<p>Do colleges know the particular grading patterns of one high school over another? Do they know if a school grades on a percentage basis rather than on a curve? How does a student politely let a college know on an application if an A- GPA at one school is equal to an A+ at another?</p>
<p>If the college doesn't know the high school, rank and school profile tell the story.</p>
<p>PV,
try to obtain a copy of your child's hs profile, so you will have a clue as to what the colleges will be seeing. My son's had the bare minimum - grading policy, % that will be attending college, average SAT - not a great job of 'selling' the school. You can google to look at various examples online - most of these will be schools that send kids to more competitive schools. </p>
<p>If your child's hs regularly sends kids to certain colleges, the regional admissions reps should be aware of your hs. As Suze mentioned, the profile and your child's rank will provide important information. Additional information will be provided by the GC, and in the teacher recs'. The reason that most of us were pushing LAC on your first thread was that if the class rank does provide an accurate assessment of your childs ability and potential, an LAC is a bit more likely to look at the student behind the paperwork. A large state university is more likely to be numbers-driven. There are exceptions, of course - but this seems to be the general concensus.</p>
<p>Ohio_Mom, we're now looking at LACs only. The large universities do only go by grades and SATs. I need to check the school profile.</p>
<p>PVmember - I don't want to discourage you from focusing on LACs only if that is what your student prefers, but just want to point out that there is a real continuum out there between small LACs and giant numbers-driven universities. Medium sized universities such as (just to choose a variety) Fairfield, Tulane, Roger Williams... There are also state universities which may (or may not) be numbers-driven, but whose numbers will fit your student. And other state universities which are large but profess to do the same "holistic" evaluation as the smaller schools.</p>
<p>I was not clear. The list has some state universities on it, but those don't require additional documentation and the GPA is not a problem. Those are more likely to become safety schools. We are now looking into the LACs where GPA does seem to be an issue. </p>
<p>I looked at student profiles from a number of similar high schools, private and public. The only consistency I found is that they are not consistent. Some list SAT scores, some don't. Some don't seem to have profiles listed at all.</p>
<p>PV - Many colleges drop the + & - altogether... Stanford for one.</p>
<p>klc, I meant + or - in terms of getting a 3.6, which I believe is an A- over a 4.0 or above a 4.0 due to honors.</p>
<p>I dont know if this helps or hurts, but what I meant was (for example) that Stanford determines the GPA from the transcript & doesnot include + or - in its calculation... so an A+ and an 2 A- would be a 4.0. They've also said they don't wait so extra points for honors & AP classes don't apply. So, an A- at one school is the same as an A+ at another school. They do say they look at transcripts w/in the framework of the given high school, but experience tells me this may not always be true... I'm trying to help, but I think I'm failing... sorry!</p>
<p>sorry i mean "weight"</p>
<p>i better just go watch some curling ...</p>
<p>PV - it is true that high school profiles vary in the quantity and quality of information they provide. What really matters is what Your school's profile tells the college. This is how the school knows how to evaluate your child's GPA. If, for example, 50% of the class has A averages, they don't value it as much as a school whose profile shows that 10% have A averages. If the college is looking at an applicant with no hs profile (and with which the college doesn't have much experience with previous applicants) or an uninformative one, they don't know how to "value" that student's GPA. If the student is of interest to the college, they may well call the HS GC to get this type of information.</p>
<p>Where can you get a copy of your child's high school profile? From the GC?</p>
<p>Yes, they should mail you a profile if you ask. </p>
<p>The other item to obtain is a copy of your student's transcript - your student may have to sign some paperwork saying its ok to release a copy of the transcript to himself. You will know what exactly is reported, if SAT scores are included, and so on. Students sometimes take a copy of the transcript when visiting colleges, so this is not an unusual thing to ask for. </p>
<p>While you are at it, the other <em>really useful information</em> your GC may or may not have are scattergrams or a gray book of acceptances/denial/wl of applicants from the hs by GPA and SAT/ACT. This will give you a pretty good idea of which colleges your HS has an established relationship with, and which 'like' your hs. In our case, this information was not available: I have a feeling that most hs's don't track this. Doesn't hurt to ask, though.</p>
<p>You can also get a copy of the official school district profile from the Superintendent's office which often has information which should be on the HS profile but frequently isn't. This has statistics such as % of kids who qualify for free lunches, % of kids for whom English isn't spoken in the home, etc. If the Adcom's don't know your community, these are important measures of SEAS; all districts have these stats for the purpose of qualifying for federal and state subsidies.</p>