<p>yes, they def. consider the difficulty/rep. of your high school. without question</p>
<p>Those lists are both flawed. I go to by far the best school in my district (Whitman in Montgomery County, MD) yet there are many schools from our district ranked higher than us on the lists. The average SAT at my school is a 1234. Here is a graph comparing it to the other schools in my county- <a href="http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/archive/SAT/SAT2000report3.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/archive/SAT/SAT2000report3.html</a>
As you can see, we completely owned all the other schools. It is common knowledge in our district that we ARE, without a doubt, the best school, yet whoever composed thathose lis ranked inferior schools above us.</p>
<p>From what I understand, the difficulty and reputation of a high school is DEFINITELY considered. For example, the high school I attend is nationally ranked (in the top 30) and 97% attend college after graduating. It has also won numerous awards from collegeboard for its AP programs. This is certainly considered. Also, the more that is known about a high school, the more weight GPA carries. If your HS is unknown, standardized test scores carry a lot of weight because they dont know how to interpret GPA. However, at a nationally recognized HS, the GPA can be considered a valid indicator.</p>
<p>in other words, b's and c's at a top private school (in the country) often equates to ivy league/top 10 schools in the nation. So it is important to get the highest grades possible at lesser known/compet. high schools</p>