<p>ok out of curiosity, does anyone else feel that their high school has possibly had something to do with the types of colleges people have gotten into? the reason i am asking is because i attend a school with pretty average rankings, yet still several high functioning, intelligent kids. some kids do get into amazing colleges, and every year we send maybe a handful to ivies. however, for the most part, kids are very hardworking and do not easily attain 4.0 gpas because my school has majorrrr grade deflation. for whatever reason, the honors and ap teachers feel the need to push the crap out of every student and is not afraid to give low grades to even the brightest students. at the other school in my town, however, getting a 4.0 is a dime a dozen, the teachers are easy as hell on their students, and their rankings are much better. the result? kids with pretty much the same stats as the top kids in my grade getting into wayyyyy better colleges. it's actually INSANE. the top twenty kids are literally all at ivies/top tier schools. i wish i was exaggerating. what do we have so far? one upenn. out of several amazing kids with above 2100s, 3.7 ish gpas, great ecs, and everything. </p>
<p>literally everyone knows that the kids from the other school are getting in because theyre smart AND have the ultimate benefit of a "name brand" high school that they must wear as a fashion trend to attract colleges</p>
<p>maybe im just bitter and anxious about my own acceptances, but this KILLS me. anyone else feel the same? </p>
<p>p.s....before anyone guesses that my school is a **** school and the other one is a "magnet school", they're both public high schools. its not as if im comparing a public high school with 2 people in it to some big shot private school</p>
<p>I feel you. I’m in the same situation because my school is much tougher (according to every one of my teachers) than the next high school. But I would hope that admissions know of the schools enough to not allow that slip-up.</p>
<p>Yes. I attend a fairly difficult magnet program in an otherwise mediocre high school. One person this year in the magnet program had an UW 4.0; the rest of the high achievers have a B or two floating around on their transcript. (We don’t have A-'s; the scale is 93-100 A, 85-92 B, etc.) Occasionally we send a few high achievers to top schools, but sometimes the best we do is Duke, hardly remarkable for an NC school. I wonder if the heavy grade deflation/relative unknown high school combo has anything to do with that. But I’m lucky enough to have done well in admissions thus far, despite my two B’s, and in-state schools, at least, do recognize the rigor of our school’s magnet program.</p>
<p>Yes the quality of the HS is usually taken into account by the college admissions process at private colleges. A 3.0 at one school may be deemed equivalent to a 3.4 at a neighboring school. Do you think the valedictorian of a tiny HS in rural upstate should be considered the same as the valedictorian at an exam school in a big city, or a wealthy suburb of a major city which invests heavily into the schools for facilities and good teachers? (just making the point) </p>
<p>But many (most?) state colleges intentionally do not consider the HS, and go by more of a “just the numbers” method.</p>
<p>The equalizer across the board is the SAT scores, although you can also find score optional colleges.</p>
<p>Why do you think real estate prices vary so much from town to town? Families are willing to spend more on a home in schools districts with stronger academic reputations.</p>
<p>I heard it explained at one time that some private colleges track the success of their students from each HS. They use the previous results to project how new applicants are likely to do based on their grades from that given HS. It is no secret that certain HS’s place a lot of students into the top colleges.</p>
<p>Also, don’t assume that every college is need blind in admissions. Private colleges need their share of students who can pay their bills.</p>
<p>This is why I wonder why I didn’t stay at my middle school, which had then just expanded into a high school. I could’ve graduated val, been king of clubs, and taken college courses at a better college without really working my booty off.</p>
<p>i feel the same, adchang and glassesarechic. my high school has the worst of both worlds: grade deflation, and an average reputation. i am in a specific science program at my high school, which is the sole reason i go to that school. but i seriously wish someone could have told me that that i could partied harder and worked less at the school 5 minutes from my house and gotten into a better college. life SUCKS.</p>
<p>Well, apparently kids at my school who DO get into top colleges do so with slightly lower GPA’s (and SAT’s in some cases) than average for those institutions. I’m hoping that the “name recognition” of my current school provides a boost.</p>
<p>You get compared to the kids in your high school, for the most part, not to the kids across town, so I doubt this is a major factor. Of course, if the school across town is a magnet, then yes, they probably are going to get more kids into top schools, even if they do have grade deflation (but I would question that, since the pool of students is probably more academically oriented to begin with, so the competition is stiffer.) </p>
<p>I think the biggest issue with going to ‘average’ schools is that kids don’t get good counseling on how admissions works at the top schools. They tend to focus entirely on grades, test scores and recs, without realizing that at ivies and other top schools these days, it’s not about being ‘the smartest.’ Top schools turn away 4.0s and 2400s all the time. It’s about being uniquely gifted in some area, being a stand-out applicant. At schools where the kids are getting the better counseling (privates and wealthy publics), the kids know that grades and test scores are just the starting line. They are spending their time trying to make themselves look ‘interesting’ and unusual. Unfortunately, the kids without the counseling often do have interesting and unusual background, but don’t know how to present it effectively.</p>
<p>My school is more like the second school you mentioned. Grades are easier to come by (not in all classes, a select few teachers are actually very strict about grading and the grades tend to stick to a bell curve in those classes) than I think is appropriate. In turn, the top 40 kids (top 10%) all have like 3.7 or higher U.W. GPA. Not sure if that’s abnormal or not but I just noticed that even if the material may be difficult, most classes are a joke as far as grades in my school.</p>
<p>However, I don’t think our school sends many kids at all to the top schools. Its usually the geniuses in each year that make it into those schools (ie. 4-5 kids out of 300-600 kids make it into the ivies or comparable schools depending on the year).</p>
<p>So I don’t think that grade inflation really gives kids too much of an advantage if at all.</p>
<p>This is so true and is reflected by who gets in to top schools from my school. Rarely is it the val; it’s usually the kid just a few ranks below who has extensively pursued dance, writing, or scientific research. The val has to work his/her booty off to stay afloat, whereas getting a B or two is much, much less stressful and leaves time for other interesting pursuits.</p>