know what will happen, but there are thousands of applicants out there that you can’t possibly predict a bad result for strictly because you “think” you know the facts. I know a student last year who was in the top 20% at my high school but got into Tufts with a scholarship and wasn’t recruited for sports. For some schools being in the top 10% is incredibly difficult, whereas for other schools being in the top 10% can be significantly easier. That is why high schools also submit a school profile so that colleges can see your grades respective to the caliber of your school and your school peers.
And as far as the “false optimism” that you are talking about, that is, for the most part, what this whole website is for. I don’t think students come here to feel worse about where they have applied. No, I’m not saying let’s just exaggerate everything to make everyone feel better, but I’m definitely not going to make someone feel worse about their chances, since I really don’t know what will happen. They can make their own judgement on that; who am I to tell someone “no, the facts say that you have no shot at getting accepted.” I’m not the one making the decisions. Yes, it may be harder for someone outside of the 10% to get accepted, but by no means does that mean they definitely won’t get in.
No, optimism may not get you or me or anyone else in, but pessimism (really lack of optimism more than just pessimism) won’t either. Whatever happens, you’re right, I can’t change anything so all I can do is ponder about what could possibly be the result…This wait though is quite frustrating.
Taking the example of a weighted scale from one school is not representative of the whole. The majority of schools will give substantial extra weighting for earning an A in an honors or AP class. (on a 4.0 scale, this can often mean receiving an A is a 4.5). In any case at selective institutions, a student who is in the top decile of his class and has taken honors or AP classes will be favored over a student who is also in the top decile but has taken primarily regular classes. Both, however, will be favored before a student who is not in the top decile, regardless of the types of classes he has taken.
The facts and statistics are put out very clearly by Tufts and many of the other colleges I applied to. Quite honestly, the facts are very clear. The vast majority of students accepted to these institutions are in the top 10% of their classes. While of course, many students in the top decile of their high school classes may be rejected, admissions committees don’t need to “lower” themselves to admitting those in the 2nd or 3rd deciles when there are plenty of applicants they can admit in the top decile, with the aims of maintaining a high % of that number for the US News College & University Rankings.
I am not 100% certain of what the outcome will be, but I am expecting rejection. I might as well say I entered the lottery. If I bought a lottery ticket, I would bet my life that I would lose. I “think” I know the facts because the chances of winning the lottery are so terribly slim that it is not even worth hoping for.
Well, congratulations for your acquaintance. He must have been in the 296 admitted students (or even a smaller pool, taking away athletes or hooked applicants. I also apologize for using 120 as the previous figure for this data. I multiplied the percent by total yield, not total accepted, so its a bit larger) that Tufts decided to admit from below the top decile. Your anecdote does not disprove the statistics however, that not being in the top decile of your class will severely limit your chances of being accepted to Tufts and other selective colleges.
The difficulty of being in the top decile is irrelevant to the US News Rankings. Universities simply want to check the box that they have such a large proportion of accepted students who are in the top 10% of their classes. They can do so without sacrificing forming a well-rounded class, since there are already so many intelligent, unique students who are also in the top decile. It’s a win-win situation–they get the good numbers, and they get the incredible student body, the latter Tufts loves to tout on its admissions blog.
We can’t play the college admissions game with the eyes of an optimist. I think it is a bit nearsighted to say that this entire website is designed to promote “false optimism”. The financial aid forum, college search forum, etc. are very realistic and practical in nature. For those who seek a non-sugar coated reality, College Confidential will give it to them (bar the sensational What Are My Chances? forum, XX College Class of 20** RD Applicants Threads, high school forum). This website is not “for” false optimism.
I am not saying that a non-top-decile student will definately not get in. At Tufts last year, there were 296 accepted students out of 3288 students who were not in the top 10% of their class. So, there is a chance.
Assuming all other factors held equal (which they are not, but for the sake of simplification), a student who is not in the top decile of their class has a 1.5% chance of being accepted to Tufts which is significantly lower than Tuft’s 2014 acceptance rate of 17%.
To explain how I got this number, in Tufts’ Class of 2018, 91% of students were ranked in the top decile of their high school classes. 9% of students, therefore were not in the top decile. The total number of accepted students was 3288. 9% of 3288 is the number of accepted students who weren’t in the top decile, here it is 296 students. 19,074 students applied to Tufts last year. (296 / 19074) * 100% = ~1.5%
In qualitatively considering all factors for uncertainty, I can’t imagine the admissions chances for students not ranked in the top decile of their high school classes to be any higher than 5% (which would be a 233% deviation from my calculated value). Of course, certain hooks, such as being an underrepresented minority, coming from a troubled family, geographic diversity etc. may augment this figure since they are factors that are weighed more heavily on the rankings. In addition, there may be issues in dividing the number of non-decilers by the total number of applicants. These students may have had certain traits that rendered them more appealing to admit than the other applicants who were non-decilers, so it is probably best to keep in mind only the figure Tufts gives us–that 9% of accepted students weren’t ranked in the top decile of their high school classes.
So yes, I suppose there is a chance for us, you are certainly right on that point. I imagine that chance may be slightly boosted by providing other academic necessities for Tufts on the US News Rankings (high test score, high GPA, etc.) In addition, this number does not account for those who attend high schools who are not ranked. However, they will indeed use the school profiles you mentioned to place them into a ranking context with other students and assign you a pseudo class-rank which can be used for US News Rankings purposes.
Nonetheless, I’m still hopeful. A minuscule chance is indeed better than no chance at all! I am simply being realistic. Good luck to all! They do admit a few non-decilers every year, so hope shouldn’t be given up yet. I am excited to toil through March.
Out of curiosity, where else have you guys applied? (hopefully you have a safety too!)
I think you are much more focused on the US News ranking than the Tufts admission department. They have the goal of admitting a strong, interesting, diverse class. I heard the Dean of Admissions speak at an admitted student day and clearly state they do not measure their success by Tufts place on rankings lists, and do not make admissions decisions based on picking the highest test scores or GPAs. If your essays are strong, your academics and test scores are solid, and you show dedication and accomplishment in interests outside the classroom, you have a shot.
High Ranking = More Money
@jamesjunkers, I’m seeing you on a lot of forums lol. It seems we have a lot of overlap in terms of schools lol
Every “holistic” admissions department seems to be focused on admitting a “strong, interesting, diverse class”. Sounds almost like politics to me. I don’t find Tufts any different from other schools when their numbers are just the same. I would agree that they are interested in admitting a “strong, interesting, diverse class” who also happen to be in the top 10% of their high school classes: something that is definitely doable and possible at a college like Tufts who receives so many applicants. They are able to admit a “strong, interesting, diverse class” and feed the US News Rankings at the same time. It’s two birds in one stone.
Of course they don’t, that is precisely the meaning of “holistic” admissions. There is no ACT or GPA cut off though, but of course there is a huge jump between being ranked at the top 11% percentile and the top 9% percentile.
I don’t believe you. The vast majority of students admitted to Tufts and other high-ranking universities were in the top 10% of their high school graduating classes. This “holistic” admissions process does not seem to apply to those who are not ranked in our high school classes so highly.
I do like Tufts and I would love to get in–but I wish I had realized that in 8th grade so I could have opted to take honors classes in high school and receive a higher weighted GPA, thus a higher class rank, for earning A’s. I now see the rashness and immaturity of my decisions.
@Anduar3, are you also joining the ranks of those who are above average students with above average grades and scores that applied to a lot of reach-ish schools with hopes of getting into one of them, but knowing there’s a good chance you’ll end up at your safety 
That’s certainly my plan.