<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I am currently a Lower (Sophomore) at Phillips Andover and I am just now starting to look at schools. In this process I can't help but wonder how an Andover GPA (1-6 scale) compares to a normal GPA (1-4). Taking into account the fact that Andover accepts less than 15% of applicants, it is clear that the competition is immense when it comes to the college application process. At my old school (also a private school) I had straight A's and played music whenever the opportunity presented itself. Now that I am at Andover, I am in the bottom 50% of my class academically and still get involved musically whenever possible (I play the guitar, the trumpet, and sing), but I am worries that this won't be enough for me to get in to any of my ideal schools. My average on Andover's 1-6 scale is about a 4.25 currently. I will most likely not have any interest in applying to ivy's, but an ideal school for me is something like Claremont-Mckenna or Pomona. I will also look at UCSB and most likely Colorado College as well. I am working on bringing my GPA up so that next year when my grades REALLY count, my GPA will have improved.</p>
<p>As long as you continue on a good academic track and keep trying to improve, then I think you will have a good college process, especially at a school like Andover.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Colleges will definitely take into account the high school you attended. In other words, they will take into account whether your school is more rigorous than a typical high school. Keep up the good work and you should be just fine.</p>
<p>Most prep schools send an annual information sheet to colleges when they send your transcript. It can usually be found on the college counseling website. It shows the distribution of GPAs in the graduating class (at PA I think it is broken down by 1,2,3 and 4 year seniors). It will give you an idea where you stand in relation to your peers, as well as showing distributions of AP test scores, SAT scores and some sports team information. You may be doing better than you think.</p>
<p>College counseling starts in earnest in 11 th grade, but a stop at the college counseling office to discuss course planning may not be a bad idea. Your advisor can also help. </p>
<p>What I think is hard for many families to realize is that 50% of the students at highly selective prep schools are by definition not in the top 50%, and these are very bright and carefully selected students.</p>
<p>I kind of feel the same way. I’m not at a prep school like that, but only 10% of students even qualified to test for my school get in, and it’s really competitive/we have wonderful Ivy admit rates/etc. I, too, am not in the toptoptop percentile that I’d be at in any other school, and I’m worried about that…</p>
<p>BUT, I don’t think there’s actually too much to worry about. I’ve visited a few colleges already (SUNY Bing, Cornell, Princeton, and Vassar), and every time I speak individually to someone in admissions and tell them where I go, they say “Oh, ______? Well, in that case…”. I imagine it’d be much the same for you. Having gotten into and done acceptably at Phillips Andover, you’ve already proven yourself, and that’s going to help quite a bit (I hope).</p>