Percentile in Resume Forum

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Percentile in Resume

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:09 pm

Class ranks just came up and 20% is 3.345 I've got 3.343. Should I put on my resumes top 20%, or 20th percentile, or top 25%, or some sort of hybrid of such titles?

hoos89

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by hoos89 » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:15 pm

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Last edited by hoos89 on Sat Apr 11, 2015 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

BeenDidThat

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by BeenDidThat » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:28 pm

Your CSO may also have rules on what you can and can't put. While I'm generally not all "do what CSO says," they do often have your balls in their hand, and it'd hurt mightily if they clenched their fist.

Assuming you're from a school that the employers often recruit from, they'll know from your GPA about where you stand in relation to others in your class.

WearyCartographer

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by WearyCartographer » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:30 pm

hoos89 wrote:CSO would probably be a good resource for this sort of issue.
TITCR

Some schools are really serious about ensuring accurate resume GPA/rank reporting, to the point where "rounding up" could be a serious honor code violation.

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thesealocust

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by thesealocust » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:34 pm

Step 1: Do not put anything false on your resume, even if it's only technically false, or not false with minor rounding.

Step 2: GPA: 3.343 (Top 20%: 3.345) is an elegant and informative solution.

Asking career services is good, but be careful. They're advocates for you but not always experts (few have experience working at law firms/reading resumes), and sometimes their interests don't align with yours (read: sometimes they want to maximize the number of jobs the class gets, not the chances of you getting a job and/or the job that you want).

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2014

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by 2014 » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:42 pm

Whatever you do, do not put you are top 20% on your resume because it is a lie. If you decide to list your percentile, 25% is the best you can claim imo.

The other solution proposed here is probably better anyway.

dixiecupdrinking

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by dixiecupdrinking » Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:31 pm

2014 wrote:Whatever you do, do not put you are top 20% on your resume because it is a lie. If you decide to list your percentile, 25% is the best you can claim imo.

The other solution proposed here is probably better anyway.
Yeah, I wouldn't even put 25% because while it's probably true, we don't know that for sure, and if anyone asks you for any details, it'll immediately be apparent that you're just ballparking it, which is a bad look.

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manofjustice

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by manofjustice » Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:32 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Class ranks just came up and 20% is 3.345 I've got 3.343. Should I put on my resumes top 20%, or 20th percentile, or top 25%, or some sort of hybrid of such titles?
What's median at your school?

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nygrrrl

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by nygrrrl » Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:38 pm

thesealocust wrote: Step 2: GPA: 3.343 (Top 20%: 3.345) is an elegant and informative solution.
This is how our Career Services suggests we handle it.

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kalvano

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by kalvano » Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:42 pm

nygrrrl wrote:
thesealocust wrote: Step 2: GPA: 3.343 (Top 20%: 3.345) is an elegant and informative solution.
This is how our Career Services suggests we handle it.

Same here.

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20160810

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by 20160810 » Sat Jan 12, 2013 11:25 pm

I also just missed a cutoff and ended up putting the lower ranking on my resume. Sucks a little, but not as much as getting caught with something false on your resume.

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by Jeremyl » Sat Jan 12, 2013 11:48 pm

I say put Top 21% because it sounds better than 25. I would of course recommend talking to your CSO first, but when I asked mine a similar question they recommended I put "Approximately" before the percentile, since our class hadn't been ranked yet. They may even suggest you say "Approximately Top 20%," since your gpa may very well be top 20% for your class.

Nevermind. Just noticed your class has been ranked and the cutoff was for your class, not the prior year's.

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2014

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Re: Percentile in Resume

Post by 2014 » Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:08 pm

Jeremyl wrote:I say put Top 21% because it sounds better than 25. I would of course recommend talking to your CSO first, but when I asked mine a similar question they recommended I put "Approximately" before the percentile, since our class hadn't been ranked yet. They may even suggest you say "Approximately Top 20%," since your gpa may very well be top 20% for your class.

Nevermind. Just noticed your class has been ranked and the cutoff was for your class, not the prior year's.
He doesn't know he is top 21% though.

It's unlikely but plausible that enough people fall exactly at the 20% or at the one data point between him and it that he is actually 22% or something.

Plus saying top 21% looks stupid.

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