This is, more than anything else, a personal question, and a very difficult one for me. Kids from my school will probably see this post, but you know what? I don’t particularly care.
School A: Bad public school. Poorly ranked. 500+ kids per grade. Poor matriculation rate, poor graduation rate. Really bad reputation. Low income students. Roughly ten kids matriculate to quality institutions (Johns Hopkins, Conn Coll, Boston University, BC, Hamilton, etc.). None to ivies.
School B: Incredibly elite boarding school. Ranked as one of the top 10 in the US by Forbes, Business Insider, etc. 100% matriculation rate, similar graduation rate. Really good reputation. VERY high income students. Roughly 70% of kids matriculate to quality institutions. 4-5 to ivies.
I have spent time at both of these schools, and others. Odd circumstances, I know, but it is what it is. My question is this: do I have a better chance of being accepted to a selective collegiate institution (UChicago, Columbia, etc.) from School A (bad public school) with a 3.9 gpa (top 3% of class) and a 2200 SAT, or from School B (elite boarding school) with a 2.8 gpa (bottom 10% of class) and the same SAT scores? I have the option to attend either school, but I must decide ASAP. There is obviously more information than what I have given as far as classes, exc’s, etc.
But based on these stats alone, what should I do? What would YOU do?
The bad school seems like it would be better, because
Higher GPA/ class rank (especially with the size of the grade there)
Fewer applicants from your school and the ones who do probably won’t look as strong
Depending on your ethnicity and actual socio-economic status, may make you look poorer, which could be good or bad if you’re income level is that low
Then again, the kind of education and experience at the boarding school is unmatchable, IMO, so I would try and see how well I can do there, especially if you have a low-income hook. In terms of prestige, I would want to go there if nothing else. The EC’s there would probably be better as well.
Also, why would your GPA be so bad? Wouldn’t you at least get help from a GC if you were struggling that much in School B
Ultimately, I would say it’s up to how hard you want to work and whether you want to challenge yourself at the expense of GPA or try and stand out to the Ivy Leagues/HYPSM in another way. If you have a REALLY good explanation for your awful GPA, I would try for School B.
Iris Shadow, I appreciate your response. The lower GPA is simply because School B calculates GPA differently than school A. School B bases gpa solely upon grades from classes taken AT School B, whereas School A bases gpa upon grades from ANY attended high school.
Thus, if you, like me, received all Bs/Cs during time at School B, but received As elswhere, your gpa from School B would ONLY reflect the Bs/Cs. On the other hand, if you received all Bs/Cs during your time at School A, but received As elsewhere, your gpa would reflect the COMBINED grades from both schools. I hope that makes sense.
From school A, how successful are the college-bound graduates in college? I.e. do they do fine at college (meaning that school A has good college prep academics), or do they struggle or fail (meaning that school A does not adequately prepare students for college? Remember, your goal is not merely to be admitted to a college; your goal is to be ready to succeed in college and whatever you do post college.
Why would your GPA fall to 2.8 at school B? A 2.8 GPA, no matter how high a reputation the high school has, will seriously limit your college (and scholarship) choices.
Thank you for your reply, @ucbalumnus ! Kids from school A’s AP Classes are just as successful as kids from school B when they get admitted to the same schools. I am very confident that I will do well in any college that I attend. That is why I tried to focus the attention of this question on the GPA?
The GPA falls to a 2.8 because School B calculates score differently than School A. But to clarify: Your answer is essentially to attend School A?
Go to the prep school. Differences in preparation make a big difference in college. Kids who get in from worse schools generally have a harder time adjusting to the academics here. When you throw kids who went to schools where getting a 4 on AP Chem was a ohmygodlifesucks situation and kids who went to schools where they were the only one to pass the AP Chem exam in 10 years into the same curved general chem class, it isn’t very nice for the latter group.
I’m pretty sure colleges require you to send transcripts from all attended high schools, so it doesn’t matter how school A calculates your GPA. The colleges will see your Bs/Cs.
