Hi, a little introduction, I am a freshman currently at Lawrenceville, and I know it might sound paranoid, but I am already preparing for applying to Harvard University. It has been my childhood dream to go to Harvard, and I want to make sure I have a good chance of myself getting in it, so I’d like to know some information. A senior at Lawrenceville yesterday told me that only 5% of Lawrenceville Students manage to get 4.0 straight through their entire Lawrenceville Career, (All As throughout their school time) and I heard somewhere that at Exeter, a b+ is an average good grade. So, if a college like Harvard University saw that you went to Lawrenceville, Exeter, Andover, or St. Paul’s and your average gpa was a b+ or a-, would they be satisfied and at least take you into consideration, or would they just not even consider you. I’m talking if you got like 2300 or above SAT score and had many extracurricular acitivies, etc.
Your guidance counselor can answer this better than we can. But I’d be careful about how you ask the question, because if you aren’t careful you are going to sound paranoid and grade-grubbery.
And also, as someone who attended Harvard, it’s okay, but there are a lot of other schools out there, and some of them I think I might actually have been happier attending.
- It depends on the HS. Talk to your guidance counselor about your particular school. Certainly colleges understand that some high schools are more rigorous than others.
- Please do not think about any particular college now. It is ridiculously early. Take some time and enjoy HS life.
- And for a school like Harvard even top grades, top standardized tests, great activities, great recommendations and a wonderful essay won’t guarantee admissions. Simply put there are more qualified applicants than there are spots in the class. It would be a huge mistake to focus on one hype-competitive school at any point. There are tons of fantastic colleges and universities out there.
You can well assume that colleges like Harvard are well acquainted with every boarding school in the country. The AO’s are very familiar with the academic rigor at Lawrenceville.
It’s true that only around 5% or so of the students get tippy top grades at the top boarding schools.
Of the kids I know who got into Harvard, they were either one of those tippy top students or they were still strong students but not tippy top and had some kind of hook including one or more of: legacy, development case, athlete, world class at something like music or debate, etc.
Agree there are many, many wonderful colleges. Don’t get hung up on one college.
God Bless your ambition, @william9045 !
Weighing in on your questions/aspirations.
- At Andover, about 1% of students get “perfect grades”. With Andover’s grading system, a “6” is more like an A+ than an A. More than 1% of Andover students have historically matriculated to Harvard each year.
Please scroll down the link attached and you can see the grade distribution.
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From what I have learned as my child has applied to colleges, one big factor is that you will be basically competing against your Lawrenceville classmates for a spot in the college. I found this very sobering. So, if you attend a really excellent and challenging prep school, you are competing against your peers. That’s rough.
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Being a male is a slight advantage. (Given your CC name begins with William, I am presuming you are male.) If this is so, congrats! Your gender is in your favor–as there are substantially more females applying.
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From my experience, in order to gain a spot at Harvard, you may need to demonstrate one or more of the five categories–beyond exceptional grades and test scores:
- Be a legacy (preferably double or quadruple legacy). That is, to have both of your parents graduate from Harvard both from undergraduate and graduate schools. That does help tremendously.
- To have your parents donate over a million dollars to to the school.
- To be an exceptional athlete in a varsity sport for which Harvard hosts a team.
- To be world class and renowned for some skill. For instance, a finalist in International competitions for Science, Debate, etc. To have qualified for the Olympic trials. To be published in a major magazine or venue.
- To be an underrepresented minority.
- I agree wholeheartedly with the prior posters, please have fun now while you are in high school, and vow to cast a wider net when you get to be a Junior and begin your college search in earnest. Harvard is a wonderful school, and has an unparalleled cachet when it comes to name recognition around the world. It has a beautiful campus, is located in a wonderful college town, and has so much to offer. Harvard rocks. But, not for everyone. There are schools that offer a comparable (if not superior) education–depending upon your course of study, and may be a much better fit. For instance, some schools are innately more relaxed. Some schools have smaller classes. Some schools have their faculty more readily available to them than the profs at Harvard.
One of the great opportunities that you have at Lawrenceville is your chance to acquire knowledge and critical thinking. You are inquisitive and ambitious and hardworking. These are wonderful qualities. But, please keep an open mind that as you learn and evolve, you may see that you could be happy at schools other than Harvard.
Best of luck!
Over the years we have had friends whose children have gone to Lawrenceville, Peddie, Blair, Hun, the whole lot, and their kids went to the same colleges as the kids from the public and parachocial schools.
My friend on the board at Lehigh told me they do no better in college.
@scarednjdad That is true, but if you look at the percentages of kids from schools like Lawrenceville, Andover, Horace Mann who go on to the Ivies and other top 25 schools and compare it to a solid public or parochial school, you will see a huge difference
@william9045 current lville senior here… for Lawrenceville, Harvard usually only takes kids with THE highest gpas i.e. 4-4.3 range + everything else you mentioned above.