This is probably a dumb question, but I really want to understand. I’ve read a ton of threads on this site lately and it seems everyone goes to a “Competitive HS.” What does that even mean and what makes it “competitive?”
Also, how do Admissions officers compare student GPAs when grading and scales are so different from school to school and sometimes even from class to class teacher/teacher same school? For instance my D23 has friends at schools where 90+ is an A, so many many people get 4.0. At her school they use +/- so depending on the class it might be 93 or 95+ is and A, 90-93 A- etc. There is no A÷. Is this why ranking seems to be so important? Our school doesn’t rank either, but you can request info on what decile you are in.
Thanks for any insight.
Most colleges recalculate the students gpa. You can usually find the formula on their site. Honors and AP classes are given extra weight. Colleges also know which HS are more challenging, etc.
I don’t think that there is a generally accepted definition for “competitive” high school. I’d describe ours (public school in UMC town in MA) as fairly competitive. The curriculum can be rigorous and I think, generally speaking, kids are well prepared for college. We send about 10 kids a year to Ivies/MIT (out of 400+/-) and another 10-15 to other top 20s and top LACs. Overall about 60 kids a year will attend a top 50 school. We also send over 90% of graduates on to 4 year colleges. I think this makes the school competitive, but who knows? Overall, the quality of public schools in MA is quite high compared to other states and kids tend to do much better than kids from other areas of the country in terms of PISA and other International testing - but, of course, it really depends on the community. In a town like Lexington, for example, they send lots more kids to Ivies etc than they do where I live - I’d consider that school system more competitive than ours. This is pretty rambling, I guess, and I’m not sure I’ve answered your question.
So another question then… if colleges do indeed give extra weight to AP and Honors, why do colleges want the Unweighted grades?
High schools weight honors and AP’s differently. At our high school, honors and AP’s have the same weight. The highest possible weighted grade is 4.4 I believe, I’ve seen some schools go up to 6.
Competitive HSs might include those that are ranked highly, require an application to attend (can be public or private), have a history of strong curriculum and strong students with a college going mindset, things of that nature.
Most HSs have a school profile that they send to colleges along with a student’s app, this also should be publicly posted on the HS website. This profile might discuss the community demographics, may show the grading/weighting scale and methodology, average/range of uw/wGPAs, number of honors/APs offered, average number of honors/APs taken, AP scores, percent of minorities and students on free lunch, etc.
Colleges will evaluate applicants in the context of their HS, so that’s why they need that type of info.
Every school weights differently. At our school AP is a 5 and honors a 4.5. As all but one of the AP courses aren’t available until junior year the highest possible weighted GPA is around a 4.7 I believe. Other schools weight differently and have different availability of APs which also affects what a “top” gpa can be. Looking at UW allows more of a comparison.
To me, when I hear “competitive school” I take it with a grain of salt. To me that would be a college prep HS where everyone goes to a 4 year college and the average SAT/ACT scores are well above the national average; a competitive entry HS; or the top rated schools in a state.
But does seem to be over represented here on CC.
I read “competitive high school” as meaning the students are competitive with each other and really care about getting into college. Often people tag on descriptors like “20 students went to Ivies last year” to reinforce what they mean. “Competitive well-known public” can be code for one of a handful of schools that people who frequent CC would know as a school that has particular cache.
I think in context of “Chance Me,” the student means that the HS is, in their opinion, a top tier HS. I put as much faith in their designation of “competitive high school” as I do in their ratings of other recommendations. “10/10 my teachers love me.”
For the benefit of the OP of this thread, if the HS is top tier, the college knows it.
Yeah. I was going to add something along those lines.
Thank you! Makes sense!
You may want to look at the Niche national high school rankings.
Would 32/450 for public schools in the state be considered competitive? 33/450 ranking for college prep.
Also # 1 for school and college prep in City and County on niche. So, if D23 is 2nd decide in a school like this would it be safe to co sides her a fairly strong candidate for T100 schools not interested in Ivies or T20.
Also every HS sends a school profile along with each transcript that includes things like: level of courses offered, weighting system (if any), average SAT/ACT score of students, % of students going to 4 year college etc. This way admissions officers can get a sense of the HS when the transcript is reviewed (if they don’t already have one).
I am not sure if either of these statements are true. Of all the colleges my DS looked at, I don’t know how any of them evaluated the transcript.
I’m in agreement with @Eeyore123 on this.
Some colleges recalculate, but few say they do. So there is no accurate guide to how many recalculate. And with the exception of California publics, and a couple of others, I have not seen a college publish the formula.
I agree. That’s my definition of a competitive HS.
Due to the ridiculous way that Texas does guaranteed admission to Texas publics, most HS in Texas are competitive.