Yes @Frydaddy they do, in terms of relative “rigor of the curriculum”, so you might get a slight boost. However, they probably expect more from you - higher test scores, ECs, community service, athletics, well-written essays etc.
Regarding grade inflation, it’s interesting to look at the school profiles that the BSs put together to give to colleges. Usually you can see grade distribution by year & test scores. Look at Taft’s for example - theirs was pretty detailed if I remember correctly.
@gardenstategal and @GMC2918 What about within the same prep school. If the course rigor of a student A is much more difficult versus student B in mathematics and science. Both students A and B are enrolled in similar difficulty level in humanities. And both have scored similar grades. Who will get early cum laude in this case? Is it based on grade alone or course rigor is counted too.
Our school didn’t do this for precisely this reason. Colleges could look at your grades and courses but the school was not going to give kids a reason to game the system.
@Frydaddy in our experience, colleges do not “give credit” for the rigor at BS. We are going through the college application process for the 3rd time in 4 years. 2 of our kids had B/B+ averages at PEA. They had all the additional qualities that @GMC2918 referenced: near perfect test scores, leadership positions, great recommendations, solid EC’s and played sports. Without a hook, as we have none- upper middle class family from MA, they were locked out of many college options based on GPA alone. Keep in mind that there are kids with near perfect GPA’s at their BS. So, it is not impossible to achieve and colleges know this to.
Our kids refused to play the game of giving up social lives and trying new challenging clssses in order to earn the perfect GPA. If our kids had attended the local HS they would have had much higher GPA’s, one of our kids graduated from this school- so I can say this with certainty. What I can’t say with certainty is how the college admissions process would have differed as it is all a crapshoot nowadays.
Our kids are happy with their decision to attend BS in spite of their limited college choices. The 2 who have graduated are very happy with their colleges. We will see how the 3rd one feels after April 1st.
@gardenstategal How taking the hard course load and scoring perfectly is gaming the system while doing same level or more activity outside the classroom. I can see that maybe gaming the system will be if kids just sit in the dorm and not participate in extracurricular activities in order to boost only GPA. But if kid is as much as invloved in and out of the campus like other classmates and still takes harder classes as they have genuine interest in leaning, how this is gaming the system.
@vegas1 your kids choice is great. I applaud them. But unfortunately there is a sizeable population in BS who are attending based on generous donation of alumni. Ivy leauge or other equally good colleges including top boarding school are desirable as they provide education without parents pocket book and affordability. This parameters make them very desirable. I bet you if elite colleges only take rich kids, college will not be in high demands after a while. Similarly if they take only braniac kids and not rich kids, in few years college will loose it’s reputation. Elite US college have found a niche, how to remain most desirable and attract most rich And famous while maintaining high academic brain power too. And with these parameters we have to play this game. It is what it is.
Your boarding school kid will be placed within the context of his/her school’s grading scheme and his/her classmate’s performance. Will a B student from a top BS get into Harvard without a hook? No. Will a B student have a shot at many schools a public school B student won’t have a shot at? Yes, because the adcoms realize that a B student at the selective BS is better prepared/faced more rigor than a B student at a typical public school (there are exceptions of course) with rampant grade inflation.
What I was saying is that our school did not want kids taking easier classes to get a higher GPA and academic awards or a higher class rank, so they didn’t do either of those things. But when your grades went to colleges, the colleges could see what you took and would also know if a kid had taken the most rigorous courses because that was something the CC noted on the app.
What I am saying is that when a school sets up some kind of hierarchy, there will be students who game it.
Seriously, if your kid is “all that” as it sounds like she is, it will come through in her app. She should not concern herself with her classmates.
As an aside, she may have classmates who preserve a high GPA by taking easier classes and get tutored to high board scores in order to present themselves successfully enough that they can use their legacy (of a major donor) card. Those kids are not her competition. They are playing a different game.
@gardenstategal , you said,
“Our school didn’t do this for precisely this reason. Colleges could look at your grades and courses but the school was not going to give kids a reason to game the system”
I see - sorry hadn’t refreshed and didn’t see your #147. @gardenstategal
I’m questioning the value of doing college tours pre-application/acceptance. A lot of the schools that we are looking at seem very similar (small to mid-sized LAC’s in the New England/NY/Mid-Atlantic area) and I’m not sure seeing a bunch of them is a good use of our limited time and resources. Plus, as we learned from the BS process, impressions can be skewed by irrelevant factors like the weather and the personality of the tour guide.
I’m thinking we will just do a very small handful of tours/visits – concentrating on those schools where the atmosphere is different from SmallFry’s school (e.g. west coast, urban, large state school etc.). and maybe one or two of the LAC’s referenced above. My thinking is that we should put together our application list based on stats, programs, and other “paper facts” and then do in-depth visits if/when SmallFry actually gets in. Any thoughts on that strategy?
