I go to a very competitive public magnet school, one of the best in my state. Unfortunately, class rank is reported on my transcript and it’s BAD.
My school only gives a small point bonus to AP and honors (+5 and +3 respectively) and we calculate GPA on a scale of 100 which is literally an average of all course grades. Grade inflation is super bad since we have major related classes (3/8 per year) because we are an arts school. This, on top of how easy non-APs are at my school, mean that my class rank comes out as 83rd out of 270 despite me having a 3.9 something unweighted, and taking 5 APs with all As this year with 2 APs in my combined past years. Almost everyone ahead of me in class rank took a much easier courseload, with heavily inflated GPAs ruining my class rank. My SAT is over 1500 and my extracurriculars are very good. I should also safely be a national merit semi finalist when the information is released next year.
My issue is, all good schools I’m looking at (Georgetown, Vanderbilt) all consider class rank VERY IMPORTANT when included on transcript, making me think they may throw my application in the trash if they put so much emphasis on that statistic. Over 85% of applicants to these schools are also in the top 10% seemingly supporting my presumption… should I switch schools? Or am I freaking out about nothing?
Rank is relative. So per the school you are 83rd of 270. It is what it is. It’s not bad.
Rigor matters so if you are taking a rigorous schedule, that’s important.
I’d say this - control what you can. Perhaps you’re not destined for Vanderbilt but rather Elon or Denver. Few get into Vandy - even valedictorians are turned down.
Should you switch schools ? No. Who is to say the same thing won’t happen elsewhere and your record is baked there.
Continue to work hard on school, take rigor within reason that you do well. And make sure you are involved outside the classroom. And finally since you mention you go to a top school, they likely have guidance counselors that can tell you where students with your profile have been admitted to.
You, not the college you attend, will make your success. Worry about you, not others. And be the best you that you can be.
And let the colleges decide how to rate you - many will recalc your gpa on their scale.
Years ago my DH lost Valedictorian to a classmate who was not taking any Honors classes while he was in several advanced STEM classes. It happens.
AOs don’t look at rank in a vacuum. Yours is a case where test scores will be very relevant, your grades are excellent and your test scores support that. 4s and 5s on the APs will show you did well regardless of the grading system. Your recommendation letters will also help tell the story, as will the school profile (have you ever looked at it?)
What is the history of your school with the colleges you are considering? If even a few students apply on a regular basis and it is one of the top schools in your state, the regional AO will be familiar with how the school works.
While I would not say “maybe you are not meant to be there,” most qualified applicants still don’t get in. All you can do is ensure that you have a balanced school list you would be happy to attend.
While rank is important, they will look at it in context. Your test scores are good, which will help things.
There are similar stories at public high schools in Texas, where it is not uncommon to have 20 “valedictorians” with perfect 4.0 GPA. This is because the state automatically admits the top 7% into UT Austin.
The admissions readers will be familiar with your high school and understand. Just keep moving forward and do your best.
The other thing you can do to increase your chances is to apply in the early round. Vanderbilt has ED1 and ED2. I believe Georgetown has EA. But only do so if you are confident that the financial aid won’t be an issue.
Switching schools is probably not the right move. High course rigor at a competitive school will look better than at a less competitive school. Most colleges use a holistic approach-test scores, grades, rank, essays, extra curriculars, letters of recommendation, etc. You will probably get better letters of rec from the teachers and guidance counselors at the school you have been attending rather than at a new school.
Switching schools at this point won’t help. It’s simply not an option now. Even if your school reported not absolute rank, but percentile bands, you’d be in the same position, since you’re only in the top quarter of your class. You’re not the only one in this situation - I’ve seen students who never took an honors or an AP class admitted to the flagship state U, while others who took all honors and all APs available, with slightly lower grades but obviously much higher rigor, get waitlisted, or admitted only to satellite branches, when they obviously were much higher achievers. However, many highly selective private schools will re-calculate your GPA based upon their own criteria, and heavily weigh the rigor of the courses that you took.
You should probably go see your school’s guidance counselor now to discuss how she/he can give context in their cover letter. The fact that you made National Merit might not help you as much as you think, since high test scores combined with lower class rank can point to a student who doesn’t put in the work, despite their high ability. (Been there, was that!) This isn’t the case for you, but don’t think that the high score will help - it might not. That’s why the cover letter from guidance is so important. You want them to say something like, “Unlike some of his classmates, Jim always challenged himself by taking the most rigorous courseload available to him, and excelled in those classes.” That will temper the class rank, especially at schools which take the trouble to look deeper than the two data points of reported class rank and standardized test scores. So make an appt as early as possible (now) to meet with the counselor who will write your cover letter, and go back often to meet and give them a chance to get to know you. Be upbeat, positive, likeable in those meetings - as charming and sincere as you can be, while confiding in them your career aspirations and the reasons why you want the colleges that you like. Ask for their advice in shaping your application process (but check back on here to see if others with recent experience agree).
