<p>My HS has ~725 students or so per grade and is a very strong school, with best students going to HYP each year. As it is, the competition here is cut-throat, with the best minds each trying to get that “valedictorian” status by taking the toughest classes and maintaining top-notch grades. Right now, we don’t give out class ranks. If we did begin to do so, competition would become unbearable, with already determined students now realizing that colleges will see their precise position in the ladder. That, I understand, the reason a lot of good schools don’t have ranking.</p>
<p>I think most Asian countries use a unified (equivalent to the standardized tests here, but there is only one instead of the twin-mode of SAT/ACT here) exam students take at the end of their high school (e.g., A-level). The good thing is that everybody is examined in like manner; the downside is all the 12-years of education is squeezed into that few weeks and students’ performance in those momentous weeks becomes the major determinant of where they would go/not go for college education.</p>
<p>All in all I still prefer the US system, the heaping helping for GPA supremacy notwithstanding.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/opinion/l12educ.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/opinion/l12educ.html</a></p>
<p>I feel that class rank was a huge factor in my daughter’s acceptance to Duke. Coming from a small public high school in a rural county of NC, she needed that class rank to show her capabilities and her competiveness among her classmates. Although she had outstanding test scores (AP, SAT I and II, etc.), the class rank accurately reflected that she had taken the toughest course load (weighted for honors and AP classes) and had succeeded in achieving the highest GPA in her class. (Actually, a few of you may remember the controversy surrounding her graduation from 2004…but she was #1 on her final transcript even though she had to let #2 be the val. at commencement.) I do not think that test scores alone would have been her ticket to Duke, especially since her high school is not known for its top-notch students. Only the top five in each class could really be considered serious academics.</p>
<p>In addition, class rank does not necessarily disappear after high school. Those of you with Duke students may or may not know that Duke actually ranks their undergrads at the end of each semester according to cumulative GPA. At this point, I am thrilled that they do, because my daughter’s class rank there will make her stand out when she applies to grad schools. It also shows us that she really can compete against the brightest and the best even though she is from small town NC. Besides, we know that our money is well-spent on her education when she is performing so well.</p>
<p>I am all for class rank as long as it is calculated using a weighted system to reward those who take the hardest courses.</p>
<p>“Actually, a few of you may remember the controversy surrounding her graduation from 2004…but she was #1 on her final transcript even though she had to let #2 be the val. at commencement.”</p>
<p>A good example of why schools should not report precise class rank. Student, parent, and staff energy devoted to such a controversy is IMO energy not well spent. Nor is it healthy IMO that there may be bitter, triumphalist, and/or self-justificatory feelings about the results of the controversy that last years after the actual event.</p>
<p>“the class rank accurately reflected that she had taken the toughest course load (weighted for honors and AP classes)” </p>
<p>Precise class rank is unnecessary to demonstrate that the toughest load was taken.</p>
<p>Minute differences in GPA are not IMO indicative of meaningful differences in actual performance in school or of future success in life. It is therefore inappropriate and counterproductive IMO to mislead parents and students into thinking and acting as if they were.</p>
<p>You’re right, ADad, it was a mess just prior to commencement. (In fact, she wants to see her h.s. abolish class rank because of that fiasco!) Now I’m sorry that I even brought that up…That is all behind us now, though, and my point was really just to say that my daughter’s class rank, whether from a small rural h.s. or from a prestigious university does show how well she endures competition. She always has and will continue to strive to do her best, no matter how talented the pool of other students may be. In fact, she has always been her own fiercest competitor. Had she not finished in at least the top 3 of her h.s. class, I do not feel that Duke would have given her a chance. They wanted to see more than just GPA and standardized scores. Now that she is succeeding at Duke, having a class rank each semester actually further motivates her to work even harder. </p>
<p>And totally off topic…but always present on her parents’ minds…
Students from small rural high schools do not seem to get the opportunities for merit scholarships like those from the better known prep schools. Her dad and I had hoped that she would be eligible for a merit scholarship based on her outstanding college performance thus far. No luck with that… She is hoping that maintaining a high class rank at Duke will bode well for a fellowship to attend grad school.</p>