<p>What the high schools calculates is unimportant to the colleges. Different high schools do things differently–they count different things and weigh differently for example. Colleges use their own methodology to recalculate to put everyone on an even playing field. Colleges figure out a rank for kids from schools that are unranked.</p>
<p>Because a school doesn’t use freshmen year grades in a calculation doesn’t mean they ignore them. At both Princeton and Stanford, the vast majority of unhooked students are very top of their high school classes. This is true even at mid tier ivies–at Dartmouth 40% are val or sal. When ypou back out the 40% of the class that’s hooked, that’s most.</p>
<p>While senior grades are also not “counted” in the calculations, what you take and your grades senior year matter too. And while colleges say the super score and only count highest scores, if you took the SAT three times and have a range of scores they look. This is not at all black and white.</p>
<p>With sub 13% admit rates, these schools need to use something to separate out the thousands of kids who all look similar on paper.</p>