<p>Hi, recently I saw a thread that discussed admission rates at top Ivy-caliber schools regarding class rank and the SAT's. One CC'er had referred to a Common Data Set where University of Pennsylvania had stated that it had, I believe, admitted 43% (or around there if my memory fails me) of its applying valedictorians last year. Does that mean that if you are "ranked 1" in your school, and appear to be a strong applicant, you could have almost a 50% chance at getting into even the most competitive schools in the nation? That's assuming, of course, that the admit rate of vals does not fluctuate too much from year to year.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know the admit rate for valedictorians at other top universities?</p>
<p>I highly doubt it. I don't think it is the title or number 1 rank that helps a lot. It is just that usually a valedictorian is going to have excellent academic records as well as superb test scores.</p>
<p>Stanford stated that 28% of their applicants were in the "Top 1-2%" of their class and 18% was the admit rate of that group. After matriculation, the admits of the "Top 1-2% of class" make up 47% of the new class.</p>
<p>remember, it's correlation, not causation. Being valedictorian may or may not be a plus (okay, I mean, it's never a minus, of course)... like BIGTWIX said, usually people who are accepted are not accepted BECAUSE they are first in their class-- it is just that the people who happen to be first in their class usually have good scores and ECs and are intersting people, etc.</p>
<p>i think what thepapercrane means is that, yea being valedictorian is awesome but do u have the coursework/gpa and everything to warrant it. Many cases show that the valedictorian does have all of this... so it is indeed nothing but a plus. But if you are a valedictorian tied with 20 other people and u didnt challenge yourself then its worthless.</p>
<p>My school is tiny, with only about 60 in my graduating class. There are currently 3 vals, two others and me. If I were to apply to an Ivy, would this mean that I would need to try as hard as I can to maintain my 4.0 to stay ranked number one? 3/60 doesn't seem like an appealing rating, since that's already only the top 5% (yeah, I know that sounds obsessive). I'm also worried about some scholarships that want you to have a ridiculous class rank. I'm not sure how much colleges will see this, but my high school also has serious grade inflation. 50% of the class has a 3.3 or higher.</p>
<p>Just to clarify a little further, I'm worried about a science class where I have an A-. It looks like it's going to blow my 4.0, though it's not final yet. My school also has no honors, AP, or grade weighting.</p>
<p>"Being val doesn't really even matter at schools that don't weight grades."</p>
<p>What? How does that make sense? It means that you have done the best. Sure, he/she could have taken really easy classes, but probably not THAT much easier since his/her classmates didn't take APs either.</p>
<p>Sure, it looks nice, but it doesn't mean you'll get in anywhere great just because of your rank as number one. Typically, top 5% tends to be good enough.
Your test scores and EC's need to be way above average also, so ONLY having good grades means nothing.</p>
<p>Most of the advice your getting is contradicted by two things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The academic index (AI) that the Ivy League school use has class rank as one of the factors (SAT scores are the other).</p></li>
<li><p>Paul Attewell (CUNY) did a study in 2000 (The Winner Take All High School) in which he measured admit rates in some elite schools. Given equal SAT scores, even a drop from #1 to #5 in the class had an outsized effect on the probability of admittance.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Valedictorian status guarantees you nothing, but it is much better to be val than to merely be in the top 5%, all other things being equal.</p>
<p>I think the matter of the issue is whether the correlation between class rank and test scores is as dramatic as the difference in admit rates of Top 1-2% and Top 5% applicants. Some elite universities have statistics which show that those students who fall under the Top 1-2% category are admitted at double the rate compared to students who only fall under Top 5%.</p>
<p>Now, whether this is because of test scores and other criteria, I do not know. I'm guessing that most of it does, indeed, have to do with overall trends regarding top students and their qualifications, but could it also be associated with schools taking into account the difference in class rank?</p>
<p>Attewell controlled for SAT scores. His research showed that actual class rank (not percentage) had a very large effect on admission. Don't take my word for it. Read his study.</p>
<p>Our school doesn't rank, but on the secondary school report it asks the counselor to note the highest GPA of the class. Does having that GPA constitute being valedictorian in a school that only officially ranks by percentages?</p>
<p>
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Our school doesn't rank, but on the secondary school report it asks the counselor to note the highest GPA of the class. Does having that GPA constitute being valedictorian in a school that only officially ranks by percentages?
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<p>Well, first off, if your school is ranking by percentages, it's still ranking. And yes, the highest GPA would normally be a de factor valedictorian.</p>
<p>I just finished reading most of the research article. Although I'm familiar with Hernandez's explanaton of the academic index, I've never seen it as Paul Attewell has. It's surprising that the difference between Top 1-2% and Top 5% is, as he said, equal to about 70 SAT points. Wow...</p>
<p>Of course, the research conducted was done 10 years ago. What applied then may not apply now, but after reading, I'm sure that colleges do take into account the top of a class. That could be an explanation as to why admit rates are so shocking for vals at elite schools.</p>
<p>Valedictorian means nothing, because if it means anything, that is due to your otherwise stellar application which would make it meaningless if you were val or sal or etc.</p>
<p>Even though its still mad cool</p>
<p>And I agree, being val at a school that doesnt weight grades (if you havent taken AP classes) is meaningless and will hurt your application.</p>
<p>If however, you are a val at a school that doesnt weight grades AND you took all AP classes...then you are something truly special.</p>