Class Ranking

[FutureCadet12]

Does USMA deduct points from the Whole Candidate Score/negatively view a candidate if their school does not rank students? From my understanding, class ranking is very important to all the SA's.

 

[USMAROTCFamily]

Does USMA deduct points from the Whole Candidate Score/negatively view a candidate if their school does not rank students? From my understanding, class ranking is very important to all the SA's.

No, they do not. There are many, top-notch college prep high schools who do not rank their students. If these cases, though, the standardized test score become more important, as well as the school profile to see the curriculum, % of students who go onto 4-year colleges, the teacher recs, etc.

 

[brovol]

They actually will use your ACT/SAT scores to create a class rank. One way or another, it will not hurt you.

 

[bookreader]

Homeschooled students do not have a class rank and yet get accepted at the SAs. WP can work around this.

 

[brovol]

I am not an expert but based on conversations I had with my son's RC over the past year, USMA actually has an objective formula to determine a "whole candidate score" for each candidate. Academics are the single highest point category, which I believe constitutes 60% of the total score, with 30% based on ACT/SAT super-score, and 30% on class rank. Because some schools do not rank, USMA admissions first asks the school if they can determine a rank, so that can be used in the scoring process. If not, then USMA will use ACT/SAT scores to come up with an estimated class rank, which serves as a substitute for whole candidate scoring purposes. I do not believe that the profile of the school is used in this equation, but it is considered subjectively in other aspects of the overall evaluation.

A RC can literally pull up any candidate and see a score, which is based primarily on objectively scored information. Class rank is a big one, and one way or another they will score the candidate.