Students wait anxiously in line to receive a piece of paper with a number on it that has come to symbolize success. Sophomores are finally allowed to get their class ranks but have to fight their way through the crowd of juniors to obtain it.

For many years, students obtained their class rank at the end of sophomore year or beginning of junior year. Now that sophomores are able to acquire ranks at the beginning of the year, current juniors do not like the fact that they had to wait two years, while the sophomores only had to wait one.

“Not knowing my rank during sophomore year gave me a sense of leniency towards studying,” junior Darla Sugay said. “I felt less pressured to compete with others and focused on other aspects of high school like orchestra, volunteer work and my friends.”

Sugay said that she was not too upset about it because she thinks that when we leave high school we will remember the moments more than we remember our ranks. Junior Michelle Inciarte is against the change.

“I think it is unfair,” Inciarte said. “Everyone in my grade had to wait a two full years to get our ranks while everyone in their grade had to wait one.”

Inciarte continued to say that to some people this is not just a number, she thinks that for most people it helps motivate them and helps them to do better.

“It was not just that we got our rank two years later,” Inciarte said.  “It was that it gave us a disadvantage. The sophomores get to work on getting their rank higher for 3 years.”

Several sophomores were asked how they felt about getting their rank early, they all gave similar answers.

“I think it is a good thing,” sophomore Hieu Le said. “It helps us know where we stand, and gives us three years to improve.”

Counselor Bradley Froebel explained that if the ranks for the class of 2015 had been released the end of their sophomore year, it would not be an accurate reflection of the student’s progress since the four EOC courses would not be used in the calculation.

“With yearlong courses in the mix, the decision was made to move the GPA and Rank release from May to September so all of the grades could be included,” Froebel said. “The decision was then made to also calculate a GPA and rank for the sophomore and junior classes at the same time.”