Thank you @YogSothoth ! I understand what you are saying, but simply from an admissions perspective? If it is true that kids exist at your school who “were the only one to pass the AP Chem exam in 10 years,” than School A is viable option to apply from, correct?
Yes, you can get in from any school. I don’t know if you’d want to, though, on some gamble that you might have a marginally better chance of getting into an elite school. You’ll have an advantage at any school that comes from attending a better high school.
@YogSothoth Of course the colleges will see those grades, but doesn’t having a higher/lower school-reported gpa affect admittance chances more than a few bad grades on a transcript? I have read that there is a cutoff at many schools in terms of reported gpas, but I do not know if that is necessarily true. I do really appreciate your responses!
I’m not a college admissions officer so what do I know, but I’m pretty sure colleges don’t see GPAs in a vacuum. I’d be shocked if they even look at GPAs as anything more than a rough approximation of what kind of grades they’re about to see in 3 seconds when they look at your transcript. They seem to assign far more weight to the actual letter grades. I believe most of them recalculate your GPA for constancy anyways (as you’ve seen, no two schools handle GPAs the same).
I say this as a parent w 2 kids in ultra elite boarding schools and who has been a long-time major contributor to the Prep School Admissions forum on CC: your chances are better if u stay put w your high class rank in your present school.
A large fraction of the kids at elite boarding schools who get into the most prestigious colleges, get admitted bcs they are URM, famous family name (trump, kennedy), development case (donate a $20 million library wing), recruited athlete (squash, crew, hockey). For the rest of the non-hooked kids, the academic pressure is punishingly intense and it is difficult to stand out from the crowd.
How different would your grades, not school-calculated GPA, be at school A versus school B?
I.e. would your grades be B grades with a few C grades (what 2.8 is) at both schools? Or would they be A grades with an occasional B grade (what 3.9 is) at both schools? or something else? or different at each school?
If your grades are mostly B grades with a few C grades, then getting admitted to a highly selective school is an unrealistic expectation in the absence of huge family donations or being a recruited athlete.
Many colleges recalculate GPAs by their own methods, or holistically look at actual courses and grades, rather than trust whatever GPA the high schools calculate, since the differences between high schools in their GPA calculations can make comparing the high school calculated GPAs useless.
It sounds as if you did 1 year in school A, and got a very high GPA, then moved to school B and did not do well. If you move back to school A you have just told admissions- who will look at your overall GPA from both schools- that you couldn’t handle the more rigorous school. Unless you had a reason that you left school B (say, family moved) and that’s why you couldn’t stay it looks like a negative. On the other hand, if you stay at school B, and pull your grades up, then the narrative is crummy school -> tough school/tough adjustment-> success. What isn’t clear is your timeline- are you thinking of changing schools this week?
@ucbalumnus My grades are two years worth of As, two years worth of As/Bs + a single C. However, School B only counts the Bs/Cs in their version of my gpa bc those were the grades recorded at THEIR school. I appreciate the notes from you and @YogSothoth about how colleges recalculate gpa’s of students; I will look into that further. Thank you.
@collegemom3717 Hi there, I actually started hs at another school, then moved and attended School B, then School A, and now I actually have a choice of whether to attend School B or School A. I am currently enrolled in both schools and must choose one to attend.
Realistically, with lots of B grades and a C grade already baked into your high school record, it would be unrealistic to expect admission to super-selective colleges.
If school A prepares students for college (at least those who go to college) as well as school B, but school B has severe grade deflation, it does not seem to make much sense to attend school B, which will merely reduce the choice of colleges and scholarships that you will end up with. Any advantages that school B has in relationships with super-selective colleges probably won’t help you if you have lots of B grades and a C grade.
I don’t know if colleges give hispanic boarding school applicants the same pass they give the black boarding school students. Your 2.8 GPA may be looked upon differently if u are participating in an outreach program, like Prep for Prep, or Questbridge. I wd talk to one of the college counselors at the boarding school.