By Prabhvir Lakhan | Reporter
My parents have always told me that I need to have a high-class rank. I agree with them because having a high-class rank can help you succeed in life.
The first reason is that you have a much better chance of getting accepted to the college or university of your choice. According to top tier admissions, 97% of Columbia University’s accepted students were in the top 10% of their class in high school. This statistic clearly shows that universities look at your class rank to an extent to see where you are and if you are a good enough student to attend the university.
If you have a high class rank and you are a senior, then you probably have taken at least a few AP classes or dual credit classes. Since they have larger weights, it leads to a higher-class rank, which brings me to the fact that you can save by doing well in those more intense classes. Because you don’t have to take those classes in college, you save lots of money.
If you were to take the AP Chemistry exam and get a score somewhere between a 3 and 5, then you could save anywhere from $840 to $15,108 with an average of $4,524 saved. This, of course, is dependent on what school you go to and how you score on the exam. Scores usually have a correlation with class rank. Class rank can also lead to scholarships.
At IUPUI, if you are in the top 10% of your class, then you can get a full-ride scholarship. At IU-Bloomington, if you are in the top 5% of your class, you also have the opportunity for fully paid tuition into the school.
Lastly, college graduation rates clearly show that people who do well in high school go on to do well at the college level. At the University of Texas-Austin, 90% of the people that graduated were in the top quarter of their high school class. This is a clear indication that grades and class rank definitely matter.
I’m sure that there are people reading this saying this isn’t true because there are people that have lower class ranks and have success. That’s a rare thing. Let me give you a scenario. You have two resumes in front of you. One is of someone that graduated in the top 10% of their class in high school and that led to them going to a prestigious university. Then, there’s someone who graduated in the top 50% of their class in high school and went to an okay university. Everything else is the same. Who do you pick? I’d pick the person that had the higher class rank because they are most likely better equipped to do the job.
Overall, I feel that class rank matters because you are setting a foundation for yourself that can help you for the rest of your life. It’s obvious; people with higher class ranks usually are more successful than others.
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