Class rank

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"Percent plan" redirects here. For Abraham Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction after the American Civil War, see Ten percent plan.

Class rank is a measure of how a student's performance compares to other students in his or her class. It is commonly also expressed as a percentile. For instance, a student may have a GPA better than 750 of his or her classmates in a graduating class of 800. In this case, his or her class rank would be 50, and his or her class percentile would be 93.

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[edit] Use in High Schools

The use of class rank is currently in practice at about 45% of American high schools. Large public schools are more likely to rank their students than small private schools.[1] Because many admissions officers were frustrated that many applications did not contain a rank, some colleges are using other information provided by high schools, in combination with a student's G.P.A. to estimate a student's class rank. Many colleges say that the absence of a class rank forces them to put more weight on standardized test scores.[2]

[edit] Use in College Admissions

Colleges often use class rank as a factor in college admissions, although because of differences in grading standards between schools, admissions officers have begun to attach less weight to this factor, both for granting admission, and for awarding scholarships. Class Rank is more likely to be used at large schools that are more formulaic in their admissions programs.[1]

[edit] Percent Plans

Some U.S. states guarantee that students who achieve a high enough class rank at their high school will be admitted into a state university, in a practice known as percent plans. Students in California who are in the top four percent of their graduating class, and students in Florida who are in the top twenty percent of their graduating class are guaranteed admission to some state school, but not necessarily any particular institution. The top ten percent of students in Texas high schools are guaranteed admission to the state school of their choice.[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Counselor's Connection - Apply to College: Class Rank and College Admissions. The College Board. Retrieved on July 5, 2007.
  2. ^ Finder, Alex (March 5, 2006), “Schools Avoid Class Ranking, Vexing Colleges”, The New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/education/05rank.html>. Retrieved on July 5, 2007 
  3. ^ Lang, David M. (Spring 2007). "Class Rank, GPA, and Valedictorians: How High Schools Rank Students" (PDF (login required - free trial available)). American Secondary Education 35 (2): 36–48. ISSN 0003-1003.