<p>Will admission officers know how competitive and rigorous your school is? Will they have compare schools through standardize scores and whatnot?</p>
<p>Usually, your counselor will send a school’s transcript with this information so that the school will know about these types of things. But you have to make sure that they do send it, which usually costs a fee. I’d ask your counselor how you would get something like this sent.</p>
<p>If your school is actually any good, colleges will know.</p>
<p>my school transcript has the average SAT scores of our school, and how many kids passed how many AP exams. I think these kind of information are what provide the school’s context</p>
<p>They receive school profiles with average SATs, GPA, etc. and the guidance counselor rec provides some info. Regional admissions officers also tend to know the schools in their region well, especially the competitive ones.</p>
<p>I agree with the “regional” explanation. Unfortunately, many times schools outside your region don’t take the time to really look at the school stats supplied or disregard them. It seems like the closer the college, the better our small, competitive school’s reputation is known.</p>
<p>I agree with toledo. Schools within 5 hours do know. LACs and state unis outside our region did not have a clue how difficult our smallist public HS was. As an example, a large third rung southern state university deferred because the 3.3 gpa was out of range. They reported average gpa at 3.7, which would have been a silly application for anyone with a 3.7 gpa out of this HS.
This may be a unique case because we live close to an ivy with many parent holding phds. The 3.7 gpas are shooting for just under ivy level (duke, emory, northwestern, uwash)
SAT scores were way over 75th percentile as is expected for that 3.3 gpa but I’m thinking the school viewed him as a slacker.</p>
<p>For those who don’t know what a High School Profile looks like, here is an example from a smallish Upstate NY school:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.niskyschools.org/district/pdfword/NHSProfile_2007-08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.niskyschools.org/district/pdfword/NHSProfile_2007-08.pdf</a></p>
<p>I would strongly recommend that students and/or parents request a copy of your school’s profile early in the college search and selection process. Get to know exactly what it says and what it omits, and ask that the school update it if there is crucial information that is missing.</p>
<p>Anadotal stories suggest that not all admissions dept are created equally and do know the “region”, especially if the region is 10 states big and most of the apps are coming from in state. </p>
<p>Does anyone how often “application reviewers” are used used within the admission offices?</p>
<p>My state’s flagship is well acquainted with my school, but it’s not a school known to schools outside my state. Really, only the top boarding schools and elite publics like TJ will be instantly known to most colleges. That’s why they get a school profile sent with your transcript, so you can be evaluated within your options.</p>
<p>Yes- I go to a competitive public school (top 15 in state), and when speaking with a former admissions officer from a school that rarely accepts students from my school, he immediately could recite rankings and past acceptances/matriculation from competitor schools as well as his own.</p>
<p>well looking at that school profile above, would adcoms view it very favorably that over 95% of kids who take APs in my school (actually, all students have to take them) get all fives?</p>
<p>^^ ummmm yes. modef.</p>
<p>History repeats itself and most high schools send applicants to the same school every year. Regional reps get toknow the schools in their region well.They actually compile data for kids from each school and even have formulas to rank kids from schools that don’t rank.</p>
<p>If you’re applying from a school unknown to them, they’ll use the profile and contact the school for info they need to put the applicant into context.</p>
<p>It’s important that the high school keeps the profile current and accurate, if your school is not one that sends a lot kids to a school you have in your sights. What the adcoms do is pretty much put you in a group of like schools. </p>
<p>One thing I have noticed here at CC, is that most kids and parents tend think that their high school is more competitive than it is. If your school is not getting a lot of their top kids in the top colleges , and they are applying there, it is an indication that it may not be viewed as rigorous as the PR indicates that it is.</p>
<p>If the most frequently attended universities after graduating from my school are respectively Brown, Georgetown, and Tufts… is my school competitive or not competitive?</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be in the highest category, schools that send 30% plus to ivies plus (plus= Stanford and MIT) but it would e way up there. Most competitive have SAT average over 2050, send virtually 100% to 4 year colleges and the bottom of the class generally sent to top 40 colleges.</p>
<p>FYI, the most competitive boarding schools list. Top day schools have similar college matriculation:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/584878-us-best-boarding-schools-top-30-list.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/584878-us-best-boarding-schools-top-30-list.html</a></p>
<p>@hmom: that sounds a lot like my school though we’re overseas. 95% all fives for APs, SAT averages around there, 100% to 4 year colleges, the whole deal. and the worst in my school can easily gain admission (in fact it’s a through-train) to my country’s top college.</p>
<p>Do admission officers know how many people from your school have gone to their college or others??</p>