At Savannah Arts Academy, a top-ranked public magnet High School, students are continually challenged by stress of their major-related activities, extracurriculars, and AP courses. Assigning class rank to our students is not only harmful to their mental well-being, but college competitiveness as well. Students in the top 50% of the class all have GPAs exceeding 95, with mere decimals separating students. Additionally, each student automatically takes honors in their core courses, only counting for 2 points less than AP courses, despite the latter being much more difficult. Some teachers provide bonus points; grades can reach 108 without pre-weighting, discouraging students from taking courses that appeal to their track or interest in order to inflate their GPAs.

More and more schools go without class rank, only 40% of public schools are estimated to use it. Private schools do not count rank at all. At top universities, it is not infrequent to see less than 30% of the admitted students attended schools without rank. For those that do, a rank of 10% or higher is expected or exists as a soft 'cut-off' point. (According to common data sets and admission officer statements).

With class rank still in place, an unsettling number of extremely qualified students are left to wonder - will I be able to get into a good school? It is time the SCCPSS school board excludes this requirement to Savannah Arts Academy and moves towards the modern trend. There is no quantifiable need for class rank at our school, sparing possibly the valedictorian title for automatic admission to Georgia Tech and UGA.

The school board must reconsider its decision to mandate class rank reporting and assigning frivolous numbers to students that do not represent a student's success nor help them in the admissions process. Clearly, colleges can live without class rank and we can too. Dedication to extracurriculars, major activities, community involvement, and grades without the cutthroat competitiveness that comes with rank are much more beneficial to Savannah Arts' students.