<p>I go to a decent HS, though probably on the smaller side (maybe 900 in the school). I'm definitely in the top 3 of my class. My grades are virtually identical to the others, save one or two classes where mine was slightly lower (e.g. I had an A, they had an A+). Is valedictorian, or salutatorian for that matter, really all that it's puffed up to be? I'm easily in harder classes than those two, not to mention more of them. I try not to let class rank bug me too much, but obviously it's important in admissions. Any advice?</p>
<p>You should be fine as far as admissions. 3/225 is pretty good. Your class rank will not get you rejected from anywhere...ie it will not be the reason that you are rejected from a school if you are rejected.</p>
<p>I am no expert, but I'll just add my voice as saying that you should be content right were you are. Clearly you're a very able student, and colleges will be able to see how close you were to the other students in GPA, and they'll also take note of your rigorous academic schedule. Just keep up the good work and don't worry about it for a second.</p>
<p>If you're asking, "Is being ranked 1st significantly better than being ranked 3rd?" than the answer is absolutely no, they're virtually identical, statisically. Admissions people also realize that most ranking systems have some serious flaws and if you're within a percentage point or two of someone you're going to be viewed in almost the same light.</p>
<p>I don't really think it matters, especially if there's like a .01 difference in your GPA or something.</p>
<p>jamesford~ i think what's key is that you took a more rigorous courseload. THAT matters a lot to admissions! best of luck!</p>
<p>Some Ivies reportedly still use the AI (Academic Index) to rank applicants (scale of 1 to 9, or 1 to 6); according to the formula published in "The Early Admissions Game",, val and sal are treated equally. The elite schools generally pay less attention to your actual rank and more to essays and EC's (assuming grades and standardized tests are typically excellent for most applicants to these schools. Control what you can control - grades and EC focus; the rest usually works out.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I doubt such a small margin like that would keep you out. The only thing that val/sal might be a big deal in would be those random scholarships that only cater to vals.</p>
<p>I've been wondering the same thing. I've moved schools once already and when I came here I was ranked 3rd out of 87(top 5% still). Well the 3 of us are all in hard classes (advanced english, etc etc). The difference between me and the other two is because of the school they are in one science level ahead of me, but i'm one Foreign Language level above the Val (me & the Sal are in the same Foreign Language). Well they both have equivalents to 4.0s I have a 3.9. They have 4.0 because in my school now its easy to get A+s in freshman classes, in my other school it was a very challenging school that had honors classes etc. plus they didn't have A+s, only As or Bs or Cs etc... So basically I'm at a lower rank because I went to a better & bigger school. Oh well I hope</p>
<p>^ They dont care if your top 1 or top 5% usually, especially in such small cases such as that. When Adcoms see that, they manually adjust the AI and such to reflect it, or simply dont give a crap. On the AI itself a rank of top 1 or top 5 matters very little (makes the difference rarely between a 8 and a 9 or something but rarely)</p>
<p>Thanks to all who replied. I'm not going to worry too much about class rank.</p>
<p>I don't think valedictorian is as big as a deal as it used to be unless you're like from the top 10 prep schools in america or something.</p>