<p>Do college admissions take the school you went to into consideration? I go to a nationally ranked high school, and As are earned through extremely hard work, unlike a lot of other high schools.</p>
<p>I hope they do…does anyone know? I was thinking the SAME EXACT question at this moment lol.</p>
<p>Of course they do. A 3.9 at a competitive high school is very impressive, while a 3.9 at the easiest high school in the country is much less impressive.</p>
<p>Yes… of course they do. regional admissions officers have good knowledge of the top high schools in their jurisdiction. Everything is taken into consideration in context of the high school. You are expected to take more AP’s if it is a top HS offering many AP’s, and class rank matters less because you are competing with a far tougher class. Top HS’es also have a higher rate of sending students to top colleges and are generally feeder schools to well-ranked in-state flagships. </p>
<p>I’ll give you an example of my HS where avg SAT is ~1800. I strongly believe that almost anyone in our top-10% could be top-3 in virtually any high school in our state. 25+ go to top-20 ish schools. 12 people from our OOS school are going to Berkeley, 3 to Princeton, last year 3 to Yale, etc.</p>
<p>Yeah, they take the school you went to in account. </p>
<p>Sometimes I feel like this could actually be hurtful, and our principal expressed the same view. A student at a neighboring high school that doesn’t have any AP classes because it’s a charter school, but takes the hardest classes at that school might earn a “most rigorous curriculum” mark from the school counselor. Whereas, on the other hand, a student from our school, who chooses not to do the IB Diploma but has challenged him/herself more than the first student, would technically not be taking the most rigorous curriculum.</p>
<p>To get a good idea of how competitive your high school is you can look up what your average SAT score is. Mine has an average of about 1800, second highest for public schools in the state of CT! That explains why I’m borderline top 10% of my class…</p>
<p>Yes, they really do consider the competitiveness of your school. Top schools have regional reps who know the quality of the school and the adcoms know what kind of gpas from your school are top school-caliber. In fact, I think colleges factor in the competitiveness of schools too much in a way that significantly disadvantages students applying to top colleges from less well-known high schools.</p>
<p>That may be but I’ve even seen CCers with like 29 ACTs or 1950 SATs who are in the top 5 of their class. The competitiveness of a high school is very important. I kind of wish I went to a less competitive high school so I could stand out.</p>
<p>I hope they do…the average SAT score at my school is a 2100+, according to CollegeBoard. Dead serious. I have an above-average GPA that is MUCH lower than that of friends at other schools. If we ranked, I’d only be somewhere in the top 30%, but that’s still an extraordinarily impressive achievement at my school. It sucks sometimes when I look at the fact that the average GPA admitted to Yale from my school is a 97, and I’ll never get that high…but then again, colleges know my school, and I think that will be an advantage to some extent. I think what you want to look at even more than class rank is SAT scores – I’ve seen people here who are top of their class and have a 97+ GPA, but an SAT score below 2000. And yeah, I know some people aren’t good test takers, so the SAT is definitely not the equalizer that CollegeBoard claims it is…but at least it’s the same across schools.</p>
<p>wait wow I sound like a like a dbag. It’s just life where I am. I don’t really like it, and I’m worried about how it’ll affect me…but that’s how it is.</p>
<p>Wow! Do you go to a private school? I know a private school in my area has an average SAT of like 2050-2100. They have sent 30 kids to Yale in the past 4 years (it pretty much is a Yale feeder school) but that’s insane regardless.</p>
<p>Yes they do</p>
<p>Wait, where can you look up your school’s average SAT score on collegeboard? (link plz)</p>
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<p>This is what I mean. You would think that if you went to a less competitive school, it would work as an advantage, but this is not the case. Being in the top 5-10% in a competitive school like yours has more weight than being in the top few percent at a less competitive school. Because the quality of the curriculum matters as well and the more competitive school would most likely have the stronger curriculum in addition to being more known by a top college.</p>
<p>My school (international) is crazily competitive. Our average SAT score is somewhere between 2200 and 2250. </p>
<p>To get straight As at my school you must be in the top 0.5%. Some subjects have a limit (in terms of percentage) of how many people will get A.</p>
<p>@dfree: You beat me…my school is only ranked 7th in CT. I’m not sure if that’s the latest ranking though. You must be near New Haven if it’s a Yale feeder school</p>
<p>^I take that back. I meant Fairfield County.</p>
<p>The rankings I was linking at are a few years old, so whatevs. The Yale feeder school I was talking about is Hopkins. I saw some stat that said they have sent 30 kids to Yale in the past 4 years, that’s craaaazy!</p>
<p>Edit: And yea, I’m in Fairfield County</p>
<p>Wow…my school’s sent like 1 kid to Yale in the past few years. My school is just totally messed up. We can post up some crazy SAT scores, but some students can’t reach the No Child Left Behind Act standards.</p>
<p>Huh, I never checked my school’s naviance for Yale, and I’m surprised. In the past 8 years, 12 kids have been accepted. I know one of them got in for diving, but that’s crazy! I guess we’re not <em>that</em> far behing Hopkins, even though I go to a public school. Are you a junior or senior? Cause if you are then no more CAPT for us :D!</p>
<p>Neither! I’m a sophomore. That stupid CAPT…Not looking forward to a waste of two weeks.
I hope you go to Staples or Ridgefield, because then there is a 25%</p>