<p>I was wondering if any weight or consideration is given in assessing a students GPA regarding how academically rigorous a high school is?</p>
<p>Example: An A at one less challenging or lower academically challenging high school versus a B at a extremely difficult academic high school.</p>
<p>Are they the same in the eyes of admissions? Is it even looked at or compared? Not all high schools have the same standards, so I was wondering. I think my son would have looked better on paper at public HS vs. the independent he's attending and thinking did we make a mistake?</p>
<p>Sure they will take it into consideration. They also will not penalize kids at poor schools who didn’t have the opportunity to go to a better school. Pointless having hindsight regrets. I think it is always best to get the better education if it is in your means. He will be better prepared to succeed at college.</p>
<p>The track record of HS’s is considered by colleges that know that HS. If you HS has access you can look at their Naviance data to see what grades and scores were admitted to different colleges.</p>
<p>More selective schools will know to view different schools based on their offerings and context (like others have said). Some public schools don’t differentiate i.e. a 3.5 GPA kid who takes a fluff schedule is favored over 3.4 GPA kid who takes IB/AP/Honors track her entire HS career. These schools tend to be large public schools.</p>
<p>An annoyance my family will be facing. My kid attends a supposedly ranked top-10 high school in the country. She has a 3.7GPA but one of her target schools (with a great architecture pgm) doesn’t give her advantages due to her desire to push herself and take a tougher courseload. Bass akwards thinking. I’m sure she’ll do fine in the end. I don’t regret her attending her school whatsoever.</p>
<p>Colleges will know that a kid can have Bs in a really tough high school and be extremely well prepared for college work, while another can get As in a typical school and not be ready at all. This is where a great ACT score is handy. If the college is too dumb to understand the difference, you wouldn’t want to go there anyway.</p>
<p>"If the college is too dumb to understand the difference, you wouldn’t want to go there anyway. " </p>
<p>I agree – but this particular school happens to have a super-regarded architecture program… my kid’s likely route. Even though the general student population profile is average, we can’t ignore this place.</p>