<p>Do colleges take into consideration if you went to a good high school? My high school is ranked number nine in New J Jersey but my gpa is a 3.12. My school is very hard and some of the lower classes at my school wouldn't even be equal to an honors or ap class at other schools. So would a college(Rutgers) prefer to see higher grades at an easier school or lower grades at a much harder school?</p>
<p>There’s no catch all answer. Rutgers might be aware. Some other publics don’t weight the relative strength of classes and your 3.12 is the same as another mediocre school’s 3.12. It depends. </p>
<p>But the best source of info will be your school’s GCs – it’s not as if they don’t know the stats of previously accepted Rutgers applicants from your HS. THEY will know x100 more than any internet stranger. Good luck</p>
<p>This is where class rank matters. If you have a low-ish average but are still in the top 5-10% of your class, a selective school may take that into account.</p>
<p>According to their university-wide Common Data set, 34% of Rutgers admittees rank between 25% and 10%. (The CDS does not indicate GPAs, unfortunately, and I did not check other sources for that data.)</p>
<p>If your school has Naviance, that will help you. Ask your GC. Get to know your GC. </p>
<p>OP goes to the “no. 9 rated” HS in new Jersey. If those GCs can’t advise on Rutgers, then I’ll eat my hat.</p>
<p>Colleges generally do take into account your HS. Each HS has a school profile which gets sent in along with your transcript which details things like what classes are offered, average GPA, SAT/ACT of students etc. And Naviance would be a good tool to use to see how people from your school have done in terms of admission to colleges.</p>
<p>Some of this worry should lessen if you ace your AP exams (and SAT II). Obviously pulling up your grade point will help, but very likely Rutgers knows which NJ schools are hardest, and you can lessen the impact of lower grades by showing that you have mastered the material in the SAT II and AP scores.</p>