<p>I currently go to a prep school and I love it but I feel like it is a lot harder than a public school would have been and it is going to make it harder to get into the colleges of my choice.</p>
<p>Reasons its harder:
1. I take almost all honors and AP classes but they don't weight your gpa
2. Kids are smarter so even though I am one of the smartest in are class there is less of a curve.
3. This relates to #1 but since they don't weight and I take all honors and AP classes my rank is lower than some people who take all regular classes.</p>
<p>Would a college take into account that my school is harder than public school when they are looking at my grades?</p>
<p>Also my school says they do grades like this
A= 85-100
B=76-84
C=69-75
D=60-68
F=59-0
I think this is good if colleges use this to figure out my GPA but I don't know if they will just use the standard system or not.</p>
<p>Will colleges consider everything and the difficulty of my school? Will they use my schools grading system?</p>
<p>I’m not exactly sure thats why I was confused and also my school is a lot harder though. I think that the effort it takes to get an 85 here would get you a 92 or 93 at public school. I realize though that it honestly doesn’t matter at all what I think and I am wondering how colleges will view everything.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is nationwide, but most selective east coast schools are very aware how difficult the east coast prep schools are. Counselors at my son’s school speak of a “GPA boost” that is given to students at his school. This is supported by looking at Naviance.</p>
<p>It does seem your school is lenient grade-wise, though. I have never heard of an 85 garnering an A.</p>
<p>premed: sorry if I wasn’t clear; she attends a grade deflated private school as well…but no “extra points” are given … to have an “A” as an 85 seems to me that they are already giving you credit for the rigor, the grade deflation and the fact that you are unweighted…</p>
<p>haha, yea I honestly though don’t think that the 85=A is really true, the only reason I think this might be what happens is that looking through our college counseling portion of the website I saw this but when I asked some seniors in the college process and teachers they had never heard of this so I’m not sure if it works like that. I honestly am worried because our school doesn’t even tell us our gpa they just tell us our average % which I think is annoying because I can’t tell were i’m at.</p>
<p>and Keylyme thanks, thats actually really good to know, if you have anymore information on that it would be great.</p>
<p>Nahh I disagree with this whole “if you go to prep school, it will hurt your chances of getting into good college” thing. Simply, its bunk. Bogus.</p>
<p>Yes its harder to get straight As at boarding school, most of the time there will be only 3-4 who can accomplish that feat. BUT boarding school provides you with an experience that no public school can possibly fathom. It teaches you responsibility. It teaches you to be yourself. It teaches you maturity. And even so, It gives you opportunity. The reason boarding schools have such great matriculation rates is for that reason. </p>
<p>Yes maybe your son/daughter may have had straight As at public, but would he be able to claim to be a trivarsity athlete, actor, head of 4 clubs, etc…I dont know, but for most, Nope. Never. In addition to the on paper resume, would he be able to claim to know how to manage his time with freedom, be friends with teachers outside of class, and no that he can choose to get engaged or not – and that his success will be based on him? Would he be independent? Again Idont know, but this is what boarding school does. You mature. You learn that just because you don’t get into harvard your life isnt over. And your learn skills that will teach you go surpass you colleagues in college as today your success isn’t as much based on what college you attended, but how you do at the college you attended.</p>
<p>Thank you. Please do not attend a public school if just because you believe your kid would get As instead of Bs. Please.</p>
<p>And, depending on your particular public school, A’s might not mean much. Our local public always has a very full high honor roll, yet even the val and sal can’t get into an Ivy. Two of my son’s friends who were top of the class, all AP’s, very involved in their particular EC’s, still were denied entrance to every Ivy they applied to. They instead gained admission to selective LAC’s that middle of the class kids at my son’s school routinely go to. So, no, lack of A’s from your selective prep won’t hurt you.</p>
<p>OK thanks for all this information, it has all been very helpful. I just wonder now, what is it that I should do to make my self stand out? I already play a sport every season and I am in a bunch of clubs.</p>
<p>find a long term community project in your area helping the truly disadvantaged… It will help them and help you keep your prospective regarding advantage and disadvantage. Schools will appreciate it and its a necessary skill to develop in order to have a happy life…</p>
<p>Get into top 10% of your class. If you cannot work hard to achieve that, you will not be a good candidate for a rigorous college. The work ethic, dedication and perseverence of most Ivy league students is just mindblowing.</p>
<p>“Anybody can do the exciting jobs, it is the boring parts that trip us up.”</p>
