Senior year of high school and applications go hand-in-hand, whether it be for college or scholarships. Most of the applications look the same: name, high school, intended major. Filling in the blanks has become second nature to most seniors. But for Lincoln Park seniors, there’s one blank our pens hover over.
That blank would be class rank. I’ve had several discussions with teachers and students about why Lincoln Park doesn’t have class rank. I’ve heard several different reasons as well. One reason I heard was that Lincoln Park doesn’t want to promote competition between students.
No competition between students? But isn’t Lincoln Park a big competition? Hopeful students must audition to become accepted. Students must also audition for plays and musicals as well. Then there is this new addition of sports to Lincoln Park, and as all people know, sports are competitive by nature.
Next, I heard that it wouldn’t be fair to rank the students because of the many different school districts we come from. There are different grading systems at each of these various schools so the grades coming into Lincoln Park are all scaled according to their previous district.
So why doesn’t Lincoln Park convert the grades coming in from other districts into the Lincoln Park system? This way all the grades will start out at the same level and be accounted for accordingly. Or better yet, ignore the incoming grades and only consider Lincoln Park grades.
Now, I’m not pleading for valedictorian and all that. I think the ranks should be kept private. Students should only be allowed to see their rank if they ask the guidance counselor. This way, some fragment of Lincoln Park competition will be kept private.
However, class ranking will help seniors with applications. I’ve talked to some seniors and we mostly agree — just having a class rank looks better than nothing.
–Amber Christian