40% straight A's in High school

blossom
Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:00:17 +0000

Just want to add my two cents on the importance of an accurate school profile… and the distribution of GPA’s is really just the tip of the iceberg. If your kid is applying to engineering schools with Calc AB and Honors Physics and your profile lists that your school offers BC Calc and AP Physics, you may have a problem. Our local HS hasn’t had AP Physics in several years… teacher retired, can’t be replaced, but the profile never changes.

Similarly, the demographic info about your school-- % subsidized lunch, % of homes where English isn’t spoken, etc. is very important if your school is unknown… there’s a reason why a kid with high stats from Chappaqua or Great Neck won’t have a snowballs chance of getting in to some colleges, whereas the same stats from an unknown HS in the Bronx might make the kid an admissions officer’s dream.

Read your profile! If it is not accurate, and your school is relatively unknown to the colleges your kid is applying to, it will hurt you. Our HS was always proud of the stupid, PC names it gave some classes… but Adcoms like to see “American Literature” or “European History” since they know those are serious, academic classes. “women’s perspectives on work and leisure” sounds like Chick Lit lite, especially when it’s competing with band, photography, year book, and “community service” as full credit classes. Made us sound like a summer camp, courtesy of the taxpayers.