<p>We live in a college town and the student population at our high school is very competitive. Many straight A students don't make it into the top 10% unless they max out on honors, pre-AP and AP classes. The same student at another high school might be in the top 1%.</p>
<p>Do college admissions take this into consideration? If so, how do they know?</p>
<p>MM</p>
<p>It’s their job to know. My kids dealt with the same situation. I’d say the closer the college, or the better they are at their jobs, the greater the chances are that they’ll know about your high school.</p>
<p>Our school class rank is set up so kids that don’t take mostly AP/Honors classes can’t rank in the top 10% (or even the top 50% or so). The school sends along that information with the high school profile with the application material they send to the various schools. It’s a fair system for those kids that choose to challenge themselves. A “B” student taking all AP/Honors classes will have a higher rank then a kid taking no AP/Honors classes and all A’s.</p>
<p>My kids are in a similar situation. Our school provides information sheets on the programs they offer and the competitive nature of hte school. They include things like where they fall in the national high school rankings. </p>
<p>I agree with toledo, many schools will know the quality of one hs program over another.</p>
<p>“Do college admissions take this into consideration?” - I’d say usually Yes, especially if they see a transcript with mostly rigorous courses and A’s. </p>
<p>Occasionally there will be a college application or a scholarship with a hard and fast ranking criteria. In those cases, the lower rank could hurt. But attending hs with motivated peers is great prep for college. The pros usually outweigh the cons. </p>
<p>“The same student at another high school might be in the top 1%.” - That could happen. But the other school might not have enough IB/AP for the tippy top colleges.</p>
<p>many HS’s [ particularly private HS’s] dont rank students because rankings can give a false picture of who is the
better" student, but they have a very good track record of sending their students to competitive colleges. They do give “guidance” to college admissions offices by providing a “profile” of the past years students average GPAS, SAT’s, the number of AP classes offered taken by seniors and their scores, the rigor of the classes, etc. etc. If you look at a common data set for an individual college, it will disclose what % of applicants were ranked. For very selective colleges the % of students who are ranked is often close to 50%.
College admissions officers have a very good idea of how to evaluate and compare students who are and arent ranked, so my advise is to relax.</p>
<p>They do take it into consideration, and most colleges will dig a lot more deeply into such a class for its acceptances. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that the most competitive schools want to see that you take advantage of the opportunities that were available to you. Not to say one needs to take every AP class a school offers, but a student coming from a HS that offers no APs might be given more latitude than a student who gets straight As but does not take the “most rigorous curriculum” ( counselors are asked to provide that information to that effect on their recommendation forms). </p>
<p>In addition to the transcript, high schools also provide the colleges with a profile that may include average test scores, percent college bound and grades by decile, all of which can give the school a more complete picture of the school community, even if the school does not rank its students. Another way they gain information is through annual recruiting efforts. Each year we have reps that visit our high school and many others. They do informational sessions with prospective students, meet with guidance counselors to learn more about the school, etc. </p>
<p>If your school has Naviance you can get an excellent idea of admissions trends, including how many students are accepted to specific colleges, their corresponding test scores and GPA. Though you won’t always know about any “hooks,” it’s valuable information. You get to see trends in admission, how many get in regular vs. early, evidence of stronger relationships with school A than school B etc.</p>
<p>I assume you mean top colleges. When they aren’t reading apps, they travel to their regions, get to know schools, GCs and kids, learn about scoioeconomics, job sorts, and more. If they don’t hit your town specifically, there are indexes, etc, to provide info (you can google and find some reports.) And there’s the school-provided profile. You can be pretty assured they know all the top hs in the country, the unique charters, the specialty schools, etc. </p>
<p>This intense competition is one reason you should recognize what a great holistic application is- rank is important, where it exists, but it’s “the rest of the picture” that can swing a kid in.</p>
<p>menloparkmom–I think rankings at ALL schools, public and private, give false pictures of who is the better student. Is the student that studies 5-6 hours/day to get all A’s a “better” student than the kid that has a 3.8 but never really has to study because the material comes naturally to him or her–taking the same classes as the 4.0 kid that studies 5-6 hours/day? There are just too many variables, which is why they don’t just look at GPA and rankings for college admissions :D.</p>
<p>MM, you’re in Texas, right? I think admission counselors everywhere realize the Top 10% Rule doesn’t produce the same caliber of student across the board, i.e., your student’s 6% rank on the most rigorous curriculum at an extremely competitive HS means she received (and exceled at) an entirely different educational experience than someone who ranks 6% at a low performing school. Admission counselors from selective schools will compare the transcript with the school profile to place the applicant in local context considering the available level of rigor and depth in a subject. (If you’re not familiar with it, your school profile is generally a two-page snapshot of your HS student body, updated annually, shows courses offered, rigor, grading policy, National Merit data, ave test scores and a tally of recent matriculations. It should be published on the school website, usually in the college counseling section; otherwise, get a copy from the GC.) Additionally, your GC’s rec should shed some light on the basis for your D’s performance. (If you haven’t seen the standard rec form, go to the Common App site’s forms download section and take a look at the counselor’s secondary school report.)</p>
<p>Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk</p>
<p>My S’s school give weighted averages in a way that even if you are not taking honors level classes, you still have a shot at the top 10% even though they have to really really work hard. An A+ in a regular class is 4.0 where as an A- in an honors class is 4.0. I think it is a fair system because students will still work hard and earn their A+ in their regular classes. I hope colleges will know the difference between variouse HS programs and how the grades are given etc. In my S’s school, an A+ in honors classes doesn’t come easily.</p>
<p>It’s really helpful to compare your high school’s profile with the profiles of other highly academic high schools.</p>
<p>Some colleges do, some do not. It depends. Look at the Naviance data, and that will give you a good idea of what schools do. If you see kids with lower GPA/rank than usual getting into given schools, that is good evidence that is happening.</p>
<p>My kids were in the same situation. Sometimes, it does not work out. Some larger schools where the admissions is strictly numbers driven, especially with a huge number of apps, the process does not have much allowance for the High school Profile to be examined. Yes, you can lose out in such situation. If you have such schools on your list, do ask your high school counselor to personally reach out to admissions and ask that the high school profile be taken into account.</p>
<p>Where the huge loss can occur is in merit awards. I’ve seen kids not get into honors programs or get merit awards when the grades are not weighted and when their high schools have tough grading curves. Sometimes leeway can be given if the school counselor is willing to help, but a lot of times, that does not happen.</p>
<p>In addition to high school profiles (Average SAT/ ACT scores, Average AP classes taken, average GPA etc), I would think top colleges will use experience of dealing with applicants from a school from previous years. They can also probably compare an applicant’s transcript with that of other applicants from a school.</p>