<p>Dakshina, what I have heard from many teachers and alum at top schools, (Exeter especially) is that the work and perseverence was far more challenging than at the Ivies. It seems to be a general theme, “Exeter, Andover, ________ was harder than Harvard.” And I don’t think it’s just the age/maturity issue, though it surely plays into it a bit. I think that more is asked academically of the top prep school students than of the top college students, especially during junior year.</p>
<p>Of course, I don’t have a child at a top college, just a prep school; so this is only based on what I have heard his teachers, recent grads and other parents say. </p>
<p>It may be necessary to be in the top 10% to gain admittance to an Ivy (dont know for certain), but I don’t think one can make the leap that a prep school grad in the top who was “only” in the top quartile wouldn’t do well.</p>
<p>The amount of work that these 14-17 year olds do is equally mindblowing, even if they aren’t in the top 10%. There is a reason prep schools don’t publicly rank their students.</p>
<p>You won’t get any argument from me against what you said. Top schools make you work very hard and probably more than what is required in college. There is still some thing to be said about students that excel in a class. For example, if OP is doing badly in AP/Honors classes, should OP be taking those classes? Or will putting more effort into them make OP an A student? Does OP require more organization or time management skills. Of course, everybody is not going to get an A in every course, but students who do, deserve and get more accolades than those who don’t</p>
<p>I saw a statistic at one of the Ivy league university web site that was very telling. 47% of the incoming students were from private schools. </p>
<p>It is interesting because only about 7% of high school graduates in any year are from private schools. I think that just underlines your point about quality of education at private schools.</p>
<p>And that public/private ratio is further compounded by the fact that prep schools take roughly half of their students from private schools!</p>
<p>I was responding more to your comment than to the OP’s question. There is often a HUGE difference in the rigor of classes with the same honours, AP designations from school to school. I can’t even begin to imagine what is required of the students in the “enriched” sections of classes at PEA, for instance. So, without knowing the OP’s school, it’s hard to say. But most schools send out a school profile that gives colleges a good context in which to but an applicant. There are no hard and fast rules that can tell a college if top ten student from school A is equal to the same from school B.</p>
<p>I have been told–and have no reason to doubt–that some courses at top prep schools are more challenging than AP classes. The depth of such a school’s curriculum appeals to very strong students.</p>
<p>For the OP, you should speak with your college placement office. They should be able to give you the school description that they send to colleges. It will show the grade distribution. Ask to use Naviance as well, if they have it. Naviance will show you where students with your profile have been accepted in the past.</p>
<p>Dakshina, at some schools, very few students ever get As, (or the equivalent in the school’s grading scale.) At some schools, a B average qualifies a student for honor roll.</p>
<p>A few statistics from the collegeboard.com website that were the basis of my original comment (#14) advising OP about how to get into a college of choice</p>
<p>College “Top Tenth in class” “Top Quarter”
Harvard 95% 100%
Cornell 86% 98%
Dartmouth 91% 99%
Princeton 95% 100%
Penn 96% 100%
Brown 92% 99%
Yale 96% 100%
Columbia - No data</p>
<p>So, no, one does not have to be in top 10%, but it helps.</p>
<p>Well one can almost always tell whatever story they want with stats. I do not doubt those stats are true at all. I really doubt they signify as much of a difference for one particular student. Personally, I’d like to see the stats restated correcting for 3 things and then see the difference in admit rates at top colleges. I would want to see the corrections for …</p>
<p>1) Family income … prep school have more higher income families … and higher income families then to have higher achieving kids</p>
<p>2) Ares of the country … I assume (and it is an assumption) that a higher % of kids in the northeast go to prep schools and also a higher % go to private colleges.</p>
<p>3) HS Academic stats … prep schools are self selected groups of high achieving students … I’d like to see the stats for similar performing public and private school kids.</p>
<p>I would expect the stats listed to look something like that … and I would guess if we could see apples to apples comparisons that the difference in top school admit rates of puplic schools kids and private school kids is pretty neglible … and personally, I would consider that a very good statement about the college admissions processes if it is true.</p>
<p>BTW - there would be still be many reasons for a family to send their kids to prep schools … but a huge admissions advantage is probably not one of them. In a similar way I do not think paying full fare at a top college creates a wildly different professional outlook for a student than attending a solid local state U … however there are lots of other reasons for parents to pay the increment for their kids to a top private college.</p>