<p>Hi, </p>
<p>When DD is applying to colleges and enters her high school's (#1, 2 or 3 high school in California, depending on year) code, do the colleges have a way of knowing that hers is a tough school and a 3.5 could easily be equivalent to a 4.0 or higher at other high schools? How can this be expressed other than a whiny "yeah, but my school is HARD!"? ;-)</p>
<p>They tell from her class rank and they do look for it. If the high school doesn't rank, then they refer to the high school's profile. The profile is mailed to admissions along with her transcript. The format of a profile differs between school districts, but it will contain the gpa distribution for the school.</p>
<p>If she attended different high schools over the years and she is not graduating in the one that grades on a hard curve, it might be worth an explanatory note. If you go that route, include her rank while she was attending the other high school.</p>
<p>The UCs don't appear to differentiate between more and less rigorous schools. Most private schools do, especially if they know your school, i.e. if your school has sent several students each year for some time. If we're talking about a CA public school and an E. Coast elite college, rank will be the important factor.</p>
<p>get over it, ur high school probably isn't "rigorous." a 3.5 is a good gpa, but don't expect her to go to berkley or ucla on it. high school isn't that hard...pssh.</p>
<p>Is it a private school? IMO, all public schools are jokes in the US.</p>
<p>UCs probably won't care, but privates will take note. It all depends on her rank.</p>
<p>Actually, they do know. For example, UCB admission officers know my school's honors magnet program and how rigorous it is. It just depends how much exposure your school have on the university and how successful past/current students are at the school.</p>
<p>w1cked, it's unwise to make such sweeping generalizations like that</p>
<p>i go to one of the best PUBLIC high schools in the nation, and we're famous for our RIGOROUS IB curriculum</p>
<p>(i think we're the only public hs w/ the IB program, so HAH!)</p>
<p>Well, it's hard to buy that UCs know and take note when you look at their admissions stats. 90 plus percent are in the top 10%. This makes no sense when in the Country's truly top high schools, over a third get into top 15 colleges. The third decile is generally higher achievers than most top 5% graduates. Unfortunately, state schools in general must focus on the quantative because they are dealing with a tremendous number of applicants with limited adcoms. Students at lesser known rigerous schools have the hardest time gaining admission to state schools.</p>
<p>Also, are you kidding, the only public high school with an IB program? They have become truly common in this Country.</p>
<p>I do believe that college admissions depts. maintain a database of information about high schools, but your particular school profile may not be in your database. Some high schools provide a hardcopy profile with a hs transcript.</p>
<p>A school profile may contain the following information...
<a href="http://www.admissions.umich.edu/counselors/profile.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.umich.edu/counselors/profile.html</a>
<a href="http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/wheatonhs/guidance_group/guidance/profile.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/wheatonhs/guidance_group/guidance/profile.html</a>
<a href="http://www.elderhs.org/guidanceweb/profile.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.elderhs.org/guidanceweb/profile.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/east/guidance/profile.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/east/guidance/profile.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.mentorhigh.com/profile/%5B/url%5D">http://www.mentorhigh.com/profile/</a>
<a href="http://www.sthelena.k12.ca.us/apps/pubs.asp?Q=3&T=High%20School%20Profile%5B/url%5D">http://www.sthelena.k12.ca.us/apps/pubs.asp?Q=3&T=High%20School%20Profile</a>
<a href="http://www.hw.com/QuickFacts/tabid/878/Default.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.hw.com/QuickFacts/tabid/878/Default.aspx</a>
<a href="http://www.lhs.fuhsd.org/school_info/LHS_profile_04_05.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.lhs.fuhsd.org/school_info/LHS_profile_04_05.pdf</a></p>
<p>Just ask your hs GC or registrar what is sent with your transcript. They'll probably just give you a copy.</p>
<p>No where is a 3.5 equal to a 4.0.</p>
<p>"i go to one of the best PUBLIC high schools in the nation, and we're famous for our RIGOROUS IB curriculum"</p>
<p>well, if your school is 'famous' for its rigorous IB curriculum then I'm sure the UCs and other prestigious schools are aware of this.</p>
<p>Um... obviously if you go to a horrible school a 4.0 is not that difficult to achieve, where as at a top prep school many times a 3.5 is much more difficult than that meaningless 4.0</p>
<p>Adcoms also have to look at the actual classes taken and not just the reputation of the hs. Some students pad that higher GPA by taking "soft subjects" instead academically challenging courses. </p>
<p>There is a lot of massaging of a hs transcript and application packet that an adcom has to do. This is why an admissions dept. can't just plug the GPA and SAT scores into a computer program to come up with a list of eligible candidates.</p>
<p>what about a student who goes to the top public school in the county, and is in top 50 public school across the nation, offers the IB program, and is one of the two school that offers IB in the whole county, and has a 95 % rate of students going to four year college.....lot of these into the top 25 universities that are in us news</p>
<p>Doesn't mean much....best 50 public schools is kinda like winning a Jeopardy when every contestant has down's syndrome..Even though you win, you're still retarded.</p>
<p>^^ like the analogy</p>
<p>It's like some annoying "who's who" list. There are so many high schools bragging about how distinguished they are these days that it really becomes meaningless. Colleges will already know how distinguished your hs is by the history of your school sending applicants to their college.</p>
<p>Any other data will be included in the hs profile that gets sent with the hs transcript.</p>
<p>Usually; anecdotal evidence indicates that most colleges compare your GPA to those of other applicants from your HS. Most colleges have local alumni networks to help judge high schools.</p>