Class rank at non-ranking HS

unpolloloco
Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:56:38 +0000

How is class rank calculated (on the college admissions end) for a student from a non-ranking school? I’m a junior in a class of about 100 and have a 4.2/4.0, but I know that there are at least 3 or 4 people with higher due to taking geometry or spanish 1 in middle school (I did not attend a middle school with that option). I should have around a 4.3 at the end of this year (rank~5/100 i guess). I was just wondering how admissions officers deal with non-ranking schools like mine. The only seriously competitive school I’ll be applying to is olin. With the others (such as Rose-Hulman), it’ll be more for financial aid than admission.

FYI: My hs has significant academic diversity (i.e. final gpa’s range from 1.x to 4.4-ish usually). Its distrbution, from what i gather, is probably bi-modal (1st around 2.5, second around 3.9) with a slight negative skew (probably).

Thanks for any insight anyone provides into the tangled web of college admissions.