To rank of not to rank....

The debate over class rank…will it ever really end? Well hopefully I can bring some clarity to the subject through the lens of the Stonehill College Admissions Office.

At Stonehill we try our very best not to disadvantage students from schools that do not rank their students. We have a system called “rank rating” in which we give unranked students a number from 1 to 7 based on information provided by their school’s academic profile. The school profile is a sheet of paper or a small brochure enclosed with every application that gives us all the information we could possibly want about a school. This may include courses offered, graduation requirements, grading system, average SATs, distribution of grades, number of students in the senior class, etc. It is with this class profile that we are able to assign students a rank rating based on the information provided directly from the school.

Do we re-calculate GPA? Simple answer- no. Since every high school is so different within their grading policy, we would rather get to know each high school well than attempt to fairly recalculate. “Fair” to us is taking the time to visit the high schools in our geographic areas, carefully reading school profiles and calling College or Guidance Counselors if we have questions about a particular student. We feel that this personal attention to each applicant is more valuable than a mathematical formula used to recalculate GPA.

We also look carefully at how a school weighs their grades. This example echoes Eric’s last post about curriculum.

Student A:
GPA of 3.9 and ranked 5% in their class in a school that doesn’t weigh their class rank. This student has taken all college prep classes and electives.

Student B:
GPA of 3.4 and ranked 15% in their class at the same high school. This student has consistently taken Honors and AP classes and in place of electives has taken an extra year of science and foreign language.

Although the class rank of Student A is better than that of Student B, their curriculum shows that they are challenging themselves and perhaps their rank is not a reflection of their academic success. Student B may very well be an acceptable student despite the fact that statistically his or her figures are lower than than of Student A. At Stonehill we also take into account grade inflation, the competitive nature of your class and why your high school has decided to rank or not rank its students when deciding how heavily class rank plays in an admissions decision.

Next discussion: Student Impact- why what you do outside the classroom is so important!