NROTC Application Class Rank Question

Dolphins2012

10-Year Member
Joined
May 2, 2011
Messages
205
It does not appear that my DS can submit his NROTC application online without entering some kind of numeric response in the field requesting class rank. His school does not rank students in any manner. Suggestions?
 
Son is in the same situation. He took an educated guess with help from his counselor. Then explained it in the remarks section. His school provides an explanation of their no-rank policy with each transcript they send out.
 
I agree with Candidad contact his GC, and have them try to work it out. It maybe that they will use SAT/ACT scores to eyeball it.

Sorry, but I never get schools that don't rank. HS is to be IMPO a prep for college and the real world. Both of them rack and stack, why not do this in a safe environment; HS where you still have your folks to guide to prepare them for when that net disappears?

I am also curious why they do this since many colleges require this info for their admissions packet, which would mean every yr the GC spins their wheels explaining the system to colleges and scholarships. It just appears they are fighting a system.

Additionally, at this time schools are starting to get their salutorian and valedictorian lined up, at our kids schools, the top 10 are informed they are in the running after 1st quarter. DD's school, the top 10 were separated by 1/100th of a percent.

Do they not have either for the graduating class? If they do, than surely they do rank, because that gpa is in play, so that means they can give a quick eyeball.

Just my own curiosity coming from a place where my kids attended 3 different HS's in 2 states, and rank was a big player in the game for the colleges they applied to their sr yr.
 
I agree that the schools should rank but many don't and some do but with somewhat mis-leading results. My kids go to a school that does not weight gpa but does rank (non-weighted). The rank is entirely gpa based. There are kids that have a higher class rank than my son that have never taken an honors or ap class and have filled their electives with pe and shop classes. The school says it is too difficult to sort out.

Off topic. Sorry.
 
Still off topic, but Packer that would drive me insane.

What on earth are we paying taxes for if it is too difficult to use weighted gpa as ranking. Why weight a class at all?

I worked 5 yrs in the educational system, and I left because of 2 reasons.

1. Parents
~~~ Not my Johnny or sorry, I didn't realize you expected my Johnny to do this.

2. Bureaucracy
~~~ This is the system we have...deal with it.

Educating them was not always important when an argument ensued.

Hate to also say it, but because tenure existed teachers were not always motivated to the level that non-tenured were. Of course non-tenured were the ones at jeopardy. Not saying always, and not opposed to tenure, just saying sometimes.
 
This HS is a college prep school. It is academically competitive, draws from a relatively large geographic area, and has sent more students to Annapolis than any school west of the Mississippi. They do send kids to a broad range of colleges, but have no problem getting kids admitted to Ivies and other schools with top-tier reputations. Last year, I think 12 students were offered admission to Stanford.

I presume the school does not believe it is fair to rank based on thousandths of a percentage point, nor does it serve their educational mission. They don't have valedictorians or salutatorians, and commencement speakers are going to be student leaders who may or may not be king or queen of the GPA.

With respect to college admission, with the official transcript they include a standard form showing the GPA distribution of that class broken into 0.2 GPA ranges (3.8-4.0; 3.6-3.8, etc.) So any college admissions officer can tell essentially where a student falls without knowing their exact rank in the class, which generally runs around 350-400 students. It hasn't been a problem, at least for the past 156 years. :thumb:
 
Still off topic, but Packer that would drive me insane.

What on earth are we paying taxes for if it is too difficult to use weighted gpa as ranking. Why weight a class at all?

Believe me that it does drive me nuts. Either do it right or don't do it.
 
Candidad,

If that is the case, the school already knows what he needs to do and give the best guidance regarding this situation. Rarely does an SA applicant not apply for an ROTC scholarship.

Call the school, they have the answer because this is not their 1st time at the rodeo.
 
Pima,

They do and did. NROTC had contacted his counselor and there was a signed class rank waiver already filed with his ISR paperwork.

Good point about it not being these schools' first rodeo. Everyone should use their GC's help, because that is why they are there. My son's HS has a college admission machine going. They've seen everything there is to see.

And to reiterate your point about SA applicants, my son's BGO made sure he had applied for NROTC. (His NROTC application was complete before his USNA application.) He said it doesn't look good when USNA applicants haven't also applied for NROTC. The goal is to be a Naval officer. The Academy is but one means to that end. He said Annapolis wants to be sure their applicants want to be in the Navy.

One more reason the ROTC scholarships are so competitive and such an honor.
 
Very true Canidad,

Not every ROTC applicant applies to an SA, but almost every SA applicant applies for ROTC scholarship. Hence, the pool is typically larger than the SA pool, while the amount offered are not necessarily in the same ratio.

People tend to live in a bubble, and forget that for our kids it is a VEN diagram. One circle college, One SA, One ROTC. Combine them together and you now can see the big picture of how few get all 3.
 
I agree that the schools should rank but many don't and some do but with somewhat mis-leading results. My kids go to a school that does not weight gpa but does rank (non-weighted). The rank is entirely gpa based. There are kids that have a higher class rank than my son that have never taken an honors or ap class and have filled their electives with pe and shop classes. The school says it is too difficult to sort out.

Off topic again but... I work for a large software firm. Software engineers often complain about implementing some feature in their software because its sooooo hard. A colleage once told someone, "It's supposed to be hard for us so that its easy for the customer!". The same is true for our educators where we are the customers.

OK. I'll shut up now!
 
Thanks, everyone. That gives me an idea of how my DS should proceed. While I wholeheartedly agree that schools should provide rank if requested, it would seem that the NROTC website should also be unable to process a submission without that information in the "required" field. One college's application he just completed had a box to check "Doesn't Rank". Not so hard.

I guess he'll just make clear in the remarks section that this is only his estimated number entered so he can submit his application, and that they can contact his GC with any questions about the no class rank system at his high school.
 
Thanks, everyone. That gives me an idea of how my DS should proceed. While I wholeheartedly agree that schools should provide rank if requested, it would seem that the NROTC website should also be unable to process a submission without that information in the "required" field. One college's application he just completed had a box to check "Doesn't Rank". Not so hard.

I guess he'll just make clear in the remarks section that this is only his estimated number entered so he can submit his application, and that they can contact his GC with any questions about the no class rank system at his high school.

I agree that it seems to be an oversight in the application. I believe that part is contracted out so it's worth a call to NETC and let them know. Schools that don't rank are pretty common and most other applications account for that. We ran into a couple of snags on little quirks on the application and had great response from both our local recruiter and NETC so it's worth a call and maybe it can be adjusted for following years.
 
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