Parents: How have you managed the application process vis a vis your student’s class ranking? If your child goes into senior year with a specific class ranking, when is it okay to say “#x in class” or “anticipated —torian”? Any guidance much appreciated.
Most schools just report rank by deciles.
When your kid submits the applications, the school counselor will send a school Profile that shows the range if GPAs for the class, plus other info about the high school.
At my kids’ school, class rank was on the transcript that was sent.
Why are you concerned about this?
Class rank was explicitly listed on transcripts so the college received that. There is really a small opportunity to showcase your strengths to colleges on those applications, I don’t think you want to report something that is easily demonstrated in another place on the application.
For other applications, such as scholarships and honors programs, our son put something like “currently ranked x/xxx”. I understand that many places only report by decile or quartile but that is not how it is done at our high school.
The top ten students at our high school are announced at the end of the 5th six weeks. Until it’s a done deal, I would report the current rank but not say “anticipated” anything but that’s just me.
I didn’t do anything, my son did. It was his app.
One bit of feedback I gave him after his first draft on the app - you have very limited space to convey who you are. Organize it in a way that makes sense and lists the most important things first; omit things that are redundant or don’t add to the app.
Thumper1: I was trying to be discrete. My son is #1 in a class of 500+ and I want to be sure that’s apparent to the schools he is applying to. Thanks for your…insight.
Texasmom2001: Thank you - your response is helpful - and not snarky. I appreciate it.
In addition to sending the transcript, there is a place on the Common App to list class rank and the size of the class.
If your student’s HS doesn’t name the val/sal until after the applications are due, the GC can send an update on the distinction to colleges with the 1st semester grades.
@DevotedSteppie if your son is number one in his class, that will be obvious in other places, as noted above.
Please don’t let his college applications be all about him being number one. He needs to showcase himself as the PERSON…not the stat.
His guidance counselor will probably note on his recommendation that he is on target to be valedictorian. I wouldn’t worry about doing anything.
It’s great to be valedictorian, but do remember that there are over 30,000 of them every year. That means not enough spots for them all at the most selective schools. Try to help manage expectations.