How important is class rank and progressive rigor?Answered
How important is class rank for college admissions? I’ve heard that schools compares your application to other students from your region. Considering that I’m from an underrepresented state, admissions will likely compare me to my hs alumni.
Do they compare you too your peers as well? Imagine you win salutatorian, and the valedictorian is a literal genius, does the Ivy League, or any college, take that into consideration?
Also, does you workload need to get progressively harder? I’m going to be taking 6-ish APs my senior year, 7-8 total classes, and these are the upper level courses (Calc BC, C Mechanics). 5-ish APs my junior year, 8 total classes, all weighted. Next year, I’m going to be taking 3 APs (Bio, Physics 1, Music Theory), which I’m confident about taking, but all together I’m taking 10 year long classes and 2 summer classes (easy honors prereqs), so 12 classes in total (2 of them DE). All of my senior classes will by weighted and 2 of my sophomore classes will be unweighted (prereqs).
Does my workload matter when comparing the two. Btw, I’m planning on majoring in biomedical engineering or something like that. My dream schools are MIT, UPenn, Brown, Harvard, and Princeton, but I’m open to a wide range of out-of-state public universities like UMich or Georgia Tech.
(Don’t worry about my EC’s, they’re pretty good, I just want to focus on my academics my sophomore year)
Earn karma by helping others:
3 answers
To start off, I'm not as prospective as you when it comes to academics, so take my answer with a grain of salt.
I'm on track to graduate in which my class rank is 31/194. I took 2 APs with no AP tests, 2 SATs but chose not to submit scores, and took easier courses my senior year. If we aren't thinking about community service and extracurriculars (I was a extracurricular enthusiast), then it should be known that I wasn't the best academically. Yet, I was able to get into my top school, Carleton College. The point is that college admissions do look at your class rank and class rigor, but that's only one part out of multitudes of other factors that shows how you're smart, capable, and charming. It's good that you include that you have good ECs. Some things that Ivy Leagues tend to look out for are personal projects, competitions (like the Science Olympiad), and passion towards a subject. This is just what I've notice about Ivy League applicants so far.
For the part about comparing with peers as well, I doubt that it's all that significant. Last year, a student at my school made it into Yale but wasn't valedictorian or salutatorian. The valedictorian went to a state school. It wouldn't make much sense to not admit someone based off another student's performance.
Class rank can be a factor in college admissions, but its importance can vary among different colleges and universities. Admissions officers of candy clicker consider various aspects of your academic profile, and while class rank is one of them, it's not always the sole determinant
It also depends on where you are going.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!