<p>Are the admission requirements (ie grades, sats, etc.) different for prep school students applying to top universities?
I noticed that many CCers have 4.0 GPAs and whatnot, yet I know that some boarding schools are much tougher in their grading policies, so a 4.0 in a public school honors class might be only a 3.0 in prep schools.</p>
<p>Does anyone know the ranges of GPAs for prep school students applying to colleges?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>This is just information I've garnered from attending a prep school, and nothing official, but:</p>
<p>top universities don't have a set cutoff for grades, SATs, etc. Saying that, they're usually aware of the fact that some schools have harder grading systems than others (which is how the SAT helps to show people on a comparative grading system) and so take the grades with a grain of salt. That being said, most prep schools have sent MANY students to elite colleges, and so the admissions officers will recognize the fact that so-and-so attended school X which is known to be very academically challenging and then will acknowledge how good the applicants grades are for the school they have attended.</p>
<p>That being said, it's still very possible to get good grades in a prep school, so even if you attend school X if you're practically failing all your classes they might question if you really belonged there.</p>
<p>4.0s at boarding schools are rare (though not unheard of), but i'd say most accepted applicants to places like harvard, yale etc. would be in the 3.8-3.9 range. these schools get information on average grades/sats for the applicant's high school, plus for schools from which they get a fair number of applications they usually have a good idea of what to look for in terms of gpa. i think the average where i went was a 3.0.</p>
<p>At my son's prep/private, no one gets a 4.0. The highest GPA is about a 3.7-3.8 and kids with 3.3-3.4s get into Ivies. Kids with 2.8-3.2s are getting into NESCAC schools such as Trinity, Conn College etc. All these kids will have high centile SAT scores. The college couselors told us that colleges understand the rigor of the school and that getting an A is next to impossible, Bs are the norma and Cs are not unusual</p>
<p>My son had a 3.1 gpa and was admitted to both Villanova and Lehigh. Not bad for a seemingly "low" gpa. I don't think prep school weight their grades either. At our public hs, an "A" in a regular class is a 4.0, in a "college-prep" class it is a 5.0, and in an honor or AP, it is a 6.0. So....GPA's really don't mean a lot. It is the school profile that is important.</p>
<p>Our prep does not report a GPA at all on the transcript ("too distracting for colleges") and no class rank. They do supply a spread sheet with the range of grades per course in the Junior year.</p>
<p>MomofaKnight is right regarding the top tier of elite boarding and day prep schools, although many are admitted to Ivies with less than a 3.3 unweighted GPA.</p>
<p>My son had a 3.0 unweighted GPA from a prep and is now at at top 20 LAC</p>
<p>My daughter attends Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth Online High School. All of the classes are college level classes taught to high school students. The grading is brutal, and a B is considered a high grade. My daughter will probably end up with 4 A's and one B+ for the first semester (we are still waiting for one grade to come in), and we see that as a huge achievement that required a herculean effort on my daughter's part. If my daughter received all B's at this school, we still believe that should would have a good chance of getting into her first choice colleges.</p>
<p>Ryan</p>
<p>Oh, and they don't weight grades at Stanford EPGY OHS.</p>
<p>what's EPGY OHS?</p>
<p>It is customary for Prep Schools (and many public schools) to send a school profile along with the transcript. This profile includes a grade distribution for each high school class. This way, a college can assess whether or not an applicant took the hardest courses available and how that applicant did relative to other students. Other things often included in a school profile are average SAT scores with perhaps the distribution in the mid-50%, college matriculation history, AP scores and distinctions, National Merit results, etc. College adcoms will understand the competitive level of a school and the competitive level of an applicant within the school after reviewing the school profile.</p>
<p>EPGY OHS is Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth Online High School. The academics are top notch, and 4 out of 5 of my daughter's teachers are either Stanford or Berkeley PhD's.</p>
<p>Ryanone, how is the college matriculation at EPGY OHS?</p>
<p>EPGY On-Line High School is fascinating. I remember when Ryanone first raised it here last year. </p>
<p>The EPGY OHS is still very new. It's creation was announced in April 2006 (Source: <a href="http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/OHSPressRelease.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/OHSPressRelease.pdf</a> ) so their first complete classes are just going through now. So matriculation data -- with any meaning -- probably isn't available.</p>
<p>Even once there's a track record of 3-4 classes that have gone through from beginning-to-end, the matriculation data from EPGY OHS would be difficult to use comparatively because students can attend EPGY OHS simply as a supplement to their regular high school's offerings (or vice-versa). Some use it as a home-school curriculum supplement. So the students have a much varied academic experience.</p>
<p>For more about EPGY OHS, try the FAQ: <a href="http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/EPGYOHSFAQ2008-09.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/EPGYOHSFAQ2008-09.pdf</a></p>
<p>It's really quite fascinating if you consider what it offers to families of gifted students who might have concerns about boarding or if the local school option is just weak in some small areas. It can be all or part of the solution to some of the myriad reasons students turn to boarding schools or other private schools, without giving up the benefits of living at home.</p>
<p>I don't know of other On-Line High Schools or how the families who use them feel they have met their needs and goals, but EPGY OHS seems to get rave reviews from the parents who have embarked on that journey (if you read the thread I link to above).</p>
<p>For non-atheltic people at boarding schools, what helps w/ adcom?</p>
<p>Matriculation? EPGY OHS is so new that I'm not sure they have stats yet. I did hear of one girl last year who got into Berkeley. I know their graduating class only had a couple of kids in it.</p>
<p>BUMP , please!</p>
<p>Just make sure you go somewhere that does not require a sport . Without the activities you will be alone on the weekends unless you become a sports fan , reporter, or even team manager. Some of the greatest leaders were team managers.</p>
<p>i disagree. there's this perception that you need to be some world-class athlete to participate in bs athletics, and that's simply not the case. 99% of the time, an honest effort will suffice. there are plenty of sports (the majority even) that don't have any cuts. and besides, there's other stuff to get involved in; theater is usually its own clique more or less.</p>
<p>you should be involved in something though, that much i agree with.</p>