<p>My DDs high school has adopted the no number ranking policy. That ranking system will be gone totally after this year. They are going to a percentage ranking system with 10% band increments. My DD, who is a sophmore, was noted to be in the top 1% (6/673) in her freshman year. She is worried that since they are now only reporting that she is in the top 10%, how does that look at some of the very selective colleges she wants to apply to? The school says they will go no further than to say top 10% and the GC can write a glowing letter to boast about her. She is not sure that some of the colleges will even get that far in reading that if they are looking at her ranking vs. some other candidate that can state they are in the top 5 or 1%. Any insights or experience with a system like this would be helpful.</p>
<p>Most, if not all, schools that eliminate number ranking add a school profile explicitly describing the GPA range of each of the deciles…it is my understanding that colleges will try to figure out where a kid is within those deciles if need be, so I wouldn’t worry about it for your d…In fact, this kind of system is very similar to what you had before, but simply eliminates the so-called “ties” that we still have with the number ranking…In addition, the val/sal issue is eliminated (unless the profile shows that…).</p>
<p>This is really bad. They would be better off with no ranking system at all.</p>
<p>You should get the high school to make abundantly clear to the colleges that they only score in 10% increments. This is especially important if the GC’s mark the boxes with percentiles, because I believe there are boxes for top 5% and top 1%. If I remember correctly, the boxes for percentile were just so that the recommender could estimate how good the applicant was compared to others she/he had seen, but I don’t know if your school’s policy extends to that.</p>
<p>I guess the school letter will be very clear about how they rank. So it will not hurt. I also think that there are more pluses than minuses in the removal of number ranking in a competitive school. While working hard in order to break into the top 10%, kids will not compete with someone in particular for the single-digit number. I heard about such competitions getting really ugly.</p>
<p>Spring162, I am in a Public High school that decided to adopt a decile
only ranking system like the one you describe. My GC however goes
out of the way to ensure that we are not impacted by this.</p>
<p>I know this because my school sends tons of people to HYPMS which would
look askance at the top 10% tab.</p>
<p>…I am not sure what all the GCs do to convey our position in school but they
do something and it works very well.</p>
<p>Where this hurts is that it allows administrators to play favorites with
key awards at the end of junior year that earlier had to go through a lot
more scrutiny in terms of who gets what. It overall does not seem to matter
since the really good students have so many awards and achievements at
national and international levels that any miscarriage of fairness at the
school level at that one time is not going to impact the student’s admittance
chances.</p>
<p>Oh, and the majority of students are happy about the decile thing because
it is obviously structured to benefit the maximum number of students. The
kids at the top form one end of the tail of the curve…?</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>i strongly do not believe in ranking not because my children not able.My oldest prob.ranked top 10%,but as good as top 1%,my 2nd ranked top5% but not that good!!!and my youngest too young but probably 1st in class(already winning Math competetipn,1 st 6 th grader in quizz bowl,etc…)i know i believe it hurts other kids.Ranking is game with all weighted classes and etc…</p>
<p>“This is really bad. They would be better off with no ranking system at all.”</p>
<p>Well, it’s not so good if you’re in the top 1%, but it’s quite good if you just make it into the top 10%.</p>
<p>Our D’s highly competitive private school only ranks in quintiles, but at the student’s request, will indicate the proper decile. Our grads have been accepted to various top schools every year, so the combination of the school profile and the student’s GPA tells the story–as does the rigor of the class offerings.</p>
<p>Hunt, thats exactly what I thought! My friends kid makes it into the top 10% but there is a whole 1.00 point GPA betwenn her and my kid. I see how it benefits more kids but once again, I think the best kids may be hurt by it.</p>
<p>Who are “the best kids”? At my school AP and other challenging classes are not weighted. But “pluses” and “minuses” in all classes are reflected in GPA and class rank. So “the best kids” class-rank-wise are the ones who stay away from AP and advanced math classes. They stick to easier classes that they know they can get an A+ in. That makes them “the best kids.”</p>
<p>hey ya, I was just speaking from my own DDs experience. AP’s and honors are weighted and +'s and -"s count too. In her school, the “best” tend to be the ones who take the most challenging classes and succed in them. I do see what your are speaking of Freshman year, when Aps are non-existant.</p>
<p>it DOES NOT matter ONE bit since colleges will still have your GPA. also rank doesn’t really mean anything. i’ve seen people in the top 5% of their class get rejected from ivies while people with lower ranks got in.</p>
<p>They did the same thing at my school, and my guidance counselor is still listing my exact rank. I think he lists exact rank for anyone in the top 10% (50 students), and also if you’re close to one of the borders. I’m in the top ten people (not %) and he assured me that they wouldn’t just write 10%. Maybe your D’s GC would be willing to do the same thing if you spoke to them personally about which schools she’s applying to?</p>
<p>Brillar, I did tell my daughter to go speak to her GC and ask her specifically if she will give her a more specific % when the time comes. I want her to do it herself since if she is going to try to get into these top schools she needs to learn to put herself out there more. We will see what happens.</p>
<p>My son is probably 3 or 4 out of 250, and the school is militant about not ranking, however they do have a valedictorian and a salutatorian. Their answer is that well the colleges look at the strength of the classes he’s taking and the grades he’s gotten. They also play a game with the GPA. His unweighted GPA is 4.1, which is ridiculous because how can it be unweighted if it is over 4.0? Their answer is that an A+ is a 4.67. His weighted GPA is even more ridiculous at 5.24! </p>
<p>They gave us a list of colleges he should apply to at out junior planning meeting, and of the 13 schools they suggested, 7 were ivy league schools, and 3 were Williams, Duke and Vassar. Their safeties for him were New College, Colgate and U of Rochester. If they really think he’s qualified for the 10 reach schools, and desperately want him to apply because then they get to put the school names he’s accepted to in their advertising, why not help him out and give him a ranking? </p>
<p>So, anyway, my opinion is that no ranking definitely hurts if you’re in the top 5 students, but not valedictorian or salutatorian.</p>
<p>our district does not rank, but somehow the top kids matriculate to HYPSM et al each and every year, so, no, dropping ranking is not bad.</p>
<p>The majority of applicants to top universities come from unranked high schools (ie, with systems like you described).</p>
<p>I went to ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ and put in my son’s stats with his 1% rank, ran his chances and then ran them again after checking “My school does not rank”. His chances of admission dropped between 0% and as high as 42%, with an average drop of 15% by their calculations.</p>
<p>And we all know how accurate ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ is…</p>
<p>with ranking so skewed,and arbitrary and varied from school to school, this is a good thing</p>
<p>If you think that one # will make or break an application, not true…and mychances…eh…they aren’t admissions people who can read a school profile and understand the context of a student’s GPA along with everything else</p>
<p>We need to relax a bit</p>