<p>Can anyone explain to me (as if you were speaking to a five year old because I’m lost on this) how rank relates to GPA in the college application process. Daughter is in the IB program. Her UW is 3.5-6 as of right now, but rising. Her rank, however, is in the top 3 percent. When she uses the “how do I stack up” tool on college board, her rank is always at the very top, but not her GPA. Is this one of this instances where different schools grade differently? How would a student with a 3.6-3.7 UW in the top 2% percent of a 770 person class be perceived? Slacker?</p>
<p>The reason that schools want to know rank is that it helps to put the GPA into the perspective of the particular school that she attends. If her rank is in the top 2% of her class and her unweighted GPA is a 3.7, it shows the admissions committees that she is in a school that has rigorous grading policies. I don’t believe that she will be penalized for that. She will not be perceived as a slacker by any means.</p>
<p>Rank is useful for colleges to gauge a student’s caliber in relation to other students in the same school. In your D’s case, being in top 2% looks quite good especially combined with the fact her uw gpa is a 3.5-3.6. I’m not sure if her school ranks based on weighted or unweighted gpa, but chances are its based on weighted gpa, which is why her 3.6 gpa places her in the top 2% of the class. As shennie said above, colleges will see that her school has rigorous grading policies, your daughter in that setting is doing real well. Based on the numbers you gave, your daughter is one of the top 16 students in her class of 770, which is very impressive.</p>
<p>zoosermom: as a parent of a student who attended a similar “grade deflated” type school, I have to tell you that based on last year’s admissions results, it all depends on what schools you are looking at. Unfortunately, there are some schools around the country that do not care about anything but reporting high UW GPA’s…even if the respective class ranks stink. That does not bode well for those in schools like ours. SO, bottom line…it depends…</p>
<p>Well I’m learning a lot here. Thank you.</p>
<p>Rodney, her reachiest school will be Barnard and she knows that’s not likely. The other schools so far are Binghamton, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Seton Hall, Catholic U, Fordham and Dickinson. Of course, we have no idea what they will think, but this has all been very helpful.</p>
<p>It’s all about rank. With appropriate SAT scores (above median) she should be accepted at all the schools you list.</p>
<p>In a school of that size, the difference in GPA among those placing in the top ten vs. the top 20 is probably too small to be significant. Our high school is near 700 pupils per grade, and I have not seen a great deal of difference in the acceptances of kids from ranks of about 6-20. Yes, the top five or so do get a boost, but most of these kids are outstanding in many ways beyond their class rank.</p>
<p>In short, if the school is well-known as a tough grader, and she has done well in her classes and standardized tests, she is in good shape. And I would agree that she has solid list, but could add a couple of reaches.</p>
<p>zoosermom: the one girl accepted to Barnard this past year was ranked in the 6% and had a very similar unweighted GPA as your D…no idea about SAT/ACT. the rest of the list looks fine…none of these schools to my knowledge practice the UWGPA trumps all policy…</p>
<p>and I do agree with above posters to possibly add a couple more reaches, and also possibly schools that provide good merit aid for strong class rank…</p>
<p>From our experience, it depends on college or even certain program. It can make difference for Merit Scholarships. For example, honors at my D. school reguires to be in a top 2%. The top student in each HS class get Merit Scholarship from our state. The higher you have, the better, and GPA at college will continue make huge difference for Merits for returning students and various opportunities (jobs…) at college. However, some colleges / programs are sooo competitive, that even being top in your class will not help you. That is all from my D. experience who is a sophmore in college and who graduated at the top of her class. So, it depends where you are applying.</p>
<p>I would say she has an excellent shot at Barnard! As long as she has test scores above SAT-2000 or ACT-30 then I don’t think it would be a stretch to see her in at all. (at least I am assuming she has good recs/essays/and decents ecs too)</p>
<p>Rank is kind of slippery, because different high schools calculate it different ways – weighting for AP and honors classes, or not; taking into account non-academic classes, or not; taking into account all grades or dropping one if the student takes extra classes; taking into account 9th grade, or not; etc. And weightings differ, too. But your daughter’s rank communicates that her school, at least, sees her as one of its best students – she is doing things that the school values highly. And the colleges will understand that. They may tweak how the evaluate the ranking based on what the GC’s letter tells them about the high school’s ranking system, but they will understand that she is a good student whatever her GPA (which is perfectly fine) is.</p>
<p>I agree with others that you have an awful lot of safe/matches there. I have a nephew at Catholic U., for instance (and he likes it a lot), who probably didn’t get a single grade above 3.5 in high school, and was a lot closer to the bottom 3% of his high school class than the top 3%. Since she seems to like women’s colleges, why not add Smith or Wellesley? Lafayette? Bucknell? Vassar? Cornell?</p>
<p>You all give great advice. Her freshman PSAT was 207 (I don’t remember what the soph one was but it was a tiny bit higher); full IB diploma and several truly unique (not hookish) ECs that totally relate to her hoped-for major. I think she’ll be a good candidate – her last parent/teacher conference was so positive that my husband was stunned. Anyway, she is risk averse and probably won’t reach. She’s also adamant about being very close to home. I think Lafayette would be pretty much ideal but so far she’s turned up her snout. She thinks Vassar is too elite for her.</p>
<p>With a freshman PSAT of 207 and a slightly higher soph one, she will probably get a high SAT score before she is done. With unique ECs, strong recommendations and likely a very strong essay (if she writes like her mom) I would strongly advise that she not aim too low. Seriously, what about Columbia, NYU, Yale and Princeton? UPenn? Georgetown? It doesn’t hurt to apply. Also, the richer universities also have more financial aid to give. Don’t let the C.C. ‘chances’ threads scare you off. Your kid is more than her GPA and rank.</p>
<p>Talk with your daughter’s counselor to find out how the information is presented/explained on the secondary school report and in the school profile.</p>
<p>Is that rank with weighted GPA or unweighted? And congrats on the <em>excellent</em> rank</p>
<p>The 3.5-3.6 currently is unweighted. I THINK it will go up a bit based on the last report card. My educated guess is that it will be around 3.6-3.7 unweighted before she applies.</p>
<p>And I assume the rank is based on UW GPA, not W GPA (if your D’s school has iit)?</p>
<p>Interesting thread. My D is also interested in Barnard, but her grades are lower than your D’s. Her school will also not rank, so I have no idea how she measures up to other kids. D will apply to Barnard even though it is a reach. After all, she only needs one safety that she is sure to get into, and everything else can be a reach…you never know.</p>
<p>(now if she could only find a safety she likes ;))</p>
<p>We can’t afford Barnard, but it doesn’t hurt to apply. We had a situation with D1 where she applied to a school that we couldn’t afford unless something happened. The weekend she got accepted, something actually did.</p>
<p>Anyway, D2 has been to the writing workshop at Barnard and liked it a lot. she knows it’s not likely, but I think she has some schools that she can get into. She liked seton Hall a lot, much to my surprise. I didn’t think she would, but the people in the classics department were very kind, the tour guides were cool as all get out and the campus is very nice.</p>
<p>We’re eager to see Bryn Mawr, as she’s a subscriber to its Classical Review and feels a connection. She’s also going to look at Oneonta and Hunter. I understand that admission to Hunter is just weird, so who knows</p>
<p>Yea, money is a real issue for Barnard for us as well. D wants to apply ED, but on the off chance she actually gets in, I would have to mortgage my house to afford the tuition.</p>
<p>Hunter always had weird admissions; I remember that even back when I was applying (I know, the stone ages).</p>