First semester transcripts are out and for many freshmen, it’s led to anxiety about their GPA and corresponding rank within their class.

“Rank brings an incredible amount of stress,” freshmen Aryan Samal said via text. “I always find myself worrying about every single thing I turn in and how it will affect my GPA.”

Stress from GPA and rank led FISD to alter its policy late last year, with new changes aiming to reduce the toll grades have on mental health.

The new GPA and rank policy only reveals the ranks of the top ten percent of each class, a change that some students don’t appreciate.

“It feels like a bit of a mess because I know students who freak out completely over this stuff,” freshmen Eden Brim said. “Now if they’re not in the top ten they feel like they’re in the dark and kind of feel desperate.”

Schools like The University of Texas and Texas A&M University have auto-admission for students with ranks that fall in the top six (UT) and 25th percentile (A&M) of their class, a significant motivator for student to get that high rank.

“I think a lot of students freak out because they want to go to these big colleges where they look at rank,” Brim said. “So they freak out and kind of lose their minds about that.”

However some students cite family expectations as the main cause of the constant stress around rank.

“I was extremely scared about GPA in the beginning of the freshmen year,” Samal said. “I was worried that my GPA wouldn’t match the standards of my friends and family.”

But as worried as freshmen are, senior Alejandro Cerna tries to put things into perspective.

“I don’t think that a lot of people, freshmen especially, realize that rank is just a small piece of a large puzzle,” Cerna said. “In a school district that has as much opportunities as Frisco, there’s a lot more that students have to offer aside from GPA. There’s a lot more for you guys to put on your application that can help you stand out.”