Effect of changing high school on admissions?

Applying to College
1

<p>I just finished Junior year at the (very competitive public) high school I've been attending since Freshman year. I'm in the top 2% of my class, with a GPA of 4.33 by my school's scale. I moved to a new state over the summer, and the school that I'm going to next year seems very competitive as well. They provide GPA statistics online, and according to the statistics, I will most likely not even be in the top 10% (which is approximately a GPA of 4.25 by their calculation standards). Part of the reason for this is that my old school offered several difficult Honors courses that most students did not get As in, and this was adjusted for in GPA and class rankings, but this new school seems to only offer AP course and regulars courses (and maybe 2 or 3 easy honors courses that count as regulars classes in GPA calculation. For example, there is no honors physics because the smartest kids go straight to AP Physics B and the rest do regulars physics) and thus all of my Honors classes will count as regulars courses in calculating GPA. I'm scared that this is going to hurt my admissions chances since I got a B a few times in 9th/10th grade in an Honors course (all of which were 88s/89s but unfortunately an 89 is counted the same as an 80 in GPA which is ridiculous in my opinion), and those few Bs are enough to lower my GPA below the top 10% cutoff.
One good thing is that this school does not rank students. HOWEVER, they make statistics available online that outline what percentage of the class has certain GPA ranges. Are colleges going to look online and find this info anyway? A lot of colleges want kids in the top 10% of their class, and chances are high that I'm going to be more like top 12 percent, even though I was top 3% for the three quarters of my high school years. I think if I had been at this new school for 4 years I could easily be top 10 percent but because of the way my old school worked I won't be. Are colleges going to even know that I attended a different school for 9th-11th grades, and are they going to be able to see how well I did those 3 years at my other school, compared to students who took similar classes to me, or are they only going to look at my performance compared to kids that I've spent only a few months with? </p>

<p>Thanks if you read that and sorry if that made no sense. It's kind of hard to explain my situation but I'm really worried about this and want to see if any of you guys know how this is going to work...</p>

<p>I'm not going to turn this into a full chances thread by I have a 236 PSAT, 2280 SAT, will try to get 2-3 subject tests done in October, three 5s so far on AP exams and hopefully four more 5s (perhaps a 3-4 on one of them) coming later this week. My grades are mostly really good. I've taken 7 AP courses so far and out of 14 semesters only got 1 B, and that was an 89 (and I had lots of A+ including a 99 in AP Art History and a 100 in AP French). I've taken 11 Honors courses and out of 22 semesters I've had 4 Bs (two 88s, two 89s), and the rest of the courses were regulars and I've gotten all A+s on those. I'm really bummed now that I didn't work a bit harder to get those 88s/89s bumped up to 90s. </p>

<p>The non-safeties I want to apply to are UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Princeton. I'll be perfectly happy even if I just get into one of the first three, but I feel like they really want kids in the top 10 percent and unfortunately it doesn't look like that's going to happen...</p>

2

<p>I don’t think it should hurt you too much on colleges looking at percentiles in classes. However if you are transferring because you are afraid of getting a B that looks wimpy. There are lots of challenging colleges in which it is hard to get an A, and colleges who want students who care about learning and not just grades.</p>

3

<p>I’m transferring because my dad got a new job and I have no choice. I’d give anything to get to spend senior year with my friends at my old school.</p>

4

<p>Those Bs were in the past- 9th and 10th grade years. It’s just unfortunate because my school gave an extra GPA boost for those classes because they knew that they were really difficult, and whereas those Bs before just barely affected my GPA, it is now going to sink it. I just want to know if colleges will understand that my performance compared to the rest of my graduating class is not really an accurate representation of how I’ve done in high school since we were taking completely different classes for the first 3 years.</p>

5

<p>My daughter changed schools by choice after sophomore year because she was unhappy in her old school and it didn’t hurt her one bit. I can’t imagine they’d hold a move against you!</p>

<p>The only thing that might be a hassle is that some colleges will only accept transcripts from the original school, rather than letting the second school send in the grades from both schools. But this just means an extra form to fill out and possibly a phone call to make.</p>

6

<p>Don’t sweat it, I was in the same boat as you and now I’m heading to UNC next fall. I went from a school where kids with GPAs of 3.0 but SATs of 1800 were common and then transferred to a school where there were tons of kids with GPAs of 4.4 and above but who couldn’t must at least a 1900 on the SAT, and as implied, my rank was eviscerated. Fortunately, even though I was not in the top 10% by the time I applied (Though I calculated that if only my GPA from the latter school I would have been the class salutatorian), I still managed to get accepted by UNC.</p>