HS class rank not based on weighted GPA

Ae1231
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 16:05:02 +0000

I think I can comment on this from first hand experience. My class rank is 4/19 (not a typo, 19 kids in my class!). We have unweighted class rank and my gpa was/is 3.94.

A lot of schools look for you to be in the top 10% of your class, and 4/19 is top 21% of the class. I was worried about this. I was also upset because the people higher than me had weighted gpas of 4.0 as well, while my weighted gpa is 4.5 or so. So I obviously challenged myself a lot more.

I have got into to almost all the schools I have applied to, including the ones that list class rank as important, or very important and admit 90% of their class from the top 10% of their high school class.

All this to say, colleges look for context when it comes to class rank, just like they do it most other parts of your application. Hope this helps!

PS: I think a strong test score (above your school average) can also help show that the class rank at your school is not a good representation. I feel this helped me, but I can’t know for sure.