<p>I currently go to a very competitive boarding school which worry's me because that means im not going to be in the top 10% or anything close to that actually. If someone has a 3.5 gpa they would probably be below 50% at my school. Also, its more difficult to get into honor and AP classes than a public school (I am guessing). I want to major in psychology but would colleges let me if I had only taken one regular psychology class before? Not an AP or honor class? (my school doesn't have AP or honors in psychology) The public school near me has AP psychology. So basically my GPA would be higher, I would be in the top 10%, and I would take more honors and AP classes. Would this give me more of a chance to get into college even though its a public school? By the way this year I am going into 10th grade and if I was going to switch I would switch for 11th grade.
Thanks</p>
<p>After 2 years it probably weon’t matter. The colleges will see where you stood at both schools.</p>
<p>It isn’t a big deal if you’ve only taken one psychology class in high school. Most schools don’t have many psychology classes…you don’t to have taken a class in high school to major in it in college.</p>
<p>I don’t really feel like getting into the debate of whether public school or boarding school will give you a better chance at getting into college…someone else can go into that one.</p>
<p>“So basically my GPA would be higher, I would be in the top 10%, and I would take more honors and AP classes”</p>
<p>It’s not a sure thing that you would be top 10% (they may take your grades from the other school as is) and there may be more competition for the AP classes (more students trying to get into them). Think carefully before you switch schools for these reasons.</p>
<p>“I currently go to a very competitive boarding school”</p>
<p>Go talk to the college placement counselor at your school. Ask him/her just exactly which colleges/universities the would-be psychology majors applied to, and which they got into, over the course of the last three or four years. Ask which of those places you are on track to be likely to be admitted at. If they can’t give you an answer, your parents are wasting their money, and you should transfer home to your local public school now, not next year.</p>
<p>It depends on what college you’re looking at specifically. Even though GPA is important, colleges look at various facets of your high school career. I go to a very competitive religious private school, where are GPA average is insane (3.7) so I can understand where you’re coming from. Public Schools DO have the advantage of having more AP classes, but you should definitely make sure you know switching will affect your application as well. If you switch from private to public for your last two years of schooling without a proper explanation, it might come off as you had to downgrade, as the competiveness of the private school was too much for you. Plus, you might want to check out the public school (visit, talk to kids to go there) to make sure this is what you want. Public schools can be just as rigorous as private ones.</p>
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<p>Very competitive boarding schools are reputable places that will happily give you this info. But the OP is correct, they can make it tougher to get into top colleges for several reasons. </p>
<p>Every child took a test to get into those schools and most, if the OP’s school is truly very competitive, score in the top 95% plus of students in the Country.</p>
<p>Next, these schools have lots of legacies at top colleges, top URMs recruited in the way colleges recruit, children of the rich and famous and many recruited athletes. And they all want to go to the same 15 colleges. </p>
<p>So if you’re an unhooked student who didn’t rise to the top, you probably did have a better Chance for those top colleges by staying at your local public school. But 2 years in, not so much–they will see how you did both places and discount the public school.</p>
<p>The good news is that once you get past the very top colleges, your chance go up a lot at other colleges for just having made it through a rigorous prep school.</p>