How does class ranking work for really small schools?

[TommyVercetti]

My graduating class had 500 people, so class ranking worked just fine. Now how does it work for really small schools which have graduating classes around 20-50?

The Top 10 students in my class were also the top 1% of class. When you apply to universities, mentioning them that you were ranked 10/500 would give you a major boost in the admissions process. But if you only had 30 students in class, and you were ranked 5/30, that won't mean much. You won't be top 10% of the class.

So how does school rankings come into play at small schools?

Also, a small school is less likely to offer lots of AP classes which seem like a must have to get into a good university. Doesn't that put students at a small school at a disadvantage?

 

[ryzmah]

Usually the lack of AP classes doesn't matter if you take what you can -- SAT/ACT help colleges make comparisons with students from bigger schools. I went to a small high school (grad class of 50) and didn't have any problems getting accepted at the schools I was interested in. I only was able to take 2 AP classes, but from their perspective I took every AP class offered (this was 6 years ago, so standards have changed somewhat).

 

[MikeMike]

a lot of schools have dropped class rank.

i have a freaking 3.3 and am 110 outta 230 ppl in my school. which in a lot of other schools, id be ranked much higher.

MIKE

 

[TommyVercetti]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
a lot of schools have dropped class rank.

i have a freaking 3.3 and am 110 outta 230 ppl in my school. which in a lot of other schools, id be ranked much higher.

MIKE

So how do they decide who the valedictorian is?

 

[DaWhim]

there are some school in the midwest only have a few students in a whole school. how does that count then?

 

[vi edit]

I got pretty much dicked. I had a graduating class of 48. I was sixth in the class but still didn't graduate in the top 10%. We didn't have weighted classes either. Which made it even more difficult.

Bottom line - it sucks.

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: TommyVercetti

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
a lot of schools have dropped class rank.

i have a freaking 3.3 and am 110 outta 230 ppl in my school. which in a lot of other schools, id be ranked much higher.

MIKE

So how do they decide who the valedictorian is?

I went to a similar school. They dropped ranking and had a quintile system, but it was the school bred the smartest people of any high school in the area. Mostly ivy league types -- I remember I graduated with a 3.8x and I was in the second quintile in a class of 100, meaning 1/5 had higher than 3.8x GPA.

There was no valedictorian.