What final rank do colleges consider?

<p>All my apps have my rank by the end of junior year, so I'm assuming that is the actual rank to be considered. Does the rank after first semester senior year even matter?</p>

<p>Of course it does!!!! (for the schools that mandate midyear reports)</p>

<p>They're going to want to know that you haven't slacked off your first semester. </p>

<p>It also allows them to gauge how difficult your courses are with your standing.</p>

<p>My DD applied EA to two schools. Her acceptance was based on her first three years (6 semesters) of high school. The class rank she sent in October (end of Jr year ranking) was what was used for her acceptance. The school wants nothing else except her final transcript in June to verify graduation and completion of her course. NOW...she did apply RD to one school and that school requires that the midyear report be sent...so that school will be considering the class rank calculated at that time. Our school calculates class rank mid year for seniors.</p>

<p>Stanford and some other schools say they do not consider freshman grades and that they recalculate their own version of you GPA. So that is only four semesters by SCEA admission decision time, with a follow up mid-year report for 12th grade. Who knows if they pay any attention to class rank as possibly reported by the schools, but anecdotal evidence shows that you had better have something good going for you if you are not one of the top few in your class, as somehow defined.</p>