With respect to my post about how HS class rank is a better predictor of
college success than GPA or even ACT... Marty said, "That's not what
happens. "
I beg to differ. It is possible what I experience here is different than
what Marty experiences, but I am pretty certain about northwest Ohio. At
various times I have served on the university-wide Admissions and
Scholarship Committee, and on the Retention Committee, and on the Strategic
Planning Committee. I chaired the Science Department for over 15 years and
closely monitored success in our science programs against the HS class rank,
GPA, and ACT scores. I still have all the data tucked away in spreadsheets.
Success in our science programs most closely correlates with class rank,
next with ACT, last with GPA. I did not need to supply this information to
Vice President for Enrollment Management because he already knew it. Also,
we are in reasonably-friendly competition for students with three other
private colleges and one public community college and a branch campus of
Ohio State University... all within 20 miles of Bluffton. I communicate
with the science faculty of the private schools all the time. They see the
very same thing I see.
I can tell you that on average we like to see a student who is in the top
10% of her high-school class, and has a composite ACT score of 27 or higher,
and fairly consistent performance across the four ACT areas. If a person
has an ACT score of 30, and a GPA of 3.75, but has class rank below roughly
80%, there is a good chance he is bright but not very motivated. Some like
this will rise to the challenge of college. But many, when the going gets
rough, drop out or at least seek a less demanding major. If the ACT is 30
and the GPA is 3.75 and the class rank is 95% or above, she is bright and
motivated, and went to a school where grade inflation is not too bad.
Also, if the ACT composite is 27, but the science was 31 and the writing was
23, something is wrong. This student might not be able to write lab
reports, and might not even be able to speak very well. If the class rank
is high but the ACT is very low, this also indicates something is wrong. So
it is true we look at several things, but the single best predictor is the
class rank.
I might also point out that since students and parents know class rank is
important, and especially since some colleges automatically give
scholarships to valedictorians, this has fueled grade inflation and has
fueled the tendency to take easier courses in a quest to become the (or one
of the) valedictorian(s). To the extent this happens, both the class rank
as a predictor and the GPA as a predictor are eroding. To get around this,
many colleges are holding on-campus competitions to determine who gets
offered the most valuable scholarships. We still use class rank, ACT, and
GPA to determine who gets invited to campus for the competition, but we can
be fairly generous and invite students who, on paper, might not qualify for
as high of a scholarship as the competition would award based on their rank
or ACT or GPA. This way all competitors are on the same footing as they
jump through the various hoops of the competition. We started having a
scholarship competition about 5 years ago.
My daughter chose to attend the University of Cincinnati. In 2004 she
competed in their scholarship competition. Her rank, ACT, and GPA got her
invited to the competition, and guaranteed a certain level of scholarship.
Her performance in the competition determined the final amount of the
scholarship. It was pretty interesting because the competition would not
result in her losing the level of money already awarded, but would provide
the opportunity for the level to increase in several steps all the way to
full tuition and books. Parents were also invited, so we spent the day in
Cincinnati and received the usual recruiting propaganda as well as a clear
picture of how the competition was handled. This may be the wave of the
future because it allows the university to award scholarships based on their
own criteria and their own observations of how well the students meet the
criteria. There is a question of how much you can learn in one day, but at
least it is an internal yardstick, and the competition group has already
been narrowed down to a manageable size by the traditional external
criteria.
It's clear these competitions are occurring because rank, ACT, and GPA are
difficult to understand, and it's especially difficult to know if the
external standards are being used appropriately and fairly.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH 45817
419.358.3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu