A private school in Jefferson City has decided to do away with ranking its students.
Helias Catholic High School recently made the decision in hopes of leveling the playing field for its students when compared to larger high schools.
“Because we’re a very small, academically rigorous school, we’re putting some of our students at a disadvantage by ranking them,” Helias Catholic High School Principal Kenya Fuemmeler said.
Due to that concern, the collaborating groups of students, parents, faculty, as well as the Advisory Council decided that excluding class rank was the best option for the student body.
One goal that Fuemmeler had was for her students to be judged in a way other than just viewing them as a number. Factors such as GPA, rigor of courses, extracurricular activities, and the student’s involvement in various clubs should take prominence, as they encompass who the student is far better than a class rank can, Fuemmeler believes.
Doing away with class rank may cause some concerns that students from non-ranking schools may be at a disadvantage when compared to students from ranking schools. However, Director of Admissions at the University of Missouri Chuck Mays said that it is actually common for many students to apply from non-ranking high schools, and that there is already a system in place for those students.
“It’s very similar to the class rank system that we use, and has not caused a problem with our admissions, our scholarships offering, or it hasn’t affected the number of students getting admitted into the university either, or affected our average ACT,” Mays said.
The main difference between the two systems is that if there is no class rank, MU compiles a core GPA from the student’s main classes.
“We’ll take the courses that a student takes in high school that we look at for admission: English, math, science, social science, language, and fine art, and we will lift those classes off of the transcript, and create a GPA just based on those. Admission is decided from that and their standardized test scores,” Mays said.
Mays added that whether the school is ranking or not, there is no disadvantage a student faces when applying to colleges or for scholarships.