My son was recently admitted to one of the top 10 boarding schools, and I know competition will be fierce, with many intelligent students in all of his classes. I also am not expecting him to make straight A’s, but I was wondering in terms of college admissions, is a 3.7 or 3.8 from a very highly rated BS comparable to a 3.9 or 4.0 from a lesser known one? Would the prestige and rigor of the school be known to colleges, and therefore fill the gap in the GPA? I do believe that academic challenge is important, and the top tier school would be very challenging (not to say the other one won’t be), but would this extra academic challenge and slight decrease in GPA have a negative effect later on?
I think you’d get better answers by doing a “school a vs school b” and then specify your concerns. Your question is too general and likely will only get general answers that may not be that helpful for you to make a decision.
@wheretwogo I think it really depends on the two schools as well as of course your/his personal feelings and impressions. Meaning is it Andover and a school few have heard of outside the state it is in OR Andover and say Portsmouth Abbey. I truly believe that while Andover is one of the finest schools in the US your child could have a much better chance at top colleges from a less competitive school. Why? Andover like many top schools has probably 20% legacy, many stars --star athletes, star minorities, star academics. Its hard to stand out there. At a very good school like Portsmouth Abbey (replace with many many schools) its a much different story. Remember top Colleges and Universities want diversity too-diversity of geography and high school etc. Think about how disadvantaged New Englander applicants are at the top boarding schools… Also you have to be realistic about your son: many 4.0 students with 99% SSAT didnt get into top boarding schools Or were rejected at all. Why? GPA and test scores are a dime a dozen. Does your son have an extra curricular that will enable him to stand out. He could have a 4.0 and a 2300 from almost any school in the country but if he offers nothing else it might be tough at the top 10 universities/colleges.
I do think certain schools have a “name” among top colleges. I have just gone through the college admissions process as an Andover student, and by looking at our college admission scatter-grams to a variety of excellent private and public colleges, a decrease in GPA will not have too much of an effect on admissions. Andover grades GPA out of 6. The average admitted GPA for Harvard is 5.33, 5.3 for Yale, 5.1 for Cornell, and 4.9 for Williams. Clearly you don’t need to be near perfect at Andover. That said, even at Andover, you need more than just SAT/GPA. I would say wherever your child goes, he should not neglect EC’s.
I heard the whole argument about how going to Andover would make it so hard for me to get into a top college, however 4 years later, I can assure you that this is not true. I am neither a legacy nor star athlete nor star academic. Plus, schools like Andover also have a great Alumni network that can help both through college and later.
And don’t assume your 4.0 middle-schooler will drop to only a 3.7 or 3.8 at BS. You’re trying to make a GPA-based decision when you have no idea what your child’s GPA will be at BS. They all start with a 4.0 (pretty much), yet fully half the students at every BS will end up in the bottom half of the class; does that bother you? The bottom half still does well in the college game.
Also, you have to readjust your GPA scale. Many of the 3.4-3.7 kids still get into their first choice schools, but they do have more going for them than just the GPA. Our son decided it was more important to take advantage of everything he could at BS, did not have a 4.0, and got in to his top three choices.
I would add that it depends on your /your son’s goals for a college or university. Are you thinking Harvard/Yale or UNC CH?/Wake Forest…
Students who end up in top colleges from boarding schools with lower top college matriculation rates are just as likely to have hooks as those from top schools. Nowadays, high stats alone are rarely sufficient for admission to highly selective colleges, but that something extra is not limited to legacy, development and recruited athletes. Believe them when colleges say they practice holistic admission. In the end, if you do believe college admission is purely a class ranking game, then it’s a matter of being in top 10% in Andover or top 1% of a no-name school with 1 or 2 getting in HYP each year. To say either option would give you a clear advantage for Harvard would be nonsense, but if one is open minded enough to include more top colleges in the success category, then Andover wouldn’t disadvantage and likely will help you. It does have a tremendous reputation in top colleges.
First off, thanks for all your replies!
@panpacific The school I am talking about is not Andover. It is Lawrenceville. Would Lawrenceville still have a similar reputation with top colleges?
@Center He will probably apply to a wide range of schools, but he will definitely strive to go to the best university he can.
@ChoatieMom My son does have a fair number of EC’s, and will definitely continue to engage in the BS community in ways besides academics. It is reassuring to hear about your son’s college admissions.
@MABlue What would a 5.3 be on a 4.0 scale?
Yes, Lawrenceville is one of those schools, as far as I know.
Yes Lawrenceville is a superb school
@wheretwogo A 5.3 is equivalent to a 3.53, however i’m not sure an exactly equivalence works well for this situation.
Lawrenceville sends a lot of kids to Princeton (39 in the past 3 years). However, the two schools are is such close physical proximity that I assume many Princeton admits from Lawrenceville had other connections with the university.
Lawrenceville to Princeton is somewhat similar to Boston Latin to Harvard, let’s just say. There are also a good number attending penn and other Ivy+ from Lawrenceville. It is one of the few schools with high top college (not just P) matriculation rates.
Each college admission counselor at the popular colleges has a page of stats for every boarding school in their region and they know exactly what APs are available and what GPA range to target at each school plus they get a school profile with lots of stats for every high school, and they try not to compare apples to oranges ie they are aware not every 4.0 carries the same weight, rigor is very important as well. (They know 3.7 at Andover is not the same as 3.7 at another school.) Many AOs also visit the schools and get a personal run down on applicants and interview on campus, so ultimately I think it is safe to pick the school that fits you best and not stress too much about the rest. Our BS average accepted GPA is well below our top public school’s average for the same schools and this is pretty typical.
Here’s a fun exercise : Print out lists from this thread http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1742660-hidden-gem-college-matriculation-lists-p1.html and then remove the name of the schools. Then take school matriculation lists from other schools ( not on this thread ) and print those out and remove their names. Mix them up or throw them up in the air .
Now - try to tell the schools apart. Good luck!
You can also go to the BS Class Profile page and get some helpful info there. 
You can complile the lists of ALL schools in half of the US and might still get the same result. Fun or not, it doesn’t sound like an enlightening exercise to me.
Well… if you’re afraid to see that all BS College Matriculation Lists ( in the Top 30 ) are nearly identical, I would agree that this wouldn’t be a fun or enlightening exercise for you.
+1000 @PhotographerMom. The hair-splitting on this board is hilarious.
As long as universities are aware of a school’s rigor, and accordingly adjust their GPA standards for that application, then I don’t see why some people are concerned with not having a 4.0 at a top BS. Obviously, college admissions is much more related to the student and not as much his/her high school, so it is no surprise that students from top 30 BS’s end up at prestigious universities. I did notice that Lawrenceville sent 39 kids to Princeton over a 3 year period, but Blair Academy (not the other BS I’m talking about in the title BTW), which is not very far from Lawrenceville and Princeton, sent 6 students over a 6 year period. While I do believe an intelligent student could gain admission to Princeton from either of those two schools, I wouldn’t call their matriculation (to this particular universty) nearly identical. The biggest advantage of going to a lesser known BS, in my opinion, is that an intelligent student will be able to stand out more. However, opportunities will definitely be limited when compared to one of the bigger boarding schools. Do you think the trade-off of going to a bigger BS is worth it?
You might want to question why/how L’ville sends 39 kids to P’ton over a three year period. Might not be as much related to how transformative L’ville is for students so much as who those students were to begin with. Lot’s of P’ton faculty kids perhaps? Same with Choate and Yale. You have to be very careful how you read statistics with these schools.