Wait - mcps high schools don’t have valedictorians??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We only found out top 5% at graduation, in the program. No banquet or anything like a PP mentioned. They definitely don’t rank.

End of year program has two sets of awards
Top 5%
Top 10%

But, the criteria differ within the two categories.

For top 10% the weighted GPA matters. So, two students taking very different levels of rigor can both be in the top 10%.

For top 5%, a student who got all As and took three APs could beat out a student who took twelve APs, but got two Bs.

This must vary by school

Anonymous wrote:We only found out top 5% at graduation, in the program. No banquet or anything like a PP mentioned. They definitely don’t rank.

End of year program has two sets of awards
Top 5%
Top 10%

But, the criteria differ within the two categories.

For top 10% the weighted GPA matters. So, two students taking very different levels of rigor can both be in the top 10%.

For top 5%, a student who got all As and took three APs could beat out a student who took twelve APs, but got two Bs.

Would an MCPS counselor say something about the rank in their letter?

Anonymous wrote:So ask your counselor. Ask them if they are indicating that your kid took "the most rigorous courses" available in their high school. If so, you are set

They are indicating that

"MCPS doesn't rank" but there's a box on the Common App for the counselor's subjective opinion of rank
So it's all the racism with none of the objectivity?

https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/counsellor-most-rigorous-category/2064159/10

Ranking is not equitable. Some students have access to tutors, some do not. Some are able to retake classes during summer school for a higher grade while others need to work.

Class ranking only benefits some students. It does not have an equitable impact on everyone.

We only found out top 5% at graduation, in the program. No banquet or anything like a PP mentioned. They definitely don’t rank.

I'm a high school counselor and this is my 6th year in MCPS. As far as I know, we do not have access to rankings. Our school profile does list the percentage of our graduating class in each weighted GPA band (e.g. above 4.51, between 4.0 and 4.51, etc.). But, I don't think there is an individual working at my school who has both the access to schoolwide GPA data and tech savviness to figure out individual class rank in an efficient way.

4.84 is a fantastic GPA! It's very hard to estimate class rank, especially without knowing which school your child attends and the size of their graduating class. I'd also assume top 5%.

Wow, almost 20% had GPA's over 4.5- that's crazy! I would still guess top 5%, that is a really high GPA.

I guess I'm glad they don't rank as my child would be nowhere competitive with most! I was thrilled with her over 4.0, haha.

It is no rank because MCPS does not have ranks! They did well for sure but MCPS has hugely inflated grades and gives a GPA boost for almost every class. I would guess they are not the only one in that range.

MCPS doesn't rank. Some schools do have a banquet (real fun virtually during covid) for the top 5% or top 10%, but there is no valedictorian, #2,#3, etc

So ask your counselor. Ask them if they are indicating that your kid took "the most rigorous courses" available in their high school. If so, you are set

oh this will be a fun thread. FWIW I don't think you can get a weighted GPA that high in FCPS so you are in anomaly world. Your counselor actually knows even if they say "we don't rank"; yes their computer does rank and they know.

My child has a 4.84 weighted. What rank do you think this is? Last years class had 19% at 4.51 and above.