For example, my school is REALLY competitive. My class cuts off the top ten percent at GPA’s of 98.
Last year, I had a GPA of a 94 (3.9 on 4.0 scale) and had the second to last place in the top quarter. I just brought my GPA up to around a 96, but I can’t get my actual class rank until the end of the semester. However, I’m already anticipating still being in the hundreds area and probably not being in the top 20%, even with a 4.0. Now, this really isn’t that big of an issue because I qualify for automatic acceptance at TAMU (my first choice school) and all my other backups for when I apply in my senior year. (I am a junior now.)
But, let’s say someone else in my same position wants to apply at a top school. Heck, maybe even Harvard or Stanford. If they had awesome SAT’s, subject tests, EC’s, etc. along with a 4.0, but had a horrible class rank, would they not make it in because of their poor class rank alone?
I’m not looking to apply anywhere fancy or anything, I’m just slightly curious.
GPA is meaningless while Class Rank gives a lot of context. Having a 4.0 UW but a less than 20% class rank probably means they didn’t take a lot of rigorous classes which is not good for Harvard or Stanford, regardless of the EC’s, SAT’s etc.
Very few people who get into Harvard or Stanford are outside of the top 10% of their class. Even admits from top prep schools like Stuyvesant still are usually at the top of their class, so I’d say being outside the top 20% would make Harvard and Stanford very difficult.
Then again, if you’re a recruited athlete or have a huge hook, then it would be a completely different story.
As @billsho has stated, look up the CDS for the particular school. For example, GTech does not even consider class rank. For GTech, GPA, ECs and rigor of secondary school courses are of prime importance.
Unless your school is a magnet, gifted, upper tier private or similar school, class rank gives a good indication of how you are doing relative to your peers. GPA’s are often inflated which just indicates ‘relaxed’ standards, usually benefiting the administration more than the students. If you have a 3.9 with 75% AP classes and a 35 ACT and a class rank in the 60th percentile, that indicates that you have an extraordinarily good peer group. There are all sorts of weighting systems to try to equalize rank too. GPA and rank is typically lower for kids who excel at a few subjects and are average at others, which is paradoxical considering colleges want you to major in something.
Most private college prep schools don’t rank for that reason. Public schools with guaranteed admissions to state colleges always rank.
Personally, my course load has a bit of rigor. I’m in two AP classes, a Pre-Ap class and a course that is technically college leveled class that my school offers (it is not counted as AP because it’s microbiology and a lot of schools don’t offer it). My class is just extremely bright, and my school is very difficult. My class so far is the most successful academically my school has ever had, and its one of the best ranked schools in my district (which is also very highly ranked).
Again, I personally wouldn’t apply at Ivy League schools. This is just something that I was curious about.
That’s very interesting, actually! I didn’t know class rank was losing importance at some schools. I always hear about how it’s one of the most important things ever. I’ll have to look into that.
I think about half of high schools don’t even report rank. My kids just started after many years of not doing it, because certain state schools use it for scholarships.
GPA will be taken apart and rebuilt by many selective schools, using course difficulty and number of classes and grades. So grades are very important, as is rigor. Each school has info on its site, the cds mentioned above, that will tell you how much they care about rank.
Depends on the college. For example, Texas public universities evaluate your high school record by class rank, while California public universities evaluate your high school record by (recalculated) GPA. The Common Data Set, or the admissions tab for the school at http://www.collegedata.com , will show what each college says is the importance or lack thereof given to GPA and class rank.
This is very much an “it depends” answer. It is why programs like Naviance or speaking to your GC can really tell you more than random people on the internet can. My kids went to a very large public high school with the full range of kids from kids taking six years or more to graduate to kids taking 8-10 APs and going on to Ivy’s and other selective universities. In our school kids outside the top 2-3% are unlikely to get into univeristes with 15% or less acceptance rates without some pretty stellar extras. (Something like being both a recruited athlete and URM.) Kids in the top 10% or so all get into great schools. I was surprised that there is less grade inflation than I had expected. My kid with a 93 UGPA, 97 WGPA was in the top 6% and got into some very selective schools. But someone coming from a rigorous prep school would not need the same sort of rank to get in.
Many selective private schools have admissions officers that are responsible for regions they are quite familiar with most of the high schools in their region and know what makes up a rigorous schedule at any particular high school and what sort of grades the top students get.