Class rank: Ratio --> %

[DJM707]

What's the standard on rounding percentages? For example, if a rank is 10/190, which equals around 5.26%, do you report on a resume as top 5% or top 6%?

I know that if it were 5.5% it would round up to 6%, but unclear if it's ever ok to round down. I have seen both done/approved as well as disapproved. Unfortunately, for transferring, there seems to be a difference between top 5 and 6%.

[kjw5029]

In my opinion, I would never round down.  If you say you are in the top 5% when really you're in the top 5.5%, you're lying.  If you say you're in the top 6% and you're in the top 5.5%, you're telling the truth.  I don't know how much it really matters, but that's my personal feeling.  If some school thinks it's OK to round down, I would take advantage.  If it were me though, I would round up to the nearest whole number. 

[DJM707]

Thanks for the reply. That was always my thought too. Just figured I would check and see if there was some kind of "industry standard" I was unaware of, because when I tried to google it a couple law schools' career websites came up that said to round down from .44 and lower. Anyway I guess it doesn't matter for transferring, because the admissions offices will just look at the raw rank and make their own calculation anyway.

[random83]

You always round up. I was at the top ~1.03% after my 1L year. On my resume for OCI I just listed my rank without the percentages marked. If I were to list my percentage on my resume I would have to list it as top 2% or if I knew the top 1% cutoff (I don't...school only releases cut offs in 5% groups) I could list it as: Rank X/XXX (Top 1% = 3.9XX GPA).