<p>"Well-regarded private schools who typically do not rank end up sending many of their students to OOS flagships. "</p>
<p>-I do not understand it, since all college calculate rank for everybody, including schools like that. I specifically inquired about it, since D’s HS did not rank. They do it based on applicant GPA and class profile. Since only one person at her class had 4.0uw and D’s GPA was 4.0uw, we knew that she was #1 which was proven during graduation when she got awards from parent’s organization. Nobody knew anything before graduation day, except comparing your own GPA to class profile posted on school website. They do not have VAL and SAL either.</p>
<p>I said I did NOT want to rehash the argument, and was simply trying to be helpful to the OP.</p>
<p>I in fact acknowledged that students below the top quartile at TJ do get into UVA. I think if you think about that logically, you will acknowledge that does not contradict the possibility that, overall, students who attend TJ instead of a neighborhood school reduce their chances of admission to UVA. You have stated its not your role to guess what a student would have done at another high school than the one they attended, and I am not contesting that. But my post was not directed to dean J or to the UVA admin. It was directed to an OP who was precisly asking about whether being at a difficult school where its much harder to get a high class rank will hurt them. I personally believe that with respect to a flagship state university, that can be the case, though I acknowledged that there are other opinions. </p>
<p>If you feel in a position to tell the OP that they will not at all be hurt by the difficulty of getting a higher class rank at a more difficult high school, by all means go ahead and do so.</p>
<p>also, fallgirl, you appear to have not read my post closely enough - here is what I said</p>
<p>“UVA definitely considers class rank/GPA, and they do not SEEM to adjust for a greater difficulty in getting a given GPA at TJ -”</p>
<p>I said GPA, not class rank. You may not be aware of it, but TJ expels students who fail to maintain a GPA above 3.0. The GPA of students at any given rank is higher than at most base schools, afaict. My DD was in the bottom quartile, with a weighted GPA of 3.7 - and that despite diagnosed ADHD.</p>
<p>In ancient times, when I was of an age to apply to colleges, I played board war games. In one of them (based on the opening campaigns of World War One) the advice given to the German player was “Be where the French aren’t, and be there with everything you’ve got”</p>
<p>The answer to the magnet school kids - Be where your classmates aren’t, and be there with everything you’ve got. Find the colleges that know the value of your magnet, but don’t get nearly as many applicants from it as they’d like. And then hit them with as much interest and as much passion as you can. If you join the crowd at the schools almost EVERYONE at the magnet applies to, well the lake woebegon problem is gonna be hard to avoid.</p>
<p>SCHOOL PROFILE is the accurate name of the document I was trying to describe in my post. Thank you, Dean J. </p>
<p>From the School Profile, which a GC staples to your child’s application, it’s my understanding that AdComs ascertain a picture of the environment/academic context of a public high school. I described demographic aspects, such as poverty indicators, and Dean J describes some academic aspects.</p>
<p>School Profiles are not a competition; they provide context for the AdCom to understand an individual applicant’s transcript. </p>
<p>There are so many public h.s.'s unheard of, unvisited, unrecruited, from a remote or rural region. Some haven’t sent any graduate or none in recent years, so there’s no talking relationship between the college and that h.s. I would imagine (don’t know) that an AdCom might phone a GC to clarify any puzzling points on a School Profile. Phones work. </p>
<p>My point (and that of telling about my kids’ experience) is that students from a non-stellar h.s. have a shot at some stellar colleges and universities, IF the rest of their application sings.</p>
<p>Some have gone so far as to suggest it’s an admissions advantage to come from an uncelebrated high school. That I do not believe.</p>
<p>@Brooklynborndad, LOL, I used to play “Risk” and “U-2” with my brothers. I agree, adding that strategic games give better metaphors for college admissions than Monopoly, Chutes ‘n’ Ladders, and Candyland which lead to magical thinking. </p>
<p>Your more serious point, to determine “where others are not” then give 'em “everything you’ve got”…is worth pondering!</p>
<p>The alternate way to be where the French aren’t is do what the French do and not what all the Germans do. If you can stand out from the crowd you’ll be more attractive.</p>
<p>a many many competition is different from a competition between two sides. I didnt mean to suggest that college admission is EXACTLY like August, 1914 </p>
<p>I think we are in agreement - the problem for the lake woebegon kids (the bottom half of magnet school classes) is that they often apply to where everyone else does, and those places can’t take more than so many from the magnet school, and naturally take the top half (a fortiori if they highly value class rank). But if you can find places that don’t get many apps from your magnet, its got a lot more appeal, and they are more likely to ignore rank (even if rank matters for students from non-magnet schools). </p>
<p>Any yeah, you should still do all you can stand out from the crowd in every other way - interest, EC’s, passions, essay, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Since my kiddo is only a freshman, I do not know about the history of the admissions from the school. But I am observing and learning.
The school has 48 % of kids on reduced or free lunch.
It is the highest ranked public school in the state
Has a special magnet program
This year the school had some great admission results - about 5 to Caltech, 2 Mit, Yale, University of Chicago, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford - to name just a few I have heard of.
Here is the trick. Because of the magnet program, many kids take college classes out of campus starting really early, even as freshman. These classes are not given any grade advantage. A kid getting an A in Linear Algebra at the state flagship will be ranked lower than a kid getting an A in AP Stats at the school. So I am guessing that a val/sal distinction goes to kids that are outstanding students but not overachievers. It also looks that top colleges dig much deeper than the top 10.
I will have to wait and see.</p>
which lead to magical thinking. </p>
</p>