Two questions:
My niece attends Choate Rosemary Hall. She’ll most likely graduate with the equivalent of a 3.5 out of a 4.0 GPA. I’d love to know if a 3.5 GPA at a school like Choate is equivalent to a 4.0 at an average public or private school.
Also, with a 3.5 GPA and ACTs within the mean required at these 2 colleges and great EC’s would she have a shot at Wellesley or maybe Barnard.
Would a 3.5-3.7 GPA student at Choate have worked as hard as a 4.0 student from an average public or private school? Possibly.
Would a 3.5 GPA at Choate be equivalent to a 4.0 at an “average” public or private school admissions-wise? Absolutely not.
She should be aiming for an ACT above the mean, not within it. A 34 or 35 would be a good score to aim for, but even then admission to either of those schools will be tough with that grade point average. Consider looking at schools that are more within reach, and prepare a list of safety schools in the event that she doesn’t get accepted to her top choices.
There are plenty of non-boarding schools that grade harder than Choate, but their graduates will still be at a disadvantage if their grade point averages are below that of the a student from an average high school. My cousin had a 3.7 and a 2380 from the Harker School (which is known for extremely tough grading) but was denied admission at UC Berkeley while students from “easier” schools were offered admission instead.
The usage of “within the [ACT] mean” may require clarification. It appears you mean within the middle range. If that’s the case, there’s a fairly big difference between the 25th and 75th percentiles in terms of likelihood of acceptance. For example, the middle range for Wellesley has recently been ~29-33, which represents a fairly wide spread. Where she falls within this spread could significantly affect her chances. Beyond that, based on her what you have provided, she’d appear to face no absolute barrier to either of the schools mentioned, but a lot will depend on unstated factors. The anecdote above, regarding GPA-sensitive UCB, would not be relevant to her tentative schools of interest.
As to whether a Choate 3.5 is equivalent to a public school 4.0, I’d generally say no, in that the public school student in almost all cases would have had to have worked extremely hard for that achievement. The requirements for a 3.5 at Choate are likely to be more variable.
She should look at Naviance where she will be able to compare her results against those of other CRH students who have applied to those colleges. It will also depend on rigor. Most BS do not weight grades while most public schools do as they offer a wide range of challenge to accommodate a wider range of students. I think the CC at CRH could answer this better.
Most selective colleges will recalculate gpas so they can compare students from schools with different grading scales. Many of these colleges give a rank to the high school (ie; 1-3 or 1-5) which then somehow factors into the gpa. So the gpa from a high school ranked a 1 is better than a gpa from a high school ranked 3. I would assume that Choate is going to have a high ranking and that the 3.5 gpa will be read as higher.
Disagree with the above poster that she will need a 34-35 to make up for the gpa. Something in the 32 range should give her a good shot at Barnard coming from Choate. But Naviance data from Choate will give you the best indication.
Thank you wisteria100. This was very helpful and encouraging! I appreciate.
She should talk to the guidance counselors at her school who can tell her where students with similar stats were accepted. I assume Choate will have some very knowledgeable ones.
Erin’s dad …Don’t assume. Besides, Naviance is better than that as long as it’s accurate.
Re #7, it’s usually poor form to reprimand your respondents.
In this case, @“Erin’s Dad” is absolutely correct. Choate, and most boarding schools, have excellent college counselors who are very skilled in that sort of thing. There are one or two Choate parents floating around here who can back me up here.
@tigermommy , the CC/GCs are the ones who put the info into Naviance, so they’ll have what you have but they also know the color behind it. I know that when we were looking at these charts, there were often a few “surprising” acceptances based on the box, and the CC was the one who was able to say “this one was a legacy”, “combined SAT was low because this one was ELL but internationally ranked math competitor”, “soloist at Lincoln Center at 16”, etc. If your niece doesn’t feel like the CC assigned to her is knowledgeable or a good resource, she should request another one. A CC who is a good fit is worth his/her weight in gold and then some.
I think the upper 50% or more of Choate graduating class would at least “have a shot” at those two colleges. Talk to GC. It’s not like you are asking them to help you “reach the moon”
Thank you panpacific - that’s helpful. And I apologize to Erin’s dad. What I wrote was never meant as a reprimand. I’m sorry if that sounded that way.
If you don’t have access to naviance, go to Parchment. It can create a similar scatterplot. Its not as quite as accurate as Naviance, but will help you get a general idea.
Parchment won’t be that helpful. GPA and test scores, especially GPA in prep schools are very school specific. A student with a GPA of 3.5 in school A and in school B can end up targeting very different sets of colleges. The potential problem with Naviance here is that for a college like Welsley to which Choate has sent 4 graduates in total in 5 years, the data on Naviance for the college will be limited. It however could also mean the college is not a popular destinations for Choate graduates, making it easier for kids who are interested.
Just to clarify especially because some of you have asked…my niece’s SAT’s are at the highest point of the mean. I believe that’s the 75th percentile. I’m not concerned about her scores. I’m just concerned about her grades because she’s has about an equal amount of A’s and B’s.
But @panpacific, OP could see the stats of other students who applied, successfully and not. The plots don’t differentiate between admitted and enrolled and admitted and went elsewhere. I’m going to guess that more than 4 were accepted and could provide a reasonable benchmark for OP. Likewise, if lots with her stats were denied, that’d be helpful info too.
Who’s OP?
You are! LOL OP=Original Post(er)
Well, Parchment is better than nothing. But keep in mind, the Parchment data is self-reported, and many people, like me, didn’t bother to update it with acceptances.