Many colleges list class rank as “very important” at College Data site. However, it seems to me that some weight class rank more extremely. One example is Dartmouth, which publishes the number of valedictorian or salutatorian admitted each year (>25%). Another example is Brown.
It makes no sense for somebody who is not a valedictorian or salutatorian to apply to this type of schools unless you have some really nice hooks.
What are the other top colleges that you know where class rank is extremely important?
I don’t think it is nearly as important as people on this site think it is at ANY college except state auto admits like UT Austin. Those colleges with a lot of them are probably admitting more on interested/interesting qualities than class rank. Once they know you can do the work (and you don’t have to be a val or sal to prove that), they want to know what else you’ve got.
Agree as many high schools no longer rank, and some do deciles, others quintiles, and others quartiles. As a result, I think it’s the largest quantitative flaw in the UNWWR ranking methodology as I assume schools just make it up on the CDS solely because it’s still used by USNWR.
And if you’re doing your college bound homework, you’ve seen how, eg, Stanford and Brown reveal the number of vals and top stats kids who don’t get the nod.
The ranking in the CDS isn’t absolute. Something Very Important doesn’t trump other factors.
@intparent, well, you cannot deny that some colleges value the rank more than others. Most college publish the percentage of students in the top 10%. But some colleges like Dartmouth also count and publish the number of val and sal they admit. This says to me this particular number is important to those colleges and they look for those type of students.
Dartmouth accepted the valedictorian from my high school last year, who was an amazing kid but there were many other kids who were equally strong but did not play GPA game as well. Obviously this is just anecdotal evidence. However, there seems to be data supporting that Dartmouth looks for Val and Sal. see this link http://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2017/03/college-accepts-2092-to-class-of-2021
Let’s say I have excellent stats but I am not ranked top 2, considering this, should I think twice applying to Dartmouth, Brown, and others that are looking for val and sal?
I am not saying class rank trumps other factors. Being a valedictorian does not guarantee acceptance to those colleges but boost your chances more significantly.
Don’t apply until you know what they look for, beyond stats. Otherwise, how would you hone your own application, make yourself their choice?
This is more than the CDS. In fact, it’s about a thinking that goes past that. The top colleges are not rack-and-stack. That’s lesson 1.
In fact, that D 25% figure is about the proportion of admits. Not the acceptance rate for Val applicants. Again, look at what B and S show . It’s informative.
@hou2019, the best Dartmouth could do would be to post the % in the top-10% of the schools that report that metric; same goes for Val/Sal as many high schools don’t designate them - outside of that it would be a big guess.
Our DD’s attended a top public HS in the Mid-Atlantic that sent plenty to top schools and they don’t do Val and Sal; they do recognize those that achieved a 4.0 UW GPA of which some were top students that went to top schools, and others were not and didn’t go to top schools; it was more like a “super effort” award as it didn’t recognize course rigor - the colleges did!
I look at stats first. I would not apply if my chance of making the cut is low based on stats. Coming back to the Dartmouth example, the number of Val and Sal was published as part of news and celebrated, that does say something.
It is often important to honors programs at public universities for students to be in the top 5% of their class. Many (public) universities boast how many students they admit who were in the top 10% of their class – at some universities, about 80% of the students fall into this category. For example, at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 78% of admitted freshmen were in the top 10% of their class. I think the universities for which class rank is important are way too numerous to list.
It is true that many HS do not rank their students. However, my understanding is that many colleges will estimate your rank based on their application pool. I saw somewhere that Swarthmore had 50% of their admits in estimated top 2%
@hou2019, you can’t compare the applicant pool against itself and achieve 50% in the top-2% unless the applicant pool was huge. They can attempt to extrapolate using the high school’s class profile, so that must be what they are doing. Footnoting such as was noted in posting #9 is the most honest way to represent the information.
No doubt rank is the key factor for some state universities such as UT. I guess it is also true for some elite colleges like Dartmouth and Brown. The general trend is to depend less on class rank in college admission. But some colleges are just moving slower than others. I want to know which those colleges are so that I can avoid them
Agree, the is probably what they are doing. It just shows some schools take effort to rank the kids in their respective high schools. Maybe all colleges do that, who knows…
They can say, “I think she’s stronger than the other 2 applicants.” They can think that, relatively (not a one to one lineup,) one has more rigor and accomplishment. Or the GC can say outright where he/she thinks a kid would fall, if they did rank. But adcoms don’t declare you val or sal. Sometimes, the School Report makes it pretty clear what top gpa is, eg, 3% have 3.9-4.0. But not always.
Simple math tells us that if B accepts 19% of Val applicants, it’s rejecting 81%.
They’re cherry picking, what they see as best, that holistic view, based on what the school wants. Not going on stats alone.
And they don’t have time to play some rank what-if game.
The percentages are a reflection of the applicant pool as much as it is the school. I’m sure that Dartmouth rejects plenty of Val and Sal applicants, while accepting several top-half applicants from select boarding schools. It’s a factor of knowing the high-schools and valuing the performance against the perceived peer group. Of all of the metrics considered in applying to colleges…rank is one of the weakest as it has no comparability from school to school.
But if, say, 25% report rank, it can’t be a major decision point, in itself.
And this focus on gpa/rank misses that top adcoms look at the transcript, for course prep, rigor, and grades. That matters more than a string of easy classes. Or a calculated choice of lots of AP, to game a weighted gpa.
Yes, that is what everybody says, but that is just BS. Admission officers do not spend the same amount of time on each application. There is a screening process. If you do not pass the screen, they would not waste more times on your application. Some colleges just put more weight on class rank in that screening process.
