Farewell, Class Rank. Hello, Rank Optional.

[Anonymous]

Our high school, consistently ranked amongst the Top 50 public high schools in America (of approx. 20,000 high schools), has finally caught up to the times and discontinued publishing the GPA range of our senior class in the school's 2023/2024 profile. Previously, the school profile indicated that our students were not ranked, and that there were no other forms of academic recognition (e.g., Valedictorian); but the profile provided GPA ranges that were being used by AOs to effectively cap admissions of the school's unusually capable pool of applicants. Finally, reason has prevailed and the school district trustees have intervened to ensure that our counselors would no longer be doing the dirty work for schools insistent on capping admissions.

[Anonymous]

Is this a magnet school or a boundary school. If the former, then class rank is not good, because all the kids are supposedly amazing.

[Anonymous]

MCPS hasn't ranked students in years in any of their HSs

[Anonymous]

Your state universities will still rank them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your state universities will still rank them

You can't rank what you can't see. Unless a critical mass of students (over 50%?) apply to all of the state schools, they will be left with incomplete information to ascertain actual rank / rank range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this a magnet school or a boundary school. If the former, then class rank is not good, because all the kids are supposedly amazing.

School district with approx. 9,000 students in the 9 - 12 grades and four school sites, all of which are open to any student in the district boundaries (subject to lottery in the event of imbalance). But to your point, the school in question is operated as a 4x4, highly rigorous academy (e.g., over 4,600 AP exams were administered this past May) and for that reason, it's akin to a magnet school. Around 60 NMSFs this year in a senior class of roughly 525, which is consistent with past years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your state universities will still rank them

You can't rank what you can't see. Unless a critical mass of students (over 50%?) apply to all of the state schools, they will be left with incomplete information to ascertain actual rank / rank range.

But the readers are already able to rank via the class profile send by every public high school counselor. It gives all the necessar;y demographics, including how many are taking what AP courses to figure it out. That's what schools are doing right now even if they claim they don't rank (but there is a list on computer that the college counselor can see - from time to time it gets accidentally released and then there is a scurry). Most schools will tell you they don't rank because of the added stress but it's a game between the high school and the college. That's why class profiles are sent with each transcript

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our high school, consistently ranked amongst the Top 50 public high schools in America (of approx. 20,000 high schools), has finally caught up to the times and discontinued publishing the GPA range of our senior class in the school's 2023/2024 profile. Previously, the school profile indicated that our students were not ranked, and that there were no other forms of academic recognition (e.g., Valedictorian); but the profile provided GPA ranges that were being used by AOs to effectively cap admissions of the school's unusually capable pool of applicants. Finally, reason has prevailed and the school district trustees have intervened to ensure that our counselors would no longer be doing the dirty work for schools insistent on capping admissions.

People are always trying to find a way to claim they were wronged because their kid didn’t get accepted to a competitive college.

They didn’t get in because there are thousands of kids applying. It wasn’t because if a GPA range being published.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our high school, consistently ranked amongst the Top 50 public high schools in America (of approx. 20,000 high schools), has finally caught up to the times and discontinued publishing the GPA range of our senior class in the school's 2023/2024 profile. Previously, the school profile indicated that our students were not ranked, and that there were no other forms of academic recognition (e.g., Valedictorian); but the profile provided GPA ranges that were being used by AOs to effectively cap admissions of the school's unusually capable pool of applicants. Finally, reason has prevailed and the school district trustees have intervened to ensure that our counselors would no longer be doing the dirty work for schools insistent on capping admissions.

People are always trying to find a way to claim they were wronged because their kid didn’t get accepted to a competitive college.

They didn’t get in because there are thousands of kids applying. It wasn’t because if a GPA range being published.

People are always trying to vilify standardized testing b/c their kids aren't "good test takers", too. That's life.

The fact of the matter is that AOs can try to do whatever they want, but unnecessarily opening the kimono with grades ranges essentially enables them to cap admissions from your high school. And how is that a good thing for anyone associated with that high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your state universities will still rank them

You can't rank what you can't see. Unless a critical mass of students (over 50%?) apply to all of the state schools, they will be left with incomplete information to ascertain actual rank / rank range.

But the readers are already able to rank via the class profile send by every public high school counselor. It gives all the necessar;y demographics, including how many are taking what AP courses to figure it out. That's what schools are doing right now even if they claim they don't rank (but there is a list on computer that the college counselor can see - from time to time it gets accidentally released and then there is a scurry). Most schools will tell you they don't rank because of the added stress but it's a game between the high school and the college. That's why class profiles are sent with each transcript

The original post stated that the school profile no longer includes GPA ranges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a magnet school or a boundary school. If the former, then class rank is not good, because all the kids are supposedly amazing.

School district with approx. 9,000 students in the 9 - 12 grades and four school sites, all of which are open to any student in the district boundaries (subject to lottery in the event of imbalance). But to your point, the school in question is operated as a 4x4, highly rigorous academy (e.g., over 4,600 AP exams were administered this past May) and for that reason, it's akin to a magnet school. Around 60 NMSFs this year in a senior class of roughly 525, which is consistent with past years.

I LOL’d when I got to 4,600 AP exams and the NMSFs. The College Board is selling all that data to the colleges. Instead of rank they will use deviation from the mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a magnet school or a boundary school. If the former, then class rank is not good, because all the kids are supposedly amazing.

School district with approx. 9,000 students in the 9 - 12 grades and four school sites, all of which are open to any student in the district boundaries (subject to lottery in the event of imbalance). But to your point, the school in question is operated as a 4x4, highly rigorous academy (e.g., over 4,600 AP exams were administered this past May) and for that reason, it's akin to a magnet school. Around 60 NMSFs this year in a senior class of roughly 525, which is consistent with past years.

I LOL’d when I got to 4,600 AP exams and the NMSFs. The College Board is selling all that data to the colleges. Instead of rank they will use deviation from the mean.

Oh thank goodness! So standardized testing is not only alive and well, it’s actually vanquishing GPA in the admissions calculus?!

[Anonymous]

Because how can everyone get a medal if there are rankings?

[Anonymous]

Good development

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because how can everyone get a medal if there are rankings?

The issue with rank on the basis of GPA is that (1) there are meaningful differences from school to school, such that a kid outside the Top 10 at a very high performing school deserves the medal over the literally hundreds of thousands of Top 10 kids at lesser performing schools; (2) there are meaningful differences in rigor and grading within schools, as well as minor differences in GPAs, such that a kid outside the Top 10 at any school might very well deserve the medal over many of the kids ahead of them
at the Top 10 at that school; and (3) GPAs can be distorted by the extent of a kid’s engagement and relationship with instructors (subjective grading), as well as a number of other factors.

But most importantly, nobody has a right to play the “everyone gets a trophy” card if they also oppose standardized testing.