Also, if you make NMSF, be sure to apply for Finalist, and start looking now into schools that offer full rides to NMF. Money may not be an issue for you if your family is extremely well off and willing to pay full fare, or if your family is poor and you would qualify for a full ride based on the family’s finances. But for the vast majority in between, the full rides being offered to NMFs by certain flagship state U’s can be too good a deal to pass up.
Your GC is going to provide a report in the letter of rec that will indicate your level of work. It sounds like you will be in the “most rigorous” category, which is the highest. Those colleges also care a lot about rigor. Furthermore, your grades will be calculated according to the colleges’ own formulas based on your courses and level of rigor.
So please relax. That’s the one thing you can control.
Oh, I missed the NMSF - that’s the golden ticket. Get to finalist and a solid school like Tulsa will pay you to go. Or Alabama, that has more NMFs than any school in the country. They buy them in.
You’ll have tons of options - and if you’re a full pay family, save them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Your situation is actually really good if you want to take advantage.
Your HS GC will be the best person who can help you put things in perspective in terms of college admissions. Hopefully, your school has a publicly available school profile that will show the average/range of honors/AP courses that students take…see if you can get that because that’s what AOs will use to understand the context of your transcript. Is it an option to ask for your transcript without class rank info included?
Does your HS send students regularly to highly rejective schools like Georgetown and Vanderbilt? Does the school use Naviance or Scoir so you can see how you compare to others who applied to the same schools in prior years?
I think this will likely be a non-issue at most colleges, and would not change HSs for this reason, assuming you like your HS.
Yes, but if the rigor of OP’s courses is much higher than those “ahead” in rank, what does rank matter? Isn’t that what many of the posts on this thread are saying?
That being said, I don’t know the impact, but just following along the thread and other advice/wisdom routinely given on CC on the importance of a rigorous courseload.
For some colleges like Texas publics, rank at face value is a big deal.
For others where rank is very important but considered holistically with other things, it may not be obvious to outsiders (relative to the admission offices) how it is considered.
Yeah, this is what I’m worried about. Schools in Georgia (GT, emory ) are VERY familiar with the situation and regularly admit people outside of top 50% with good rigor. However, I don’t know if outside of state schools with less applicants from my school have a full profile. I know someone at my school with an average GPA of 99.7 with good rigor and he is just in the top 10% barely, solely by cheating (he had a 98 in AP Physics and got a 1 on the exam)
In some high schools, the quality of AP courses is poor enough that A students most commonly get 1 scores, so that is not necessarily evidence of cheating.
Focus on yourself - and stop worrying about others.
You’ll need a balanced list - even if you were #1 with a 36 ACT.
Reaches, targets, safeties.
Talk to your GC - as you are at a magnet and your scale may outperform the norm.
Making accusations of cheating - accurate or not - are pointless. You are responsible for you and the other kid is responsible for him/herself.
In the end, you’re not going to be a success in life because you went to Vandy vs. Mercer. You’re going to be a success if you’re a go getter, work hard, treat people right, and have a little luck.
ps - b4 you said you had a 3.9. Now you put out a #. That’s very different.
Fair enough - but if you get +5 for AP and +3 for Honors and have substantial rigor, unless everyone else has more rigor or you are not performing as well as others in the common classes you all take, you wouldn’t be at the 30th percentile. So I’m assuming that in shared classes, others have higher raw grades. And high enough to overcome that AP/Honors bump.
In other words, if OP has a 95, then 30% have a higher score - whether that’s based on easy classes or not. As for grade inflation - it’s rampant EVERYWHERE - this is not like 30 years ago where your valedictorian was a 3.9 and my 2.8 was in the 2nd quintile.
Nonetheless, for a very competitive public magnet school, OP likely has better resources in the counseling office then they’ll find here. So I think that’s the main message.
When OP sees that at certain colleges nearly all kids are in the top 10%, etc. but not all, it’s often private schools or magnets that might be those that come from outside the certain grouping.
It’s not clear whether this school is using weighted GPA to calculate rank, as some schools do use unweighted only. (we also don’t know anything else about their rank calculation methodology)
IMO any school that still ranks students (somewhere between 1/3-1/2 of HSs) is not student-centered/putting students first. Students/Parents should advocate to stop this practice.