Private School in NYC and admissions

Do colleges really take in to consideration that you went to a top tier private school? If your child has an A minus average do they take in to account that its a rigorous school?

They’d take your child’s grades in relation to other students’ grades at the same school. So while a 3.6 may not be super impressive for top tier schools, that individual may be ranked in the top 1% in their class, showing that the school is very rigorous. So yeah, they do kinda take into consideration how tough the school is.

A little, but the advantage is not what you think.

Stat for stat, the kid from public school is viewed equal.

In my county in NJ we have 5 of the top public general high schools in the state and another 4 public STEM magnet schools ranked in the top 20 in US News nationally and their college admission stats are better than Lawrenceville’s, much better in the case of High Technology High School, which is held at Brookdale Community College.

My older boy just graduated from a diminutive all boys Catholic day school at 25% the cost of Lawrenceville, Peddie and the others with almost identical average SAT scores.

I think the super pricey high schools do not offer very much.

IMO colleges do take the HS into account. My kids went to a very rigorous public school and I feel that was taken into account for college admissions. If your HS has Navianace you can see how prior students in your HS did in terms of college admissions.

@happy1 yes of course but I haven’t seen any advantage stat for stat of very exclusive private schools over similar public or parochial.

The exclusive private schools may have more density of these students, though.

^^^^I’m not sure that is the case – our HS is well known for being competitive/rigorous but comparing school profiles is not really the question at hand. I’m just trying to give the OP my experience. I do see a slight advantage for kids in our HS maybe not at the HYPSM schools but for many others (ex. the high school sends a boatload of kids to Cornell every year) and certainly for the many excellent schools even one rung down the “competitive ladder.” As a personal example I don’t think my S would have got into his college if he had the same GPA from a less competitive HS – I believe that the college took into account the rigor of the HS when it reviewed his transcript…

@happy1 I agree with you but the OP’s question was about swanky private NYC schools. Compared to public high schools in Ct, LI, NJ, NYC and Westchester the advantage is questionable. Even in weak districts there are public magnet schools throughout the area. An A- minus at a 55k a year private high school in Manhattan is not better than the dozens of excellent public schools and low cost parochials in this area.

^^^I have a number of friends whose kids are in top private NYC schools (ex. Horace Mann, Fieldstone, Spence) and their experiences have been similar to what I see at our HS. If my experience is not valuable to the OP he/she can feel free to ignore it!!!

Many “highly rated” (and especially private) colleges take into account the academics (including course offering, course rigor, course breadth, teacher talent) and the capabilities/talent of the students at “your” school. The very best private schools are very well known to admissions at top universities. Grades need to be taken in the context of the school. So comparing the A- in the abstract is not useful nor is it what admissions does. They compare it in the context of your school. To get a quantitative answer to your question look at Naviance for your school.

Thanks all very helpful. Especially the woman who said she has friends with kids in private.

As I said earlier, IMO the best way to find out would be to utilize your school’s Naviance system. Also learn from your guidance counselor (I would guess that a top NYC private will have excellent and available guidance counselors). There are so many wonderful colleges and universities out there that your D should have many fine choices.

A top tier private school should have a top tier guidance department. Use them. I’d talk to your D’s GC about the schools experience with college admissions for others with her stats and go from there (you never mentioned standardized tests which play a role as well. And I agree that Naviance is the best tool to see where kids with your D’s stats from your HS ended up being accepted.