<p>Hey, I was just wondering how/if colleges distinguish between the rigor of different high schools. Currently attending a rather competitive HS, I can say me and a lot of my friends are worried whether or not colleges outside of our state factor in the academic rigor of one schools classes from another (i.e AP's, IB's, honors, etc). The school I go to was rated #2 in the state this year on Newsweeks annual report; will colleges consider this at all during the admissions process? It really annoys me because or rival high school offers the IB Diploma program as well us, yet for them the classes are an absolute joke. I have many friends who have transferred to this particular school in order to receive straight A's in all AP/IB classes with a moderate level of intelligence/work ethic. Earning straight A's at my school in the AP/IB programs is virtually impossible, and even our teachers tell us that a C in one of our AP/IB classes is considered "a good job". I've worked my $%# off over the last 2 years working 5-6 hours a night on homework just to receive a rather mediocre UW GPA of 3.1. This really upsets me as I know kids at the other school who only work 30 minutes a night in the same classes and still receive 3.8, 3.9, and 4.0 UW GPA's. One friend in particular is taking a seemingly-impossible workload of AP's and IB's, has received straight-A's in pretty much all of these classes by doing his homework at lunch, and then uses his free time at home to study for the SAT and AP exams a couple weeks prior to testing. So he essentially looks amazing on paper, yet really isn't that smart and rarely has to do any work.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant, but this whole effing system really ****es me off, especially since my grades suck even thought I do 100x more work. So anyways, how to colleges account for this type of problem?</p>
<p>There are two ways Admissions know about your High School. The first is Class rank. You say you have a 3.1 UW GPA, what rank are you, if you are in the top 10% with that gpa then the college will see that your high school is hard and not penalize you for such a low gpa. It works the same in that other high school, there instead of a 3.1 for top 10%, one may need a 5.0. </p>
<p>Second, each college has regional admissions officers who in general have some sort of background on most of the high schools in the area. If you school is really that rigorous and difficult, admissions will probably know and again account for that in evaluating your application.</p>
<p>What if the class rank is low? Im in a very similar situation. I come from a very rigorous school too, but the reason why it is hard is to limit our valedictorians. Last year, we had 40, and I can tell you that they all are EXCEPTIONAL students. A good part of the kids in my school moved to the district for the schooling system, and are pushed by many many people to excel.Example: 98% of the kids from our school pass the AP Physics test with a 4 or a 5. Passing AP tests, SAT 2’s is all a breeze for us because school is just so effing hard! It ****es me off so much that AP scores and sat 2 scores are just glanced at and that GPA is number 1.</p>
<p>I know that local schools (UC’s and stuff) all know that my school is uber competitive and gives us preference. But what about out of state schools? Will they look at that newsweek list? My schools 40 or something up there.</p>
<p>OP, I can’t be sure if your posts are real or meant to amuse. I hope for your sake that it’s the latter. No one during their junior year takes a heavy load of APs, spends little time studying, gets all 5s, studies for 2 weeks for the SAT, gets all 800s, and is an idiot.</p>
<p>If you’re real, your attitude in this and in previous posts will derail you in your college applications.</p>
<p>^OP never said they get all 800’s
I know in schools near mine, its similar, except they dont fare too well on the SAT and AP. Its jsut that colleges dont flipping care about SAT as much as GPA, which really annoys me how unstandardized the system is :(</p>
<p>Colleges also look at how GPA’s correlate to ACT/SAT scores within a given high school. GPA’s in the 3.5-4.0 range should correlate to high test scores for the majority of graduates. When they don’t, and students are showing 4.0 GPAs with ACTs in the 19-25 range, the college knows they’re dealing with a less-than-stellar high school.</p>
<p>It’s standardized to your school against the other students (class rank) and the opportunities that have been provided (rigor of schedule). Besides, it’s not like they completely disregard test scores, it’s just that they put more weight on the number that represents four years of work more than the number that represents one Saturday morning</p>
<p>it just depends on your gpa and rank in your school. no one gives a s**t if about different gpa’s from different schools.</p>
<p>obviously, the high school gpa is most indicative of how you did over a 4 year span. standardized testing is… guess what- ONE DAY. congratulations, you had one good day- that’s all it says.</p>
<p>and who says just because someone doesn’t work as hard can’t get just as good a grade?</p>
<p>5-6 hrs a night of hw??? Transferring to that easy school doesn’t sound too bad. For real though, when you get to college I guess it’ll be a piece of cake compared to Hs. Btw, What state do you live in?</p>
<p>Woah now, I can assure you I am being completely serious. Also, it seems you are a bit misinformed.
The kid I was talking about took all IB classes Junior year, and half AP/half IB classes Senior year. This means that because his Junior year IB classes were all SL (I’m not sure if your familiar with the IB system), he only had to take 2 IB test - which he had all year to study for. Naturally, these scores will be the only ones that show up on his transcript, as his IB HL and AP test scores will not be received until after he has been accepted.
Also, I said nothing about him getting perfect scores on his IB exams. I’m not sure what he got, but I know he had been studying for each one forever.
Nor did I say he got a perfect score on the SAT. In fact, I did about 50-60 pts better than him, even though he had been studying and taking practice tests/SAT courses all year and I hadn’t studied a bit. But comparatively, had he been at my school, I can guarantee he’d have scored significantly lower.
His “heavy load” of IB’s was a joke, remember? Since I posted this thread, I’ve learned that his school has some of the lowest IB scores in the region, so it kind of makes me feel better knowing that admissions officers might see this.
“Relatively moderate intelligence/work ethic” does not mean he’s an “idiot” -.-, just not qualified for the colleges I’m sure he’ll get into.</p>
<p>Not sure, I’ve been asking my counselor for ages, but she’s an idiot and can’t do anything right. I would assume top 10-20%? A lot of really prestigious-bound student go to my school (affluent neighborhood, like 15/350 get into Ivies each year), so its hard to tell. </p>
<p>On an unrelated note, my counselor is so effing stupid that she forgot to submit my transcripts and rec letter in time for EA for all the schools I planned on applying to, even though I had given her a good 3 weeks. Stupid *****.</p>
<p>I don’t think the schools will penalize you if your counselor submits her part of the paperwork late. Schools realize that counselors are juggling a hundred and one things and can’t always get things in right away. Have you thought of calling or writing to the schools to let them know what the situation is?</p>
<p>My daughter also goes to an incredibly demanding private high school, so I know what you mean. The grades kids in easy schools get are unreal!</p>
<p>I understand where marist is coming from. My son attends a college-prep boarding school. He also puts in a good 5 hours daily in hw and has a 3.3 gpa (but a 2130 SAT). At our local public high school, 2/3 of the class is regularly on the honor roll, straight A’s are common, and the hw load is considerably lighter. However, not many of these kids get into selective colleges, regardless of their gpa’s.
My son’s school does not rank, but issues a gpa distribution chart for colleges. He is in the 4th decile, which is not great, but then again, the school does not weight grades so many of the people above him probably do not have course loads heavy with honors/AP’s. Also, the gpa’s are skewed by the fact that many kids transfer in from public schools and bring their gpa’s with them. I don’t know how colleges are able to figure out where a student stands because of all the above factors.</p>
<p>When you ask counselors to send in your transcript, they also send a school profile which says how rigorous your school is. From that, they will see how you fit in that and take into account what your 3.1 GPA really means.</p>