I’ve heard some schools put weight on doing a formal tour to show interest - truth or rumor? I was hoping that for the most part we could just unofficially poke around the campus instead of doing a canned tour. There is so much information available online, I think that the value of visiting a campus is mostly just to get a sense for the feel of a school.
Signed, a parent who has so far failed to organize any college visits even though spring break is just around the corner.
“A lot of the schools that we are looking at seem very similar (small to mid-sized LAC’s in the New England/NY/Mid-Atlantic area) and I’m not sure seeing a bunch of them is a good use of our limited time and resources.”
I could argue the opposite. Smaller colleges often intentionally create community and we found different LACs to have their own personalities.
You can check a college’s common data set to see how they weight demonstrated interest. even if you don’t go on a formal tour, I would make n effort to “check in” at the admissions office for that reason. Also, some schools do give weight to interviews and at such schools you might want to get that out of the way on a visit.
Seems from your post that a reconnaissance trip might be in order to narrow things down - big vs small school, urban vs not, etc. to help focus the application list.
After attending my 3rd PEA college counseling weekend in 5 years . Here are a few takeaways.
@vegas1 I could not say it better. But one thing I learned from my kids that they care about more about pursuing their interests rather than any other things. My kids participated in school community and in the process learned most from their classmates who have varied interest and were more accomplished than my own kids. These kids opened their eyes to the betterment of my kids. In the process, kids have formed lifelong friendships that is beyond what we bargained for.
We did a massive tour of schools last year on break… yes the tours are pretty similar and you can learn the info online. BUT… seeing the facilities and the students really sets the vibe. It changed my kid’s opinion more than once.
What have your kids been doing for test prep? SmallFry is signed up to do a weekend long boot camp offered by a third party - Summit Educational Group- through the school. Anyone have any experience with this particular company? Although I see the value in doing practice tests to get familiar with the format SmallFry is already a reasonably good test taker so I’m wondering if these types of classes really generate any appreciable improvement in scores.
If DC is a very good test taker, DC can prep on their own. I had DS do released real full length tests section by section, for example, Math section at one sitting (test time duration) one day, and Reading section at one sitting another day. I would grade them, he would re-try the incorrect ones, and review the explanation only if he still gets them incorrect.
I never signed him up for any class or camp, but bought plenty of good prep books. Official SAT guide (helpful), New Official ACT guide (helpful), PWN the SAT (that was lost and never used), Erica Meltzer’s grammar books (very helpful), her reading comprehension book (never touched), and Black book and so on (never touched.)
I am glad we are done with testing after February ACT. He prepped a little over last summer and fall breaks, took SAT twice (last October and December) and ACT once.
I agree with @payn4ward. I had my S19 (at home at public school) do the exact same thing by taking sections some nights and full length practice tests on the weekends. I found all the previously released tests plus the ones in the Red Book. The Red Book also has practices questions you can download with pretty good explanations. He’s only taken the February ACT and he may be done with his score and not even take the SAT (based on previous PSAT scores).
Our prep school GC suggested few schools as safety for computer science. I was wondering how good is everyone experience with the safety school list suggested by prep school counselor. Two colleges are very hard to get in and one of them is top notch school in CS. I am worried as bar too high but I am so excited as list includes some top names.
We have disclosed family finances to the GC and mentioned how much aid our daughter is getting in the current prep school which is north of 90%. I am doing NPC and EFC numbers are too high. Unless GC thinks we may get some merit based aid, NPC numbers are very high, we may have hard time to pay. Oh boy this is nerve wrecking time.
For the financial piece, you and your DC probably need to do research on your own on state universities with full rides based on stats and the one-in-the-university-scholarship types of awards (e.g. presidential or chancellor’s scholarships.) I understand it is a lot of work: Scores if not hundreds of additional essays and scholarship interviews. The kids who are shooting for such scholarships are driven and tenacious. I admire them. Mine did not want to do any more work than one Common App essay.
Many universities offer competitive scholarships for National Merit Semifinalists.
There is also Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship. I heard someone with family income of about 60K was eligible and awarded. But then the student got into Harvard with full financial aid so that was moot.
There are threads like this on CC
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-for-good-merit-aid.html#latest
Here is the link to the $8 scholarship database by Wendy Nelson.
http://www.mykidscollegechoice.com/full-scholarship-list/
http://meritscholarshiplist.com/about/
The idea is that after pouring through this list, if one can add one school to their college list, it is worth it.
I did not buy this one as I found out about it after we had already put together a college list.
In addition, here is a link to a brief table listing merit awards at small liberal arts colleges (LACs.)
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19801988/#Comment_19801988
University of Alabama is very popular as their awards are stat-based and you and I know immediately our DCs could receive their bachelor degrees tuition-free there.
Same is true for Kansas State University and many other universities.
Best wishes with research!