<p>My school does a 9th grade - 12th grade ranking and a 10th grade - 12th grade ranking (the former includes freshman grades, the latter does not, in case you didn’t get it). Which one do I use on my college applications?
The 10-12 ranking puts me in the top 10% while the 9-12 puts me in the top 15%. Does it matter which one I use if it doesn’t specify on the app? Thank you.</p>
<p>Yes, your rank is for all of high school. Everyone needs to understand how this works, most schools will know exactly where you rank in your class. They will know if you’re top 1% or top 9%. And you can’t go down in their stats as top 10% if that doesn’t include all years.</p>
<p>I <em>think</em> its dependent on the school you apply to. Call a few admissions offices and ask.</p>
<p>use the higher one?</p>
<p>It doesn’t much matter for your choice. The colleges will use the one provided by the GC for their decision. Your data is just used as a pre-screen.</p>
<p>“Most schools will know exactly where you rank in your class”</p>
<p>How, exactly, will they know this? Schools will only know about you what your guidance counselor and you report to them, unless you are like a high-profile felon or something. They won’t know that your class rank only includes years 10 through 12 if both you and your GC write top 10% and no one tells you why, and it’s not exactly true that you can’t go down in their stats as top 10% if you don’t include all years because all of that is based on self-reported data (or a combination of your report and your GC report).</p>
<p>The best thing to do is ask your guidance counselor what she or he normally puts down, and then put that down, so there’s not a discrepancy between what you write and what the GC writes.</p>
<p>My S 's school GC sent us a sample of the transcript to be sent to colleges that shows grades in all subjects for each year but it states that the school doesn’t rank students and doesn’t calculate GPA.
Adcom officers see what your GC provides. That’s it.</p>
<p>On the transcripts at my school they list BOTH class ranks. So they’ll know your UW and W GPA.</p>
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<p>It’s their job to find out. In the top selling admissions book of all time–A is For Admission–Hernandez goes into great detail about how colleges go about creating a rank for all of those unranked. They start with the high school profile and historical data on applicants from the high school, and when all else fails they simply call the counselors with detailed questions. They actually have formulas for schools they consistently get applicants from.</p>
<p>In the dark ages when I worked in admissions, it was my job to make many of those calls.</p>
<p>I think on the GC rec it has a space for applicant GPA and highest GPA in the class. I’m guessing the colleges extrapolate based on that.</p>