<p>What are the average grades at boarding schools? I know that for some people who are used to making all As have different experiences at boarding schools, since the academics are pretty rigorous. There are probably people (at boarding schools) who make all As, but overall, what is the norm?</p>
<p>First of all, you should look at the College Counseling department’s fact sheet for the colleges, usually linked to their web page. It usually tells you the grades for the juniors at end of year, SAT scores, etc. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if at many top BS, the freshmen get knocked about with grades across the board that are lower than the previous eighth grade year (when lots of them had report cards that were “straight As”). They then proceed to working their way UP to what you see posted for junior year. This is what I am putting together from anecdotal evidence parents at SAS have told me, and I think it fair to assume many of the “top twenty” or so schools are similar. Could be wrong about that; for any particular school, you need direct observations from within the constituency.</p>
<p>Some schools post their “school profiles” online. They may be found in the college counseling section of schools’ websites. These documents sometimes list the average/median SAT scores, grade distribution, etc. for the last class to graduate. You will soon see schools have different grading scales.</p>
<p>B should be the average grade at most prep schools.</p>
<p>Tour guide @ Groton told me “We[Groton] hate[s] grade inflation,” so the school’s average grade is a C.</p>
<p>I have the grade profile for Milton; will post that as soon as I dig it up.</p>
<p>Exeter is on an 11 point system. 10-11 is highest honors, 9-10 is high honors and 8-9 is honors. I am not sure of percentages, and I don’t know if Exeter even grades on a curve in any case.</p>
<p>The college counseling websites are a good source for the grade distributions of the graduating class. Most prep schools average “B”, whether that translates into a 5 or an 8 or whatever scale is used. More advanced/honors/accelerated/AP classes are NOT WEIGHTED.</p>
<p>At least at Exeter, there are some questionable distant legends of students who got all As, of uncertain truth. Early cum laude (top 5% of the class) cutoff is usually about 10.3 out of 11, which is about a 3.7 out of 4.0</p>
<p>@FutureExonian15,</p>
<p>Here is the school profile for colleges, for your namesake
<a href=“http://www.exeter.edu/documents/2013_Profile_for_Colleges(1).pdf[/url]”>http://www.exeter.edu/documents/2013_Profile_for_Colleges(1).pdf</a></p>
<p>The grading system is explained in the document</p>
<p>“Early cum laude (top 5% of the class) cutoff is usually about 10.3 out of 11.”</p>
<p>Wait, according to Exeter’s school profile, about 20% (39+) of the senior class achieved a a 10-11 GPA range. Am I missing something here?</p>
<p>It’s the Lake Wobegone effect…</p>
<p>Can you elaborate on it?</p>
<p>sorry, I was being snarky </p>
<p>The Lake Wobegon effect is where all or nearly all of a group claim to be above average. In this case at Exeter, it’s the top 20% all being in the top 5%-- makes no sense. </p>
<p>I wonder if there’s a typo?</p>
<p>You didn’t come off as snarky at all. I was simply curious :)</p>
<p>thanks for the link GMTplus7! yeah I’m curious about that too…maybe the others had a GPA of 10 to 10.2 and didn’t get early cum laude?</p>
<p>No, you have to read carefully…20% of the SENIOR class received 10-11 but early Cum Laude is for a cumulative average for all of the years at the Academy. Grades, particularly at Exeter, get better over the years as the student gets accustom to the requirements and how to fulfill them. Thus while 20% of the senior class received 10-11 on their grade reports, they have not achieved the same level throughout their time at the Academy. Mystery solved.</p>
<p>Still, such an uneven distribution (75% of a group being at the bottom 20%) does not make any sense.</p>
<p>Ah. Thanks etondad for the clarification.</p>
<p>^ If you look at the profile, you will see that four year seniors have done much better than 3 year and better than 2 year seniors-- precisely because of the experience with the system.</p>
<p>Yes, grades tend to be lower for one and two year seniors,</p>
<p>but I think the answer to the early cum laude cutoff (top 5% above 10.3) is that the number of students above 10.0 is about 15%-20% at graduation, but the distribution must tail off quickly to leave only 5% above 10.3 cumulative. Just a few less than stellar terms, or a couple of B (8) grades can be very hard to raise, since straight As are very difficult to come by.</p>