@mathmom, the issue is that the school population changed (+50-100 new kids per year who would have been at a different school), so if the ad coms expect a student who did well in the most rigorous courses available to them (full IB diploma in grades 11 and 12) to rank in the top 10% like they did before last year, they may discount those kids based on their rank (or more likely be confused by it.) Part of the problem is that rank is based on end of 11th grade so the accelerated kids peak in rank then and then may drop down depending on what classes they take in 12th grade. So it’s a (rapid) change in the school population and a variation in what rank means for the different subgroups of students. I doubt rank will mean much for my kid, but I worry about the ones who can’t qualify for in state programs or scholarships that they would have been guaranteed two years ago. Of course, now it will be easier for the non accelerated kids at the school this cohort came from to rank higher, so I guess it all evens out in the big picture. I just wonder if ad coms know.
As someone who does admissions for a Southern Ivy and whose child is at Lawrenceville I can say that our university does not consider Lawrenceville to be a “grade inflation school” and the students from Lawrenceville who have matriculated to our university have performed extremely well and received big merit scholarships as well. I have no idea what facts you are relying upon to support your statement. When determining whether a school is the right fit for your child you should be concerned about the relationships between the students and faculty members and whether the academic environment and courses are suited to your child’s interests, as well as the extra curricular offerings far more so than an average SAT or ACT score. Most highly selective universities rely very very heavily upon the teacher recommendations. Many top tier independent schools including the elite day schools do not utilize class rank because they feel their students are all quite strong and that a ranking system dilutes the quality of the children. In admissions at the collegiate level we lookout the profile of each school- we have established relationships with the schools and their college counselors and know the quality of students each school produces. If college placement is a true concern for you as a parent you can look at the matriculation information put out by each school. Be sure to look at matriculation - not where students were admitted - in some cases a school shows you only where students are admitted (this would include the top student who got in to 6 Ivies etc) which is not particularly transparent.
Additionally grade inflation in magnet schools is huge in some areas and universities are well aware of issues of that nature. That’s a main reason why the top private schools (day and boarding) frequently do not do class rank - ranking and GPAs are ridiculous - As someone who has worked din admissions for almost a decade at a Southern Ivy I can say with complete certainty that worrying about grade inflation or GPAs is completely misplaced. Every university worth its salt completely disregards the actual GPA reported by an individual high school and re-calibrates the GPA the high school provides based on our own metrics that include how students from that school who have matriculated performed when they got to campus, our impression of the school etc. Grade inflation does not help or hurt your child nor are they directly compared between schools. We care whether your child took the most challenging courses he or she could take and how they did in those classes.
"Do admissions committees read high school profiles "
-Sometime they absolutely have to. For example, if the school does not rank, how else the adcoms determine the rank of the student? I specifically asked this question on one of the adcom’s info sessions. D’s HS did not rank and more so, even if it ranked, the top kid would not satisfy the requirement of being in top 2% as it was only 33 kids in her class. So, the #1 kid (if the school ranked) would represent only top 3% and not top 2%. Adcom replied that they are very well aware that HSs are different and they use profile to determine the applicant rank in the HS class. And they completely understand that in the class of 33, it is not mathematically possible to reach top 2%.
@carymom Thanks for the insightful posts. Very helpful. You talk about the teacher recs as being quite important. Can you shed some light on the essay? How much of a factor does it play? There must be a big disparity in quality and wondering if all other things being equal, can a really good essay tip the scales?
Thx
“other schools in the area have inflated grades and all you need is a heartbeat to register for AP classes.” This would describe our school and yet somehow 2/3 of them are scoring 4 or 5 on the AP exams.
Drawing conclusions from average SAT scores can be misleading. Some schools are relatively homogeneous, others are much more diverse. Some have a test prep culture, others don’t. In some states all the students are taking the exams, whereas in many schools only the self-selected population of college-bound students are.
Just curious @carymom what Ivy is in the south? 
@mathyone The AP class teachers are evaluated partly on the results of the AP exam. So, the class is a one year prep class for the test.
As a parent, you can ask to see the school’s profile, which may even be posted on the school’s website. Then go take a look at some other high school profiles, especially of highly regarded public and private schools with strong college placement records.
I ended up rewriting the profile for D1’s school. The counseling staff didn’t have time to do anything more than an annual rewrite, which didn’t really make the strongest possible case for the students. The admissions results after the rewrite were significantly stronger than the previous year, so these things do make a difference. And if you are the one rewriting and you end up tweaking things to better play to your child’s strengths, well, so be it.
