<p>my student goes to a school that sends about 70% to 4 year colleges, she is in top 5%, taking all honors or AP courses. Diverse community, both culturally and socioeconomically. Her grades are very good, she works very hard. Her first time taking SAT she scored about 1900, with math being the lowest, although she’s in pre-calc and doing great. My question is how would college admissions folks view her? Is the lowish SAT a reflection of the school ie: grade inflation, or could it be first time test taking jitters. Also do they view kids from a school such as this negatively, since a really high percent don’t go to 4 year college. She is taking full advantage of what is offered. 2 AP’s this year as a junior and set up to take 4 AP’s next year as a senior. Rest of courses load is honors level. Her unweighted GPA is 3.87 and weighted is 4.45. When a college says they look at the rigor of students course selection are they comparing geographically surrounding communities or public to private? Or are they truly looking to see that a student is taking the most rigorous course available at their own school?</p>
<p>Wow. Did you take a breath at all during that paragraph? 
Schools MAY interpret a difference in grades and standardized scores as grade inflation, but it may also be interpreted as a student who is not necessarily brilliant but who works diligently (and conversely someone who scores much higher than their grades could be perceived as lazy). If you are concerned about this you can look at a schools common data set. In that they tell which of the entrance criteria are highly weighted or just considered. Colleges really do like to see students who take the most rigorous course load for school.</p>
<p>Your DD will get into the vast majority of colleges in the US. A 1900 is well above average and most top students at average high schools do not get scores that high. So she would look on paper like many, many kids. If you are looking at the top 20 or so colleges, they will look at stats in context, but kids who are not URM’s will generally need that 2200 no matter what high school they go to. A top private high school kid needs a 2300 to be competitive.</p>
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<p>Where on earth do you get these stats, hmom5???</p>
<p>Wow, she sounds just like me. I have an 1850 on my SAT, lowest score in Math, but I have a 4.0 UW and am doing well in Pre-Calc. It was actually my highest grade this six weeks.</p>
<p>I’m just really bad with math in general and have a difficult time doing problems where math concepts are twisted around a little bit, especially concepts I haven’t covered in years. </p>
<p>I’m also taking rigorous classes. I would never call my grades as grade inflation, because they’re honestly not. Classes at my school are tough (especially because we have a super strict grading scale). </p>
<p>I just don’t go to a top high school where there’s tons of levels of classes and masses of test prep and impossible competition to get into the top 10%. </p>
<p>As far as I know, most of the people that apply to college in my school get accepted to at least one of their choices. I honestly don’t believe colleges will just throw your daughter’s application out because she doesn’t have a 2000+ SAT. Any above average score is an excellent score, and 1900 is definitely above average.</p>
<p>^^ Agree, we need to see the data to believe that. Private HS kids I know got into selective schools with lower scores.</p>
<p>“She is taking full advantage of what is offered.”</p>
<p>That is all that counts, as long as she does well. Better a B in AP than an A in non-AP, when AP is offered. Yes, I know, counselors and adcom reps say better an A in AP. ;)</p>
<p>Something I did a lot of research on after sending 3 kids through top private high schools and seeing admissions outcomes. This is also supported in all sorts of books like A is For Admission, which is still IMO the king of guides to top college admissions.</p>
<p>There are a several issues facing kids from top private high schools. First, colleges raise the bar highest for affluent kids deemed to have had every advantage. Next, these schools house a huge number of legacies to top colleges, making the chances of the unhooked lower. They also have lots of the country’s top URM candidates, a disproportionate number of recruited athletes and most of the development candidates. They further tend to be in over represented cities and states.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, a top private high school makes it easier to get into most schools, it just makes it harder to get into the top 20 or so.</p>