20% of my sons class made the cut off for NMSQT

Applying to College
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{I apologize in advance for what looks like bragging. This has been bugging me for sometime.}

His class of 495 has 100 who made the 202 psat cut off for commended. Not sure how many will be semif. yet. My son has a GPA of 3.33(3.2 w for uc) and is ranked 328/495. and his SAT is 2160(740V,700M, 720W). More than one of our students got a 2400, many 2100+. Last year, and every year, they had 22+( might be 24) who were NMSQT finalists and sent 65 kids to Berkeley. Thats typical for this school. And this year six are going to Stanford in the senior class (out of 500 students I think). The API score is 922 this year, highest in the state, only magnates or privates are higher. A large chunk of kids are taking multiple AP’s. Its mostly a math/science/AP school. With quite a few kids taking two math or two science classes at a time.

Question: do colleges hold class rank against kids from these kinds of high achieveing schools? How do they, or do they normalize for this? do they know what the grades mean from one school to another.

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<p>that cutoff seems to be for Commended, CA's is usually around 216</p>

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<p>For your real question I'd say they do consider the competitiveness of the school, but the GPA of any student must remain fairly high regardless...
In some NE Prep schools and some private schoools around the nation, many colleges understand that those schools are very competitive and understand a low rank in a senior class</p>

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<p>Thats right, 202 for commended. His psat is 216 as is the semifinalist cut off in California for a couple of years now.</p>

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<p>He will get into all UC's I believe (except Berkeley & UCLA) on the basis of his test scores. For the other two, he may be in trouble...if some compensation is allowed, I don't think it is a full GPA point (remember the avg GPA @ Berkeley & UCLA is ~4.2).</p>

<p>He still has a chance at all UC schools. Make sure he applies to Berkeley & UCLA as well...you never know.</p>

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<p>strong essay is crucial</p>

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<p>Colleges know whether a high school is competitive (they get the high school's stats) so it won't work against your son to have a low rank at such an elite high school.</p>

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<p>From what I have read, it probably will be a problem for him. Some of the best high schools have 20-25 students apply to Harvard and 8-10 of them may be accepted. The committees go thru the applicants in alphabetical order by state and name of high school. The can't accept everyone from the "super" high schools and they can't accept someone not towards the top of the list without accepting the people at the top. The admissions people have relationships with the guidance counselors at the "super" high schools and don't want to antagonize them. A valedictorian at a regular high school has a better chance than a person ranked in the top 30% of a "super" high school even though their stats may be lower. This is fair to some extent. Just as it is fair to give an advantage to a student from a regular high school in Kansas with no AP courses and no SAT prep courses, not to mention underrepresented minorities.</p>

<p>This is covered in "The Gatekeepers" by Steinberg and "Admissions Confidential" by Toors. The best place to look up this topic is the relevant chapter in "Harvard Schmavard".</p>

<p>Once you get away from the HYP schools, it won't be as much of an issue. Adcoms do consider the school and look at the rank in that context. Actually, does your son's high school rank?</p>

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<p>WE would like for him to go to school here in the bay area. But are looking also at lac's in Oregon and the bay area. The school sent one student to Harvard(plays 50 musical instruments).</p>

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<p>How does such a top-notch high school send only one student to Harvard?</p>

<p>My school suffered what we're calling the "Harvard massacre" this year and we're still sending like seven people. Do people just not apply?</p>

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<p>Our grad class of ~350 peeps has 6 going to standford.
:-D</p>

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<p>MY graduating class has 83 kids and 4 are going to Stanford....(and 2 more were accepted but turned it down, one for MIT and the other for CMC)</p>

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<p>how did we start talking about stanford? o_0</p>

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<p>To get the thread back on track...
Where a regular high school may send a student to HYPSM once a decade, there exist "super" high schools that regularly have 8-10 students accepted to each of those schools. The question is how does class rank in one of those "super" high schools affect the chances of acceptance if you are not in the top 10% of your high school class.</p>

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<p>My school is one of these super high school you speak of. To solve this problem, we don't rank :D</p>

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<p>sweetkidsmom - yeah.. how does a super high-school send only one to harvard? does Harvard have a thing against your son's high school?</p>

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<p>to the OP: is the high school you're talking about Mission San Jose?</p>

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<p>lol sweetkidsmom your school does not have multiple 2400 hundreds in your school. The only school to hold that honor is a public high school in SoCal, Irvine, called University. Check the news ~</p>

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<p>sweetkidsmom, what school are you talking about exactly?</p>

<p>I went to a very similar school in the bay area. Our graduating class was a similar size and we had over 30 NM Finalists, and a lot more commended. </p>

<p>For UCs, good test scores MAY have a slight chance of offsetting that GPA, but it will be very hard to get into any decent (top 25) private schools, especially since a lot of higher-ranked people from your school will be applying to the top privates as well. </p>

<p>For example, I had a 3.6 UC GPA and 1530 (old SAT) and made it into UCLA but not berkeley or anywhere higher.</p>

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<p>The most selective private colleges tend to know which schools have so many strong students that class rank is irrelvant. Prep school kids often get a pass on gpa and class rank. I know that many kids at Scarsdale, a top public school in NY have many kids getting into the ivies and other selective schools. But to answer your question specifically about your school, you need to get the data for your school. Where are all of these top scorers going to college? IF you are only getting a handful going to HPY & co, clearly your school is not on the radar screens of those colleges. You need to ask your counselor and look at some info on where the kids in previous years have been going to college. I know at S's school there are a number going to Harvard alone this year and this is not unusual.</p>