<p>So I'm going into my junior year of high school and I am beginning to look into colleges I might want to go to. I have a 3.4 cumulative GPA, haven't taken the ACT or SAT yet and I've taken one AP exam (U.S. History) which I got a 4 on. My guidance councillor told me that despite my relatively low GPA, schools will think of it higher due to the prestige and high academic rating the school district has. We are one of the top school districts in the state and my councillor told me that colleges know this. Do they really? Another factor that I'm concerned about is that it is harder to get a high GPA in my school district due to a different grade scale compared to the state average. I did some research and I would have a 3.8 GPA in all of the surrounding districts near mine, which seems much more impressive than a 3.4. To sum all of this up, will colleges like Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin recognize this and take this into account while reviewing my transcript?</p>
<p>schools definitely do know about the “prestige factor” and quality of your high school, generally speaking. but i don’t think it’s wise to count on it as a clear advantage, because you’re judged relative to your own context. schools aren’t going to give every single student in your district an automatic bump just because they’re in that district. in comparison to the rest of your class, how are you doing? in any case prep really, really well for the sat, given that you’re taking them for the first time senior year</p>
<p>I’m not really thinking of advantage, just we have the same percentage grade but due to different grade scales my GPA is lower than the students of the surrounding school districts, just wondering if colleges will acknowledge this.</p>
<p>How did you figure you would have a 3.8 at other schools?</p>
<p>tortop:</p>
<p>Colleges are definitely aware of grading policies/reputation/student quality of different HS.</p>
<p>It’s one of the things that makes ‘chance me’ threads here so unreliable.</p>
<p>I don’t think that high school prestiginess counts 45% like your gpa, EC, etc. </p>
<p>It really depends on you (I know… So cliche). But yeah. Going to Stuyvesant high school does not guarantee an admission to Harvard. But the courses you take might…</p>
<p>Short answer: it depends</p>
<p>Longer answer: it depends on the college and the high school. Some colleges are aware of the special qualities of some high schools. My DD goes to a highly selective, residential public high school, with massive grade deflation, where almost nobody graduates with a 4.0 (this year, 4 out of a class of 200, and this is a school with an <i>average</i> ACT of 31, and in a typical graduating class will have 6-8 kids with 36 ACTs and/or 2400 SATs). There are some colleges who recognize the school for what it is and understand that kids with 2.8 GPAs are equivalent to kids with 3.8 GPAs at average public high schools. There are colleges with CDSs that say <=2% their admitted kids have GPAs <3, yet admit every student who applied from this HS, many of them with GPAs in the 2.4-2.8 range. Yet there are other schools that never look past the GPA and admit almost no one; in the last 4 years, Harvard has admitted exactly 1 of the 150 or so who have applied.</p>
<p>I’d talk to your GC and check Naviance (if your school has it) to find the colleges that appreciate the qualities your school has to offer and then focus your attention on that list.</p>