<p>Actually a kid with those stats has an excellent shot at getting into a number of selective schools. Just not the most selective. At my kids’ prep school kids were getting into Brown, UPENN, Cornell, with lower grades than that and in the second quintile class rank wise. That is not unusual for certain known prep schools that send a lot of kids to these top ranked schools. You gotta look at the individual school’s history. Such kids would not stand a chance coming from some of the average to good public or even private schools. That’s where those selective prep schools have their advantages.</p>
<p>cpt - You can not truly compare second quintile in a prep school with the same for a public school. Essentially, it is privileged kids probably stacked up with great SAT/ACT scores and even greater ECs who ended up in the second quintile because everyone cant be in the top 20% in a class of 100 or 200 people.</p>
<p>Compare that to a normal public school with 400-800 in a graduating class where usually top 5 -10% or so may be performing at an extremely high level but then the rest start dropping quite a bit. The rest of the school is not even aiming for a top 10 college unless they are in sports/URM with good grades and accomplishments etc. </p>
<p>Going back to your prep school, everyone is aiming high and since they can afford it if they can get in and most probably have legacy in these schools to start with, it does nt deter them from applying irrespective of their standing in school.</p>
<p>Screw it. I’ll just apply to Penn ED and see what happens.</p>
<p>^^^^ Go Lions!</p>
<p>Lol yup! 
:)</p>