Mullis: The disconnect over class rank

I have a recent high school graduate, a soon-to-be high school graduate, and a near-future high school graduate. My household is in a constant state of application.

College applications vary. Most require transcripts and a resume, some require essays and recommendation letters, a few require class rank.

My kids go to a small high school. Getting ranked is a bit of a joke. This year 103 of 135 students have 3.0 GPA or higher, and 69 of those 103 have a 3.5 or higher. When you break them into individual classes, you have people on the honor roll who rank in the bottom half of their class.

Although I find this amusing, it is not amusing to most students. They care about that number before their names, so much they lobbied successfully for weighted grades in hopes of determining the “true” ranking.

Even with weighted grades, the stress over rank continues. Their counselor finds this unhealthy. So do I.

My graduating class was five times the size of my kids’ high school population. We were ranked, but I don’t remember my number. I had a high GPA, but not the highest. I had decent test scores, but not the best. I took the classes I wanted and got into the colleges I wanted. The number before my name didn’t mean much.

My sister graduated with a “1” before her name, but she’ll readily tell you the only thing being valedictorian got her was a medal that sits in my parents’ basement. It didn’t win her extra scholarship money or distinguish her from other University of Michigan freshmen, many of whom were also high school valedictorians.

Has class rank become more important to colleges since we graduated? Evidence would suggest no.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling shows a steady decline in the significance of class rank for college admissions boards, with only 14 percent reporting it had “considerable importance” in 2014. The NACAC also reports a decline in high schools that use class rank.

My valedictorian sister’s daughter attends Fairview High School in Boulder, Colo. – a nationally-ranked Gold Medal school according to US News and World Report. They did away with class ranking in 2010. My sister likes the change, finding students are intense about their studies, but also collaboration. The competition isn’t with their peers, but with themselves, which makes their classmates an asset, not an obstacle.

This concept reminds me of cross-country, which my son ran for four years. Everyone runs the same 3K race. Only one runner finishes first, but that’s not the real competition. Each runner wants to break their personal record or PR.

My son broke his PR his senior season, after being out with a fractured leg his junior season. I’ll never forget that race – realizing his record-breaking pace at the first mile-marker, exchanging pointed looks with my husband, scrambling to get a clear view of the official clock.

I remember my son sprinting across the finish line, his coach yelling like a madman, his teammates slapping him on the back, my husband grinning ear-to-ear, my attempts to take pictures while jumping up and down.

Was it a top 10 finish? Nope. It wasn’t even a top 25 finish. That wasn’t the point. He recovered from a major setback, trained hard, and returned a faster runner. That took heart.

The rankings couldn’t tell that story, but it doesn’t make it less true.

Nicole L.V. Mullis is the author of “A Teacher Named Faith.” You can reach her at nlvm.columns@gmail.com or www.NicoleLVMullis.com.