DefyGravity131

Hi everyone! I'm a rising junior, so maybe it's a little early for me to be wondering, but does anyone know how much Vanderbilt looks at class rank? My school just stopped ranking us at the end of this past year, and I was on Parchment.com playing with their "See Your Chances" feature. When I typed in all my stats, it chanced me as 29%. I was using the "What if?" feature, and plugged in my class rank as top 1%, which is true. My new chances were at 48%, which, granted, is still not great, but an almost 20% jump? Just from one input?

So I'm wondering, does the fact that my school stopped ranking really hurt my chances that much? Or is Parchment just being dramatic? The other schools I was doing this for didn't change my chances at all.

Thanks so much!

PS: I don't know if this matters, but in case it does, I think my original chances were so low because I was using my PSAT scores to predict for ACT/SAT. Those scores will almost certainly improve once I actually take the tests when school starts.

chaosakita

I was in the top 10% but my unweighted GPA was about 3.7. I hope that helps.

Pancaked

Class of 2016:
"Percentage of students in the top ten percent of their graduating class: 96.35%"

Would suggest that rank is pretty important. Safe to assume that a good portion of that other 3.65% were athletes.

rmldad

An adcom told me that less that half of applicants have class rank included in their transcript. You will notice that every selective school now includes some small print after their class rank statistic that indicates it only holds for those applicants who included rank.

Generally speaking, private schools and competitive public schools do not send out class rank. Thus, when Vandy (or others) publish these statistics, they are grossly overinflated. The only high schools that actually send class rank any more are those where a minority of graduates even apply to college.

What is more important, in my opinion, is that your Regional Counselor from Vandy be familiar with your high school. Even without a rank included, they will have a good idea based on other applicants where you fall in your class.

lenny2

My D's school does not rank students, and she definitely would not have been in the top 10%. Her school was small and very competitive, so only a small number of kids was even in the top 20%.

Pancaked

The number may be "overinflated" in terms of the true average class rank, but it is still very meaningful if your school does submit ranks. While many competitive high schools man may not release ranks (taking your word for it), it doesn't change how accurate the statistic is for schools that do release ranks... Rank does appear important.

Faline2

work on everything in your control..mainly test scores this coming year, AP scores and SATII scores...and focus well on one or two ECs

Leave the issue of class rank to the adcoms..they know how to view these things fairly..

sign up for an alum interview summer before your senior year or that fall and get to know Vandy with a visit if at all possible.

best wishes