Lets talk about Class Rank

A talk about Class Rank

So I’ve gotten several questions and emails in the last few days about class ranks. What’s good enough? What does this mean? Is this okay? What if I don’t rank?
(I’m guessing juniors just got their tentative ranks?)

So let’s discuss what class ranks are used for and how they’re evaluated.

To start off: The majority of high schools don’t use rankings. Some just use percentiles. Most do nothing at all.
Not having a class rank is totally fine. You’re not going to be penalized for it. The online college application community makes rankings look commonplace, but they’re rarer than you would think.

So now that we have that out of the way, what is a class rank used for?

Class rank is used to better evaluate you in the context of your school. GPA is a good standard, but due to glade inflation, weighting, and just general school-to-school differences, it’s very difficult to know exactly what a GPA means.

There are schools where nobody gets a 4.0. There are schools where almost everyone has a 4.0+. Is it fair to compare two students, one with a 3.7 in a school where a 3.0 is the average, and the other with a 4.5 in a school where students typically have 4.3s?

Rank tells admissions where you are in the context of your school. Student A, with the 3.7, might rank 3^rd in a class of 200. While student B with the 4.5 might rank 80^th in a class of 300. Just comparing those GPAs between two different schools doesn’t tell the whole story.

Admissions Committees want to know that you did the best in the context of your school. And class rank really puts things into context.

BUT, class rank is not everything.

Highly Selective admissions committees are, generally, looking for students in the top 10-25% of their classes. But there are other evaluations that come into play.

For example, take student A and student B from before.

Student A is 3^rd in a class of 200. They are clearly on top of their school, outperforming other students.  But what if student A had a 26 on their ACTs? Even though they’re doing well in their home context, they’re still not in the highly selective school range with those boards.

Student B is 80^th in a class of 300. They’re in the top 3^rd of their class, but they’re not at the very top. BUT student B had a 33 on their ACT. Even if they’re not ranking super high in their high school, they’re clearly excelling on the school-to-school comparison.

In this case, I’d say student B is much more in range for highly selective schools than student A.



This is why holistic admissions exists. Because if you had to simply type in a few numbers (GPA, class ranks, boards) to get a decision, the whole story wouldn’t be there.

They want to know that you’re doing well in the context of your school. They also want to know that you’re doing well when compared to all of the other high schoolers in the country (which is why standardized tests exist).

This is why so many valedictorians are surprised when they get rejected from schools. They’re used to being the best of the best. But maybe they don’t go to a rigorous high school. Maybe they’re lazy and their teachers mentioned that on their recommendations.

Remember that there are nearly a hundred thousand valedictorians every year.

There are not that many spots at highly competitive universities.

The vast majority of the students at these schools were not valedictorians.  Some valedictorians are going to be less qualified than the average students at other, more competitive schools.

And there are other soft factors that could come into play.

 Maybe student A is supporting their chronically ill single parent and 4 younger siblings while still pulling such amazing grades. Student A could only afford to take the ACT one time without tutoring or classes, and their grandmother had died the day before. A little different with context, am I right?

Maybe student B is an absolutely incredible artist who suffers from anxiety and has to constantly miss classes due to breakdowns.

Ranks are there to help flesh out the story, but like all other parts of your application, they’re not the whole story.

If you have great ranks that’s great. If you have okay ranks but your other factors are good, that’s fine. If you don’t have a rank at all its absolutely fine.

When applying to highly selective colleges you always need to remember that you’re being compared to thousands of other students who are just as special and amazing as you are. It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around, but it might help you sleep better at night once decisions come out.