<p>Hey guys, I have a few questions on how your high school affects college chances. First of all, do colleges look at how prestigious your high school is? In other words, do they understand that your high school is much, much tougher than the schools of other applicants, making your GPA a bit lower? For example, the high school I went to was at one point, ranked like the 5th or 6th best high school in the nation. There is A LOT of competition there (getting one B drops your rank by 30-40) </p>
<p>My second question is, do colleges know how your school handles AP courses? Every school that I know allows sophomores to start taking AP classes, but my school does not allow most people to take APs until junior year. </p>
<p>Sorry for making this post so long. :( Thanks for taking the time to read this, it'd be great if you can answer some of my questions!</p>
<p>Hey thanks for your thoughtful chance, I really appreciated it. I said I would reciprocate so here I am! I cannot say that I am an expert as I am only a senior but I’d be more than happy to give you my $.02. </p>
<p>From what every single college on my list (not the Ivys, but good none-the-less) have said is that they evaluate each student in the context of their high school. This is important “context.” So my first thought is that YES, they do have information about how your HS handles AP courses, grading, etc…Then to adress the loaded question. The easy answer is get straight As then you don’t have to worry, right? If you achieve at the highest possible level available at your HS, they can’t hold anything against you. But that isn’t the answer you wanted. Do colleges look at “prestige” I’ll answer like this because to me it is a chicken and egg issue - why is it Exeter kids get into many of the top schools (Ivys, Stanford, MIT)? Is it because Exeter is prestigious and Harvard knows that and is impressed by the name “Exeter” at the top of the application? Or maybe is it that Exeter only takes students who would have gotten into the ivys had they gone to their public school, local private school, or top-notch boarding school? Again, there is not a clear answer - and I would tend to come down somewhere in the middle. So here is my second answer to your question - do the best at your high school that you can do. If your best is a B at a top notch HS and Harvard still doesn’t want you, there was nothing you could have done. </p>
<p>Just want a straight, direct, answer to your question? I think colleges probably take notice of the school you went to and try to adjust accordingly - a B at your school most certainly means something different than a B at my school. It is all about the context so if at your school it is super hard to get an A and no one does and you have an A- average you will be good. Just remember some of my previous advice, too.</p>
<p>One factor is that your counselor will be asked to indicate how rigorous your course load is compared to the curriculum that your school offers.</p>
<p>Mostly they want to see if you have taken full advantage of what your high school offers. They can’t compare you coursewise to a candidate from another school if your high school did not offer those courses.</p>