My daughter’s rank in the beginning of July AFTER her Junior year was 26/456 (as was shown on the school’s online tool called Naviance), which amounts to a 5.7% percentile. Then, later in July, for some mysterious reason, the Naviance tool updated the class SIZE to be 418. So, when we take the ratio now, our daughter’s percentile is 6.2%. We have two questions: (1) how can we make sure that “earlier” July class size is used (which reflects end of Junior year, we think) rather than the “updated” figure for admission purposes, and (2) will UT auto-admit at 6.2% (in other words do they round to one significant digit since the law says “in” the top 6% and not in the top 6.0 or 6.00 percent). Thank you for ANY insight at all, as this is most stressful to be potentially straddling a cutoff line with unanswered basic questions.
Don’t rely on Naviance for class size. That number could fluctuate for any number of reasons. Instead, get a transcript from her school’s registrar to get her accurate class rank and class size.
Thanks for your reply! It does seem to be off from what the counselor told us. Now I’m wondering how often class size gets updated. If it changes just a little more at the beginning of senior year, that could make all the difference for our student. I’m guessing this is another question for the counselor …
Her official transcript, from the end of Junior year (that has all of her Junior year grades, class rank, and size, is what will be used for her applications. Does your school use a credentialing service like Parchment? If so, you should be able to see her transcript, and download an unofficial one. If not, get a copy from either her counselor, or (if the counselors are unavailable due to summer vacation), the school registrar.
The auto cutoff is 6.0, not any higher.
The rank that is used is what is on the official transcript. So that would usually be at the end of junior year/beginning of senior year.
Our school calculates rank two times a year, at the end of each semester. However, the class size is taken each day of enrollment and reported that way.
For kids in high schools that lose lots of kids, (drop out, don’t have the credits to be an official senior, or alternative schools) it can really hurt! Most kids in the top 5-6 percent are not moving rank much. But if they are right on the edge, kids dropping out hurts their percentile rank.
My advice to you is to get a transcript that shows her actual rank. You can just get the unofficial one and look at that. If she is within the top 6 percent, or even 6.2 send it ASAP before you lose any more seniors. If your school is losing kids, that trend will only continue. My son’s freshman year there were 406 and he graduated with 347. Actually, as soon as you confirm that there is not an error, I would say to have it sent. The class size is likely going to continue to shrink and you want the percentile to be as high as possible.
Best wishes to you both!
Wow, that’s all super interesting and kind of frustrating to be right at the cut-off and be subject to kids just moving out or in to the school! Thanks for the perspective, we’re going next week to meet with her counselor to iron out what will be on her transcript and just start sending them to UT every few weeks, I guess! maybe one of them will have the right percentile for her since she’s SO close! HAHA!
I agree that it is very frustrating, especially since they have zero control over the number of students.
Have you been on the UT admissions reddit page? It’s a more active place than this page and there is a lot of information there.
The moderator does college admissions counseling/prep for UT but don’t feel like you have to use his services. You can just read and learn. ? It’s all UT specific.
Great idea! I will now spend the wee hours of the night on Reddit instead of CC! haha