What rank do you need to have a good chance?

<p>Hi, I would like to know the answer to the above question. Thanks.</p>

<p>I would think the average class rank is like, top 4% ?</p>

<p>I think that the rule of thumb is top ten percent. It would probably help to be in the top five percent, but evidently people who aren't in the top tenth get in too.</p>

<p>like me :)</p>

<p>yes but it depends which high school you come from. if you attend a very competitive high school such as hunter in nyc, being ranked top 50% would probably be okay. on the other hand, if you come from a high school with about 700 students in each class that sends about 10 kids to ivies each year, being top 5% is almost necessary. someone i know from townsend harris high school (another competitive hs in nyc) will be attending cornell and was in fact top 50%</p>

<p>based on these stats, avg class rank is probably top 7%-8% or so</p>

<p><a href="http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000001.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000001.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000154.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000154.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>it's hard to tell because the brackets are so large (rounded down to nearest 10%), and about half of the applicants don't have a rank</p>

<p>but i think biggyboy is right. rank probably isn't a good indicator of if you'll get in or not. if you're not applying to AAP, then SAT scores are probably the best way to compare yourself to the other applicants and get an estimate of your chances. of course the problem is: the scores vary between the colleges, and avg SAT scores for the individual colleges are hard to get. in fact, i've never seen them.</p>