<p>I am not here to degrad anyone but...
I go to the top academic hs school in CA and my grades are at best a 3.5
Will that hurt my chances into great colleges when other kids attending the same school are applying with better grades...
What if i went to a less rigorous school and got a 4.0?</p>
<p>It could hurt a little... you're talking about class rank which many colleges consider.</p>
<p>my school does not give out class rank to college representatives.. against their policy</p>
<p>I don't know how the UC state system specifically works, but admissions officers at many private schools are each assigned to a certain area of the country so they would be familiar with which schools are very competitive and take that into consideration.</p>
<p>whew... i hope thats true... :]</p>
<p>Having graduated from a top magnet HS in the country, I can unequivocably say that the 4.0 at your town HS has an absolute advantage over someone with a 3.5 at a top HS.</p>
<p>sigh.. . but the local hs student has gone through easier classes and has easier pre-reqs for APs and H classes
thanks for your honesty though.. :/</p>
<p>ndinchick, I've found that most admission officers DO know the differences in schools, at least ones they're familiar with. My guidance counselor told me that an admissions officer at a highly selective state school where I live told him that he'd "take a 3.5 from your school any day over a 4.0 from ________ school" because he was aware of the differences in the difficulty of curriculum.</p>
<p>thank you soo much for your help guys :] getting the differant opinions has been an eye opener...</p>
<p>A think the problem is not in comparing the GPAs, but rather that the top schools are not going to take more than a few students from any particular high school. So while the 3.5 at the magnet may in fact be equivalent to (or even better than) the 4.0 at the town school, the top colleges don't want to take only magnet students.</p>
<p>Does your school offer AP classes? Obviously students who can't or don't take APs but have high GPA's won't stack up against those of you with lower GPA's, including some AP B's. The admissions officers can read between the lines on the transcripts.</p>
<p>Ndinchick --</p>
<p>My kids' experience is that attending a top hs with tough grading is taken into consideration and makes a big difference in college admissions. Every year I see a list of all the schools the seniors are entering in the fall, and it's very clear that students who are nowhere near the top 10 or even 20 percent have been accepted at schools that generally don't look for students anywhere near the middle of the class. That said, I don't know what UC's or other state schools that admit through a strict formula do with a transcript from a very tough, excellent hs. But admissions officers would be silly if they treated your 3.5 as if it were comparable to a 3.5 at a hs that graduates a cast of a thousand 4.0's.</p>
<p>Why don't you go check with your college counseling office and see what kind of data they collect about college admissions? Do they have scattergrams or some sort of graphs that show the GPA's of seniors who apply to various colleges and what percentage of students in different GPA categories are accepted or rejected by each school? Many schools will provide this info if you or your parents ask for it, and it would certainly answer some of your questions.</p>
<p>Remember, some of the students represented in the data set may be hooked in some way (recruited athletes; URM's; legacies), but overall the data should give you a sense of how a range of colleges consider GPA's from your hs. And in terms of your state school, your GC has to have a lot of experience! Ask for a realistic assessment of your chances of getting into various UC's based on his/her experience in the past couple of years.</p>
<p>ndinchick:</p>
<p>It all depends, of course, as most things do.</p>
<p>If a given college knows that it's very difficult to achieve high class rank/GPA at a given school, then that college will make an adjustment. Having said that, all the evidence I've uncovered points to the fact that it really is better to be at the top of your class at an unchallenging high school than farther down in a challenging one. It's a paradox that so many parents put their children into high schools with enormously talented student bodies in the hopes that being in that high school will help their children "get into the best colleges." In fact, what they've done is to vastly increase their children's chances IF those children finish at or near the top of that heap. It's a winner-take-all situation, and most bright kids would have improved their chances by being at an average high school.</p>
<p>Of course, one also has to take into account that a more challenging high school, against stiffer competition, actually improves your skills, which should aid you in our further academic life, and perhaps your life after academe. </p>
<p>I would refer you to Paul Attewell's paper, "The Winner-Take-All High School" for further reference.</p>
<p>^^^^Totally agree with above, a friends brother went to a top level private HS, his friends opted to stay in the local high school.All of them were of equal talent ability, the one that went to the more difficult school was not at the top when he finished, the others that stayed were top of the top. The acceptances the public got were all Ivy and multiple acceptances, the one that went to the tougher, still had high SATs but not the course rigor, too many qualifications to do AP/research, the other kids easily got at the public. The transfer got waitlisted at NYU, going CC for a transfer next year.</p>
<p>I don't really think it's like that. I've seen my school's college acceptances and it's usually the top few students that get into the top colleges. I have a close friend in a magnet school and I've seen their college matriculations and they were much better than mine, with the top ~30% matriculating at top colleges.</p>
<p>Having attended 2 years of public and 2 years of elite boarding school, I think college matriculation data of top schools is misleading.</p>
<p>There are a large number of URM and Legacies at my school. They (and many others) are also intellectual. That's how they got into the school in the first place. And even those who don't have a special factor got INTO the elite boarding school through something relatively exemplary in their profiles...Perhaps they have a true love of learning, etc.,</p>
<p>These are the people who compose the matriculation data from an elite school. And thus anyone who doesn't have top-notch work ethic and/or intellect are the unnamed, unheard "bottom 25-50%" of the class. Really, they're still one of the best students at a typical high school, but they're not getting into the top 20 schools. </p>
<p>When all is said and done one didn't attend private school simply for the sake of reaching better schools. One went there for to further their education. If that's not the case, you probably made a mistake attending in the first place; not to mention you're probably wasting time in academia, where you must not have true interest. You're competing for a spot against others who were already weeded out for their talents and possible contributions to the school.</p>
<p>Anyone considering boarding school to increase college acceptance chances is <em>most likely</em> making a mistake.</p>
<p>This may not effect the OP with a 3.5, but I have found where it hurts more is in the area of merit aid. The Ivies don't have merit aid, but many other schools do. Many schools use a chart, and they look at 3.5 and 2100 SAT or 30 ACT and that tells them how much merit aid to offer based on academics. They don't pay attention to the quality of high school, and I find it sad. I also understand that they are being as fair as possible since many applicants do not pick which HS they will attend. My son lost out on 2 merit scholarships because of this. He had the SAT score, but not the gpa from his competitive HS. End result is that he did not matriculate to those schools.</p>
<p>Its kind of like the think with AP classes, take APs if you can do well in them.</p>
<p>If you can be in the top 10% of your class with a high gpa at the tough HS then go to the tough HS. Otherwise it would probably be better to be in the top 3% of the public school.</p>