If you need to sell this to the counseling staff, remember that anything that helps with admissions ends up making them and the school look better.
Both D1 and D2 benefitted from being at relatively small programs/schools, so both their teacher and counselor recommendations were tailored to each D’s strengths. The college counselor at D1’s program asked for the parents to submit adjectives describing their child, along with any “useful knowledge”. Some of those bits were used verbatim by the counselor in the recommendation. If you do a careful search on the parents forum, you can find a discussion from past years about good and bad adjectives (e.g. “hard working” ain’t a good one; show, don’t tell, and the transcript should already show that a student is “hard working”).
Not sure what the Op is trying to get at. Are you disparaging other schools in the area, and wanting to ensure that colleges know how good your school is? I hate to tell you, but the schools scores aren’t very elite at all.
Belmont Hill (Private Boys), Belmont MA. Average SAT is 2100.
Belmont High (Public All), Belmont MA. Average SAT is 2000. Average ACT is 31.
Sorry but your stellar New Jersey private school isn’t better than a public school in Belmont MA. Lexington, Harvard, Acton schools are even ranked higher in MASS, and these are still public schools. So I wouldn’t worry so much about the school your son went to, but the scores he achieved on his own, and his essays.
Even CA privates are well above the average your speaking of. Harker School in San Jose, private school to silicon valley’s elite, has scores well above what your talking about
Average SAT is 2210
GPA is 3.6 to 3.9
Again, I think your private school is average at best.
@TurnerT, I was talking about SAT scores.
In our school, very few students prep for these exams. I’m sure it would be unthinkable for students at some schools to just stroll into the SATs with no prep, but that’s the norm here, even among those in the top 10% of the class. Those who do “prep” generally consider taking a sample test or two to be all the studying anyone would ever do. Yes, there are a few students who prep more than that, but very few and certainly not enough to affect school averages. So of course the scores will be lower on average than at a school with test prep culture, but it doesn’t mean the honors students are not as good or the coursework as rigorous.
Like many schools, our school has plenty of kids who are barely qualified to attend a 4 year college–and many who won’t-- and there is no doubt they bring down the average SAT scores compared to private high schools which can screen out weaker students in admissions. But those students are generally not in the AP classes and they don’t affect the quality of the honors/AP program. So I think it’s misguided to look at another school and say, their average SAT scores are lower, their honors program must be less rigorous.
^^^ This sounds like ours too. Our public HS has huge ESL & low income populations which brings the average SAT scores down considerably. Everyone is encouraged to take the test. There’s also very little culture of test prep, even with the top students…(don’t get me started – getting my kids to take a practice exam or two was like pulling teeth).
However, we have 20+ AP courses offered, a lot of kids end up with 7-8 of them, and most students who take them get 4s and 5s. One of our kids got one of only a few perfect scores in the world on one exam. Not too shabby. Having a diverse student population doesn’t by definition bring down the quality of the education.
I do think it can help to apply to schools that are pretty familiar with your school district. Even though profiles are sent, as others have pointed out, they don’t always paint a complete picture.
@“Erin’s Dad” I was curious about that myself and spent a minute googling… there’s nothing “official,” but all lists seem to include Duke, Rice, and Vanderbilt.
“Every university worth its salt completely disregards the actual GPA reported by an individual high school and re-calibrates the GPA the high school provides based on our own metrics…”
Think that needs some clarification. I work for a NE college more than worth its salt and we do not recalculate. We do look at the transcript, closely, for the class choices (relevance and rigor) and grades.
As for the orig question, yes, they will either know this “well known” hs and understand or they will learn. It’s not just the School Profile. There are other metrics/reports. There are certain types of hs, some of the Jesuits, eg, where the hoops are higher. There are also hs where adcoms will know a particular teacher or LoR writer is particularly tough, that few kids get a high grade or a rave. This is taken in context.
If OP wants reassurance, it depends on the tier of his target colleges. The higher the tier, the higher the expectations can be, because of the competition. And very much depends on how the kid actually presents himself in the app and supps. That can take down a high stats kid and lend some breath to a slightly lower one.
As for exclusive BS or preps, don’t assume adcoms aren’t able to filter.
My kids’ private hs doesn’t avoid ranking because it “dilutes the quality.” Rather, because it can foster false competition. (Just check the CC attitude about rank.)
Ime, yes, a good essay can add life. But so many kids, parents, and CC posters miss the point.