classrank Index
February 04, 2009
How important IS class rank for admissions? Students (and parents) at very competitive high schools -- the kind that require a 3.89 GPA to be in the top 10 percent -- are questioning the usefulness of class rank as a good measure of a student's ability. Many high schools have even discontinued ranking. But does discarding class rankings really remove the pressure? And how big a factor does a high school's quality play in the admissions game?
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October 24, 2008
In August, I was on a panel with some other folks talking about the local grading scales with a moderator from USA Today. The last time I dug into the subject on my blog I got some great feedback (including being called full of excrement). That kind of robust and thoughtful feedback was probably helpful in prepping for the live session. Here's basically what I said...
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October 16, 2008
Have you heard about the secret ways to get into college? These generally focus on some lame way to send your application, or some special club you can join, or worst of all, some company to whom you pay a fortune. There's never any evidence that any of that works, other than a story about somebody who got in at some point by sending in their application that way, joining that club, or forking over that fortune.
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June 05, 2008
More and more high schools are no longer publishing their class rankings, forcing admissions officers to focus on other factors on your application. But could the lack of a class rank hurt your application in the long run? Or is it more fair to get rid of the rank which may be masking your stellar-ness?
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May 30, 2008
Too good to be valedictorian? You bet. That's the story out of Grapevine, Texas, where a student with the highest GPA in the school's history won't get the official honor of "valedictorian" because she graduated in just three years instead of four.
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