<p>In the college search with second ds now a junior. He has just below a 3.5 average, however at our very competitive high school that puts him at or just below the 50th percentile. We live in a upper middle class suburb of NYC with many high achieving kids that have GPAs over 4.0 (my other ds had about a 3.89 GPA (w) and was not in the top ten percent). This ds is a classic underachiever and will have SATs into 1300s. </p>
<p>One of the schools we just toured stated that this year they had 99% of their students in the top 50% of their class. Looking at Naviance, this is a school that took virtually all of the kids that applied from our high school, some with decidedly lower GPAs that must have put them below the 50th percentile. Not his first choice, but would work and is affordable. </p>
<p>Also, many of the Princeton Review Top 351 Colleges (still have the old book, need to check out the new one) state that 95-99% of admits are in the top 50%, but have SAT ranges in the 500s. Many of these also have admitted many students from our HS with lower stats. </p>
<p>How is that possible? How do colleges take into account the competitiveness of a high school?</p>
<p>Many colleges have admissions people that spend alot of their time examining and investigating high schools and profiles; that is their job…how competitive is the HS? how are AP/honors classes chosen? etc…</p>
<p>that being said, the large schools, mostly public, do not have the resources to do this; they admit primarily on stats…</p>
<p>The (USNWR) number is based on the high school that send in rank. ALOT of high schools do not rank and I wish mine didn’t as well. If you look up the common data set for the schools that your ds is looking into you can see that stat that states what percentage of students submitted their class rank - some also list percentages based on GPA. The following is copied from the University of Virginia common data set. Only 46% sent in class rank.</p>
<p>C10. Percent of all degree-seeking, first-time, first-year (freshman) students who had high school class rank within each of the following ranges (report information for those students from whom you collected high school rank information).</p>
<p>Percent in top 10th of high school graduating class 88 %</p>
<p>Percent in top quarter of high school graduating class 98 %</p>
<p>Percent in top half of high school graduating class 99 %</p>
<p>Percent in bottom half of high school graduating class 1 %</p>
<p>Percent in bottom quarter of high school graduating class 0 %</p>
<p>Percent of total first-time, first-year (freshman) students who submitted high school class rank: 46 %</p>
<p>C11. Percentage of all enrolled, degree-seeking first-time, first-year (freshman) students who had high school grade-point averages within each of the following ranges (using 4.0 scale); report information only for those students from whom you collected high school GPA.</p>
<p>Percent who had GPA of 3.75 and higher 88 %
Percent who had GPA between 3.50 and 3.74 8 %
Percent who had GPA between 3.25 and 3.49 2 %
Percent who had GPA between 3.00 and 3.24 1 %
Percent who had GPA between 2.50 and 2.99 1 %
Percent who had GPA between 2.00 and 2.49<br>
Percent who had GPA between 1.00 and 1.99<br>
Percent who had GPA below 1.00 </p>
<p>C12. Average high school GPA of all degree-seeking first-time, first-year (freshman) students who submitted GPA: 4.09</p>
<p>D’s HS is simply known by performance of previous graduates, I believe. It sends couple top kids (out of 30-50 in graduating class) to Ivy’s and more to selective colleges every year with 100% going to 4 year colleges. School does not rank. I believe that D’s acceptance to very selective program with only 10 spots for freshmen have been influenced by the name of her HS. I do not know how it works with GPA= 3.5, though.</p>
<p>Thank you! The common data sets are very helpful. The answer seems to be that our high school does not report rank (along with many others). The GPA profiles are lower than the ranking profiles for the schools in question. Certainly makes it seem more hopeful.</p>
<p>^^^^ To clarify, even though our school does not rank, the data supplied does allow the colleges to determine relative class rank. I had assumed that was what the schools were doing. However, it seems they only use reported class rank in their admission stats.</p>
<p>Typically the school profile also has enough information that even an admissions person totally unfamiliar with the school can glean enough information to make a value judgement about the student relative to the balance of the class. Our public HS sends almost everyone to college, the standardized test scores are well above average well over 50% of the kids have a GPA of 3.5 or better and we don’t weight GPAs so the “best” someone can do is 4.0 A 3.7 or 3.8 will put you in the top 30th percentile etc. etc. Looking at the transcript with the profile will tell you if that student took AP classes, rigorous classes, maximized the available curriculum, etc. So there are many ways admissions can “figure out” what the number means in a rough context. The only time this probably doesn’t “help” is at a big flagship where there are tens of thousands of applications and the schools are primarily stats driven within context of the entire applicant pool and not within the context of the individual school.</p>
<p>Also, almost every college/university requires a formal “high school profile” completed by the guidance counselor of the school. The profile tells the college how many graduates go to 4-year colleges and to which ones, median and mean SAT scores, high school curriculum and its rigor, median and mean grades in specific classes, AP’s offered, etc. etc. This gives the admissions people a very good benchmark and levels the field for those who go to competitive high schools without grade inflation.</p>
<p>Typically the school profile also has enough information that even an admissions person totally unfamiliar with the school can glean enough information to make a value judgement about the student relative to the balance of the class. Our public HS sends almost everyone to college, the standardized test scores are well above average well over 50% of the kids have a GPA of 3.5 or better and we don’t weight GPAs so the “best” someone can do is 4.0 A 3.7 or 3.8 will put you in the top 30th percentile etc. etc. Looking at the transcript with the profile will tell you if that student took AP classes, rigorous classes, maximized the available curriculum, etc. So there are many ways admissions can “figure out” what the number means in a rough context. The only time this probably doesn’t “help” is at a big flagship where there are tens of thousands of applications and the schools are primarily stats driven within context of the entire applicant pool and not within the context of the individual school.</p>
<p>One of the problems with the school profile information is that it typically shows the GPA distribution for LAST year’s seniors. There can be considerable differences from year to year. And it really penalizes kids who are on the bubble of the top 10%. Especially at schools that don’t weight grades.</p>