<p>Are some considered more "competitive" than others in the eyes of admissions officers?</p>
<p>It seems like my daughter's school has academic standards much higher than other parochial high schools in MA. For example, to make honor roll you have to have straight As in all 6 classes, to take an AP class you have to have a 95 or higher the entire previous year in the prerequisite class, etc.</p>
<p>Anyone know?</p>
<p>Massachusetts was never my recruitment area, but I know from other states where I worked that colleges don't see all Catholic schools the same. Some are better than others from a college prep department. </p>
<p>Admissions offices are absolutely interested in specific information about schools (their curriculum, their typical grading patterns, the number of students who go on to college, and to where). They get this from the school itself, or from the information that guidebooks of the College Board compiles on schools. They never lump all like schools together or assume that just because it's under a particular form of control (independent, church-related, public) that it's like every other school in the state with the same affiliation.</p>
<p>Oh, that's good to know. It is kind of frustrating because my daughter had all A's (low 90"s) but could not take AP classes! Yet other schools you can take whatever AP classes you want. Also, to make National Honor Scoiety you have to have a 3.8 GPA, in other schools it's lower. I hope that admissions officers are aware of how hard it is to achieve those. Thanks.</p>
<p>I was in the Boston area before coming to Virginia. We never lumped all the parochial schools (or independent or public schools) together. </p>
<p>You can probably find the profile for many schools in their websites and see what we see when we go to interpret the transcript.</p>
<p>Most GCs let us know when entrance to AP classes is restricted (if the profile doesn't note the policy).</p>